TURIN, Italy -- Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz were placed in different groups for the ATP Finals in Thursday's draw. The earliest they could meet is the semifinals.
The Ilie Nastase Group features Sinner, Daniil Medvedev, Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur.
The John Newcombe Group features Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev. The groups are named for the first No. 1s in the ATP rankings.
The tournament for the year's top eight men's players starts Sunday. The top two finishers in each group advance to the semifinals.
Sinner (Australian Open and US Open) and Alcaraz (French Open and Wimbledon) split the year's four Grand Slam titles between them. Alcaraz won all three official meetings with Sinner this year and holds a 6-4 advantage in their career head-to-head rivalry. Last month, Sinner beat Alcaraz in the Six Kings Slam exhibition in Saudi Arabia.
The only two players in the field to have won the finals are Zverev and Medvedev. Zverev won in London in 2018 and Turin in 2021; Medvedev triumphed in 2020, the final year the event was held in London.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic withdrew on Tuesday citing an injury, making it the first time in 23 years that the ATP Finals will be held without any of the Big Three of Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
"It's strange to not see Novak here, just because of all the success he had," Zverev said. "The first time I won in 2018, you had to beat both or at least two of the three players. I beat Federer in the semis, and then I beat Djokovic in the finals. You had to beat those guys to have a chance at the title. So it does feel different."