The second edition of the #NextGen Master for the best ATP professionals under the age of 21 starts in Milan on Tuesday. The favourites were Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur.
The surprise of the day in Milan was provided by Frances Tiafoe. Less on the sporting side, the US-American had bravely fought his last time in Paris-Bercy, but was, once again, defeated by Alexander Zverev. No, Tiafoe accompanied the draw with commentaries in Italian, thus announcing the first claims to be particularly supported by the fans in Milan.
Tiafoe will need all the support he can get, in the preliminary round he will meet the tournament favourites Stefanos Tsitsipas, the Polish Hubert Hurkacz and Jaume Munar from Spain.
In Group B, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz , Alex de Minaur and the Italian wildcard Liam Caruana duel.
A few weeks ago Tsitsipas won the first tournament on the ATP Tour in Stockholm – and collected by far the most points from the players present in Milan. As in 2017, the year’s best Alexander Zverev will not participate in Milan in favour of the ATP Finals in London.
Denis Shapovalov, who finished third in the “Race to Milan”, had to cancel his race in Northern Italy due to the high load during the season.