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A historical perspective of the ATP World Tour Finals

Roger Federer continued his comeback by winning Indian Wells. (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP)
Roar Guru
8th November, 2017
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The ATP World Tour finals will be played in London from November 12 to 19, in what will be the fourth stage of change.

Let us look at all four:

Masters Grand Prix
From 1970 to 1989 it was known as the Masters Grand Prix. The first ever winner in 1970 was Stan Smith, who defeated the great Rod Laver. The last winner was Stefan Edberg, who got up over Boris Becker.

Multiple winners included Ivan Lendl, who won five times, Ilie Nastase (four), John Mcenroe (three) and Bjorn Borg (two). 

One-time winners were Stan Smith, Guillermo Vilas, Manuel Orantes, Jimmy Connors and Stefan Edberg. Boris Becker won once but became a multiple winner later on.

There were multiple venues: Tokyo, Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm, Houston and New York City.

ATP Tour World Championships
From 1990 to 1999, the event was played at Frankfurt and Hanover. Pete Sampras won it five times and Becker won twice.

Tennis Masters Cup
From 2000 to 2008, the the Tennis Masters Cup was played at Lisbon, Sydney, Houston and Shanghai. Until 2007 it was best-of-five sets, although became best of three in 2008.

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Roger Federer won the first four of his overall six in the Masters Cup. Lleyton Hewitt won twice, while Gustavo Kuerten won once.

David Nalbandian’s sole win came over Federer, coming back from two sets down to win 6-7, 6-7, 6-2,  6-1, 7-6.

The ATP World Tour Finals
Federer won his fifth and sixth at this London event, while Novak Djokovic won four in a row to make it five overall, having also claimed a Masters Cup.

Nikolay Davydenko was a surprise winner in 2009, while last year was a memorable final, when the winner would end the year as World Number 1, and Andy Murray triumphed over Djokovic in straight sets. 

Rafa Nadal hasn’t ever won, which is surprising given his fierce competitiveness. He entered the finals twice, losing to Federer and Djokovic.

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