Medvedev takes fifth in ATP Finals race, Fils climbs despite disappointing loss
Daniil Medvedev will take fifth place in the ATP Finals race from Flavio Cobolli if he wins the Almaty title on Sunday. Cobolli let four match points slip in a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 semifinal loss to Lorenzo Musetti in Lyon, while Arthur Fils, beaten in Brussels after serving for the match, still rises to a career-high No. 8.
Daniil Medvedev, Turin 2023 | © Zuma / PsNewz
Daniil Medvedev went to Almaty needing a title to climb into fifth place in the race to the ATP Finals, and he left with it on Sunday after beating Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the final. The win lifts the Russian to 3,660 points, 20 ahead of Flavio Cobolli, the man he displaced, and next week both of them will be in the Vienna draw.
Cobolli dropped to sixth after a semifinal in Lyon that was his to win. He held four match points against fellow Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who saved all four, converted his own first and won 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Musetti then won the Lyon title on Sunday, beating Taylor Fritz in the final.
Further down the race but still well placed, Arthur Fils will climb to a career-high No. 8 in the ATP rankings on Monday, up from No. 10, despite losing a semifinal he had served to win in Brussels. Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff beat him 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5) after Fils had led by a break twice in the deciding set and served for the match at 5-4. The 100 points from the semifinal take the Frenchman past his previous best of No. 9, set in September.
Fils also moves up to seventh in the race with 3,425 points, 45 ahead of Frances Tiafoe, who did not play this week. The two will be in different events next week, Fils in Basel and Tiafoe in Vienna.
Fritz holds 12th place in the race with 2,695 points despite losing the Lyon final. He took that spot from Tommy Paul, whom he beat in the semifinals and who sits 13th with 2,675. Fritz plays Basel next week, as does Novak Djokovic, 11th with 2,840. Paul goes to Vienna.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina will drop two places to No. 15 in the ATP rankings on Monday, a week after winning Shanghai for his second title in three weeks. He is 14th in the race with 2,510 points and plays Basel next week.
Alexander Zverev, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton are the only players mathematically qualified for the ATP Finals so far. Sinner, second in the race, is out for the rest of the 2026 season according to the ATP. Zverev and Alcaraz play Vienna next week, and Shelton plays Basel.
Behind Tiafoe, Spain’s Rafael Jódar is ninth with 3,159 points and plays Basel. Alex de Minaur, 10th with 2,880 and the first player outside the qualifying places, is in Vienna, as is Jakub Menšík, 15th with 2,495. Félix Auger-Aliassime, 16th with 2,465, has no tournament listed next week.
