Was thinking about how towards the last couple of weeks I was rooting for the likes of Hurkacz, de Minaur, or Dimitrov to squeeze their way into the tour finals, but honestly, I don’t think I could’ve selected a better tour finals lineup even if I tried to pick one by hand.

Half of the lineup gives us all of the players to have won the tournament in the last five years:

• Zverev (2018, 2021)
• Tsitsipas (2019)
• Medvedev (2020)
• Djokovic (2022)

Then, we’ve got the whole next gen trio of Alcaraz, Sinner, and Rune all making it in - hopefully the first of many occasions where we see all three of them appear.

Rublev doesn’t quite fit into either of those two categories, but hard to argue anyone deserves that “outlier” (shouldn’t even really be calling him that) spot other than him. Big year for him winning his first Masters title and ranking above the likes of Tsitsipas and Zverev for the first time.

Some might’ve wanted to see Ruud in here but I just don’t think he deserved to make the cut this year. Other than him, Dimitrov making the cut here as the 2017 champ could’ve been cool, but it’s difficult to decide at whose expense he should get into the lineup.

Definitely think we’ve gotten the best possible lineup here, so fingers crossed everyone stays fit, and can’t wait to see how the tournament plays out.