Men’s 2025 U.S. Open Winner Sweeps Through Round Robin & Claims Year-End Number One Rank

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, ranked first in the world, will end the year as such after winning his third round robin match in the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, who was ranked ninth in the global ATP Rankings. The six-time Grand Slam champion edged out Jannik Sinner to clinch the 2025 ATP Year-end Award, presented to the male athlete who retains the top rank at the end of the year. Alcaraz and Mussetti are part of the Jimmy Connors group, named after the legendary American tennis player who won eight Grand Slam titles during the Open Era. Also in this group are sixth-ranked American Taylor Fritz and seventh-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur. They are all competing for two spots in the semifinal knockout round.

Overall Game Approach

One-handed backhand playing Mussetti just came from playing the 250-level Hellenic Championships in Greece, where he fell short in the finals to fourth-ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The very same Djokovic, it is whose place he is taking in this tournament after he suddenly pulled out. Needless to say, Musetti’s frustration and fatigue were apparent throughout the match, compared to his ever-sprightly opponent’s, and the gap widened even more in the second set. The Italian played a largely reactive game, holding on where he could and surviving, never truly dictating the pace of the match at any given point. 

How Alcaraz Puppeted the Game to His Advantage

This was unfortunate, as Alcaraz, who has already won his other two matches in the group, was really not pressing the pedal to 100; he took full advantage of Musetti’s off state. Though he remained focused and competitive, his groundstrokes remained at around 70% intensity, with a respective margin over the net and never so blinding to the angles. The Spainaird pounced onto service returns and always made them returnable, but a bit difficult, almost goading the one-hander into a rally; whether by shooting it back to his feet, or drawing him out slightly. Brief rallies constantly ensued that allowed Alcaraz to entertain himself some, or sometimes, Musetti to flash exactly why he is in the top ten in the first place. Still, it was fleeting for the Italian, and even a home crowd could not help him draw out more energy that Alcaraz clearly seemed to be able to dip into endlessly at any moment’s notice. 

The first set was competitive, both in score and effort, but it couldn’t be recreated from Musetti’s side. He had Alcaraz scraping several times, was only broken once, and seemed like a present contender in the game. Yes, he made errors, but he made points on his own and off Alcaraz’s errors as well. It made all the difference. The noticeable energy change marked his end, and there were several signifiers for it. The drastic first serve accuracy percentage drop,  the way he couldn’t run after Alcaraz’s maddening and constant dropshots, the way he couldn’t even hold his upper body up as he let his backhand fly; many of them out. Even his slices, a single backhander's best defensive weapon in a world of double backhanders, helped him none. There was just no gas to push him forward at all, and his game is an energy-intensive one. He has no particular weapons or strength, just superb footwork, light-footedness/agility, and the grit to remain in the game. I’d still be hard-pressed to give it to him over Alcaraz on his best day, though. Their head-to-head of 7-1, Alcaraz in the lead, agrees with me.

In the end, Alcaraz had a smooth, hour-and-23-minute win over the hometown hero with the score of 6-4, 6-1. All the members of this group have played each other at this point, and the six-time Grand Slam champion has won all his matches. He will move forward into the semis as the highest contender with the hopes of winning the end-of-year title, never having done so before. His best appearance in this event was in 2023, where he lost in the semis to that year’s victor, Djokovic. This was Musetti’s first appearance in the end-of-year Finals, and he is likely to bow out at the group stages, remaining at the bottom two with Fritz above him.