Many fans would not have heard of Arthur Fils 12 months ago. Today the 19-year-old Frenchman is regarded as one of the sports’ most promising talents and he has capped his breakthrough year in style, being named the Newcomer of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards.

“I’m really happy to win the ATP Newcomer of the Year,” said Fils. “It’s been an amazing year for me with a lot of good memories. I hope next year is going to be better, but thanks for the support all around the world.”

Fils started the season outside the Top 250 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings but peaked at a career-high No. 36 in October after reaching the final in Antwerp. The Frenchman’s standout highlight came on home soil in Lyon in May, when he won his first tour-level title. He was the youngest champion on the ATP Tour in 2023.

Fils’ breakthrough season started from day one. He won his first nine matches of the year on the ATP Challenger Tour, including a title run in Oeiras. In February, he made the most of opportunities to play at home, reaching the tour-level semi-finals in Montpellier and Marseille.

He finished the season as strongly as he started, reaching the title match at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in the first ATP-sanctioned event in Saudi Arabia.

“It was a nice year for sure. I started at 250 but finished at 36, so that’s pretty good,” Fils said. “It still could have been better. I lost some close matches, but it’s just experience and I will try to do better next year.”

Fils fended off competition from fellow nominees Flavio Cobolli, Alex Michelsen, Dominic Stricker and Luca Van Assche to win the Award. The 19-year-old joins Holger Rune, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as recent Newcomer of the Year winners.

Selected by players, the award goes to the #NextGenATP player who entered the Top 100 for the first time and made the biggest impact on the ATP Tour during the season.

Jannik Sinner has been selected by peers as the Most Improved Player of the Year. It is the Italian’s second ATP Award of 2023 after he won the Fans’ Favourite Award earlier this week.

The Italian entered the 2023 season at No. 15 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, having clinched six tour-level trophies. With hype surrounding the 22-year-old, Sinner went from strength to strength in 2023, meeting and even exceeding lofty expectations.

The 22-year-old claimed four tour-level titles, including his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Toronto, and reached the Nitto ATP Finals championship match. He also won the Davis Cup title with Italy, rose to a career-high No. 4 and advanced to his first major semi-final at Wimbledon.

By going 64-15, he set an Open Era record for most wins by an Italian player in a single season.

Sinner earned a personal-best 13 Top 10 wins in 2023, including two victories against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and two wins against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. He had clinched nine Top 10 wins across the preceding three seasons.

“I think, especially the second half of the year, mentally I was much, much stronger,” said Sinner. “I was not complaining so much on court when things were going in the wrong way. I think these kind of things, they make difference sometimes…

“One of the things where I can be really happy is that I played many, many important matches in the biggest stadiums we have throughout the whole year. This is something [that] hopefully can help for the next season.”

Earlier this week, Sinner’s coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi won the Coach of the Year award for their work with the Italian.

Matteo Arnaldi, Christopher Eubanks and Ben Shelton were also nominated for Most Improved Player of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards.

The ATP 250 event in Gijon, Spain, which was held in 2022, will return to the ATP Tour calendar in 2024 as the Watergen Gijon Open. The indoor hard-court tournament will be played in Week 45 alongside the Moselle Open in Metz, from 3-9 November. 

Andrey Rublev triumphed in Gijon in 2022, when the field featured stars including Andy Murray, Dominic Thiem, Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta. Rublev defeated Sebastian Korda in the final.

Promoted by Watergen in collaboration with the city of Gijon and the Spanish Tennis Federation, the venue for the tournament will be the same as in 2022, the Palacio de Deportes la Gijon.

With Gijon slotting into Week 45, the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in Stockholm will return to Week 42. The ATP 250 event will be played from 14-20 October.

In the same week, the ATP 250 event previously held in Astana will relocate to Almaty. The tournament will be held at Almaty Arena, the largest sports facility in Kazakhstan. The city served as the country’s capital for almost 70 years and is the financial, scientific, cultural, economic, historical and industrial centre of Kazakhstan. 

The Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in 2024 will be held from 18-22 December. It will be the event’s second edition in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The 2023 season was a breakthrough year for a host of #NextGenATP stars, with Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic earning standout wins at tour-level events.

From Top 10 victories, to career-high Pepperstone ATP Rankings, ATPTour.com looks back at the brightest young prospects of 2022.

Arthur Fils, 19 years old
Arthur Fils started the season outside the Top 250 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings but peaked at a career-high No. 36 in October after reaching the final in Antwerp, where he defeated Top 10 star Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Frenchman’s standout highlight came on home soil in Lyon in May, when he won his first tour-level title. He was the youngest champion on the ATP Tour in 2023.

“I will remember this forever,” Fils said after triumphing in Lyon. “It has been amazing. I am happy with the win and now I want more.”

Fils’ breakthrough season started from day one. He won his first nine matches of the year on the ATP Challenger Tour, including a title run in Oeiras. In February, he made the most of opportunities to play at home, reaching the tour-level semi-finals in Montpellier and Marseille.

He finished the season as strongly as he started, reaching the title match at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in the first ATP-sanctioned event in Saudi Arabia.

Hamad Medjedovic, 20 years old
Twelve months ago, not many fans would have heard of Hamad Medjedovic. Today his name will be on many people’s radar after he ended his season by becoming the sixth champion at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. The Serbian blitzed through the field in Jeddah to become an undefeated champion in Saudi Arabia, taking home a tournament-record $514,000 in prize money.

