{"id":277016,"date":"2025-11-07T09:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277016\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:56:19","slug":"taylor-fritz-and-ben-shelton-given-tough-draws-as-atp-finals-groups-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277016\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton given tough draws as ATP Finals groups confirmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

The United States will have two representatives at this year\u2019s ATP Finals in Turin.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s finalist, Taylor Fritz<\/a>, will be joined by debutant Ben Shelton, as the pair look to win America\u2019s first title at the event since 1999.<\/p>\n

However, their ATP Finals<\/a> title chances took a hit before the tournament even began, having been given tricky draws.<\/p>\n

\"BenPhoto by Shelley Lipton\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Fritz will play Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>, Novak Djokovic, and Alex de Minaur in the Jimmy Connors Group, while Shelton takes on Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev, and Lorenzo Musetti\/Felix Auger-Aliassime in the Bjorn Borg Group.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for both players, their head-to-head records against their group rivals leave a lot to be desired\u2026<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton\u2019s head-to-head record against their group stage opponents<\/p>\n

Fritz doesn\u2019t lead the head-to-head against any of his round robin opponents, and has struggled against one player in particular.<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz (1-4) Carlos AlcarazTaylor Fritz (0-11) Novak DjokovicTaylor Fritz (5-5) Alex de MinaurTaylor Fritz (6-20) Jimmy Connors Group<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old is 6-20 against his group stage opponents, but will be most concerned about his record vs Djokovic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fritz has yet to beat the legendary Serb in 11 attempts on the ATP Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MatchWinnerLoserScore2025 US Open \u2013 QFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-42024 Shanghai \u2013 SFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-4, 7-62024 Australian Open \u2013 QFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz7-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-32023 US Open \u2013 QFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-1, 6-4, 6-42023 Cincinnati Open \u2013 QFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-0, 6-42022 ATP Finals \u2013 SFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz7-6, 7-62021 Paris Masters \u2013 QFNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-4, 6-32021 Italian Open \u2013 2RNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-3, 7-62021 Australian Open \u2013 3RNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-22019 Madrid Open \u2013 2RNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-4, 6-22019 Monte-Carlo Masters \u2013 3RNovak DjokovicTaylor Fritz6-3, 6-0Taylor Fritz and Novak Djokovic\u2019s head-to-head record<\/p>\n

He did, however, beat Djokovic at the recent Six Kings Slam<\/a> exhibition event in Saudi Arabia, a result that could well give him some confidence heading to Turin.<\/p>\n

Fritz\u2019s fellow American, Shelton<\/a>, hasn\u2019t been given a kind draw either, having struggled against several of his group stage opponents since coming on tour.<\/p>\n

Ben Shelton (1-7) Jannik SinnerBen Shelton (0-4) Alexander ZverevBen Shelton (0-1) Felix Auger-AliassimeBen Shelton (1-2) Lorenzo MusettiBen Shelton (2-14) Bjorn Borg Group<\/p>\n

Shelton has only won two career matches against members of the Bjorn Borg Group.<\/p>\n

After winning his first meeting with world number one, Sinner, Shelton proceeded to lose seven in a row.<\/p>\n

MatchWinnerLoserScore2025 Paris Masters \u2013 QFJannik SinnerBen Shelton6-3, 6-32025 Wimbledon \u2013 QFJannik SinnerBen Shelton7-6, 6-4, 6-42025 Australian Open -SFJannik SinnerBen Shelton7-6, 6-2, 6-22024 Shanghai Masters \u2013 4RJannik SinnerBen Shelton6-4, 7-62024 Wimbledon \u2013 4RJannik SinnerBen Shelton6-2, 6-4, 7-62024 Indian Wells \u2013 4RJannik SinnerBen Shelton7-6, 6-12023 Vienna Open \u2013 1RJannik SinnerBen Shelton7-6, 7-52023 Shanghai Masters \u2013 4RBen SheltonJannik Sinner2-6, 6-3, 7-6Ben Shelton and Jannik Sinner\u2019s head-to-head record<\/p>\n

If Shelton wants to make his way through to the semifinals of the ATP Finals on debut, he\u2019ll need to make significant improvements against all the players in his group.<\/p>\n

Who was the last American to win the ATP Finals?<\/p>\n

No American player has won the ATP Finals since Pete Sampras<\/a> in 1999.<\/p>\n

\"Pete26 Nov 1999: Pete Sampras of the USA powers a forehand during the ATP Tour World Championships at the EXPO 2000 venue in Hannover in Germany. Mandatory Credit: Clive Brunskill \/Allsport<\/p>\n

Entering the competition as the number-five seed, Sampras won two of his three group stage games to book his spot in the last four.<\/p>\n

1999 ATP Finals \u2018White Group\u2019RankNameWin-LossSets (Win-Loss)Games (Win-Loss)1Andre Agassi3-06-037-162Pete Sampras2-14-230-293Gustavo Kuerten1-22-426-284Nicolas Lapentti0-30-618-38<\/p>\n

There, he met Germany\u2019s Nicolas Kiefer, who finished top of the Red Group.<\/p>\n

Winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, Sampras set up a final clash with Andre Agassi<\/a>, the man who beat him in the group stage.<\/p>\n

Getting revenge in style, Sampras defeated Agassi in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5, 6-4, to win his fifth and final ATP Finals title.<\/p>\n

\"Pete28 Nov 1999: Pete Sampras of the USA lifts the trophy after winning the ATP Tour World Championships at the EXPO 2000 venue in Hannover in Germany. Mandatory Credit: Clive Brunskill \/Allsport<\/p>\n

Only time will tell if Fritz or Shelton can follow in the footsteps of Sampras and win this year\u2019s ATP Finals, but you certainly won\u2019t want to miss any of the action.<\/p>\n

The 2025 ATP Finals are scheduled to begin on Sunday, November 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover The United States will have two representatives at this year\u2019s ATP Finals in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[430,11990,431,99,2072,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-277016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-atp","9":"tag-atp-finals","10":"tag-ben-shelton","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-taylor-fritz","13":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}