A four-time Grand Slam champion, Alcaraz said he was too focused on what weapons British left-hander Jack Draper might bring and unable to calm the pre-match jitters that prevented him from rising to the occasion.

Novak Djokovic said shared experiences with Andy Murray make the Scot the "perfect coach" as he bids to win a record 25th Grand Slam in Australia in January.

Alexander Zverev secured a spot in the last four of the ATP Finals on Friday with 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 victory over Carlos Alcaraz which leaves the Spaniard's destiny out of his hands.

World number four Daniil Medvedev said the ATP Tour calendar needs to be refocused around the Grand Slams and Masters 1000 events with the lower-tier ATP 250 tournaments moved to an optional slot later in the year.

The small furry objects that are the focus of every tennis player's energy are spinning the stars at the ATP finals into a fury and leaving them deflated.

Novak Djokovic said on Tuesday he will not defend his ATP Finals title due to an "ongoing injury" which has ended the 24-time Grand Slam champion's season.

Rafael Nadal will make his return to ATP competition for the first time since January when he plays Flavio Cobolli in the Barcelona Open next week.

The Spanish star took a medical timeout, had the ankle taped and won the first game but after dropping his serve in the second game he called it quits, in another setback to a so-far disappointing 2024 campaign.

"Everywhere you look in Saudi Arabia, you can see growth and progress and I'm excited to be part of that," Nadal, who pulled out of the ongoing Australian Open with a muscle injury, said in a statement.

Defending champion Ons Jabeur said on Monday she had withdrawn from the Madrid Open with a calf injury after retiring from the Stuttgart Open at the weekend.

The 35-year-old Serbian remains top of the latest ATP rankings released on Monday bringing him level with the amount of weeks that Graf spent as women's world number one.

Before this week, no Chinese man had ever reached a tour-level final in the professional era or defeated a top 10 opponent.

Fritz, 25, rose to his highest career ranking despite a surprise loss to Wu Yibing in the Dallas semi-finals.

Novak Djokovic, Tunisian world number two Ons Jabeur and six other top players will form the first executive committee of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) as it fights for a seat at the table with the sport's governing organisations.

Novak Djokovic dug deep to save a match point on the way to a 6-7(8) 7-6(3) 6-4 victory over Sebastian Korda in the Adelaide International 1 final on Sunday ahead of this month's Australian Open.

Novak Djokovic said  winning a record-equalling sixth ATP Tour Finals title on Sunday was a "deeply satisfying" ending to his troubled and truncated year.

Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev committed 11 double-faults in falling to Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-3 in Sunday's semi-finals of the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Masters.

World number one Daniil Medvedev won his first ATP title of 2022 on Saturday, roaring past defending champion Cameron Norrie 7-5, 6-0 in the final of the hardcourt tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico.

The emotions of lifting his maiden Tour-level trophy will be hard to forget for 20-year-old Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who overcame disrupted preparations and survived a rollercoaster ride at the ATP 500 event in Hamburg.

Roger Federer showed few signs of rust after a month off following his Australian Open heroics in sending Benoit Paire packing at the Dubai Tennis Championships on Monday.