The 20-year-old, who is coached by former World No. 12 Viktor Troicki, received messages of support from Novak Djokovic throughout the event. The World No. 1 has financially supported Medjedovic through the early stages of his blossoming career.

“He’s been helping me out financially, giving me courts, coaches, whatever I need for my career. He’s helped me a lot for sure,” Medjedovic said earlier this season. “Anything a professional tennis player needs, he covered it all. He paid for it. It’s been helpful. He just helped me out when I needed it and he’s still helping me out in all types of ways. I’m glad he’s there for me.”

Earlier this season Medjedovic reached tour-level semi-finals in Gstaad and Astana, while he clinched three ATP Challenger Tour titles.

“The season together [with Troicki] has been good,” Medjedovic said in November. “The first four or three months I was struggling a little bit. It took time to start doing what we were working on during pre-season. After a couple of months, it all clicked. I played well in India in February. I made my first semis after a long time and then everything started going better. I also played in the semi-finals in Gstaad. It was a big thing for me, beating a couple of players from the Top 100.”

Luca Van Assche, 19 years old
Luca Van Assche joins Arthur Fils as one of France’s most promising talents. The 19-year-old is a clean ball striker and played with courageous determination on court throughout 2023 to earn standout results.

Van Assche, who reached the semi-finals at the Next Gen ATP Finals, won consecutive Challenger Tour crowns in February and captured the first tour-level win of his career in Estoril, where he beat Pedro Sousa. The Frenchman won a set against Novak Djokovic in Banja Luka and reached tour-level quarter-finals in Hamburg (ATP 500) and Metz (250). He also advanced to the second round at his home Slam, Roland Garros, where he won the 2021 boys’ singles crown.

“Two years ago, I was like 1,000-something so I don’t think I would’ve expected to be Top 100 now,” Van Assche said in April. “Last year, I was like 400. I was not expecting this maybe a year or two ago. It was very fast. Of course I was dreaming about it. I’m very proud and I just want to be even better now.”

He ended the season at No. 90, having reached a career-high No. 63 earlier this year.

Dominic Stricker, 21 years old
Possessing a thunderous game, Dominic Stricker reached new heights in 2023.

Stricker, who is a two-time Next Gen ATP Finals competitor, enjoyed a consistent year up until September. He won two Challenger Tour events and earned his maiden major main draw win at Wimbledon. However, he hit the big time in ‘The Big Apple’, advancing to the fourth round at the US Open.

The Swiss stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas after firing 78 winners in a five-set, second-round thriller that lasted four hours, 10 minutes. It was the deep run at Flushing Meadows that propelled Stricker into the Top 100 for the first time on 11 September. The 21-year-old became the youngest Swiss to reach the milestone since 20-year-old Stan Wawrinka did so in 2005.

“I feel better on court than I did last year. I feel like my game has improved again,” Stricker told ATPTour.com in August. “I’m also getting fitter body-wise, so that helps for sure. I think off court everything got a bit more serious. I’m also working maybe a little bit harder than I did before. I think everything is more professional than it was and that helps me for sure.”

The lefty earned another Top 10 victory in October, with this triumph coming in front of Stricker’s home crowd, upsetting Casper Ruud in Basel. Stricker closed the season with a second consecutive semi-final appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM.

Read more of our Best of 2023 Series

As we continue to review the best moments of the 2023 ATP Tour season, we bring you a closer look at one of the year’s unforgettable moments, straight from the source.

Holger Rune might have been feeling extra pressure as defending champion at the BMW Open by American Express in Munich this April, but the Dane handled it in stride. After three dominant wins earned him a place in the final, he claimed the opening set against Botic van de Zandschulp to move to the brink of his first successful title defense on the ATP Tour.

But there would be more twists to come — both literally and figuratively.

One year after van de Zandschulp retired in the Munich final against Rune, the rematch at the ATP 250 overdelivered in both the quality of the tennis and the drama of the scoreline.  

“I knew the final was going to be the toughest match of the tournament,” Rune told ATP Uncovered, speaking ahead of his Nitto ATP Finals debut. “Botic played some of his best tennis in this kind of event, so I knew I had to be really ready. But I was feeling confident.”

Rune entered with clear tactics but was “a little bit confused about the game plan” in the second set, which his opponent dominated. The Dane dealt with several physical issues in the final set, including a twisted ankle, but continued to fight on the red clay despite what he felt was a “three, four per cent chance of winning”.

He trailed 2-5 in the third set and faced two match points in a match that was recognised in ATPTour.com’s Best Of 2023 series.

Watch the full feature above to relive the match — and the dramatic final set — through Rune’s eyes and find out how the exhausted Dane changed his tactics and his mindset to push through the finish.

Read all stories in our Best Of 2023 review.

Andrey Rublev is set to lead the field at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open in Week 1 of the new season.
 
The No. 5 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings enjoyed a standout 2023 campaign, winning titles at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and in Bastad to finish in the Top 5 for the first time. He will begin the 2024 season at the ATP 250 in Hong Kong, with the first edition of the tournament since 2002 to begin main-draw play on 1 January.

Other notable names on the entry list include Frances Tiafoe, Marin Cilic, Mackenzie McDonald and Karen Khachanov. 

China’s Shang Juncheng will also compete in Hong Kong. The rising #NextGenATP star broke into the Top 150 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time in 2023 and will now look to hit new heights before his 19th birthday in February.

The latest staging of the Hong Kong event will add to its rich history, with former champions including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi Michael Chang, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier and Juan Carlos Ferrero.