Liam Caruana is currently No. 622 in the ATP Rankings. The 20-year-old has contested just one tour-level match in his career. But after battling through an eight-player 21-and-under Italian wild card event, Caruana has a chance to compete in the prestigious Next Gen ATP Finals.

“It’s new for me,” Caruana said. “But I’m enjoying every minute of it.”

An added element to the event for the Italian is that he grew up playing against two star #NextGenATP Americans. Caruana’s father moved their family to the United States in 2004. Living in San Diego, Caruana first played Taylor Fritz when he was 10 years old. He met Frances Tiafoe when he was 12.

“It’s really cool,” Caruana said of being on a major stage in the sport with childhood friends and rivals. “It obviously means a lot to me because I was growing up playing the juniors with them and now to be in the Next Gen ATP Finals with most of them is a great thing for me and I’m excited to be here.”

It also shows Caruana where he could be if he continues moving his game forward. Fritz and Tiafoe are both set to finish inside the Top 50 of the year-end ATP Rankings. All seven direct qualifiers for the event held at the Fiera Milano have cracked the Top 80 this year.

“It does motivate me to push for more,” said Caruana, whose career-high is No. 375. “I’ve had a tough year with injuries and overall just being consistent. But being with these guys, seeing this type of lifestyle does really motivate me to strive for more.”

While none of his injuries have been major, Caruana hurt his abductor, shoulder and bicep this season, with the physical difficulties limiting his practice for months.

“I feel good physically now,” Caruana said. “I worked hard for the qualifying event for this and now I’m here.”

Caruana got through the qualifying tournament in dramatic fashion, clawing back from two sets down in the semi-finals and behind by a set in the final. He defeated the event’s top two seeds to earn his berth in the Next Gen ATP Finals.

“It was great,” Caruana said. “There was a lot of support at the qualifying event and I was able to showcase some good tennis. It was all for the goal to be here and it’s great.”

Now, Caruana will try to show the tennis that got him to this moment against the best #NextGenATP competitors in the world. And while he knows the competition won’t be easy, Caruana’s goals are simple.

“Just to leave everything on the court and compete to the best of my ability because every match will be very difficult,” Caruana said. “But I feel ready.”

It was the week when I went from hell to heaven, from suffering with pain as my body collapsed at the end of a long season, to being about the happiest I have ever been on a tennis court. It was also the week, at the 2000 season finale in Lisbon, when I produced an untouchable performance in the final against Andre Agassi – a perfect, magical match on the most important occasion of my life.

Although it’s now almost 20 years since I won this title, I can still feel the emotions, the sensations and the flavours of Lisbon. There are memories stamped on my mind. I can turn back time and imagine that I’m there again on the court in Portugal. It’s all still so fresh in my mind.

I’m sure this week at the Nitto ATP Finals is going to be emotional – for myself, but also for my family and friends, as it’s a great honour to have a group named after me. I never expected to be honoured like this, and it’s going to be a pleasure to see the greatest of this generation playing in a group with my name on it. It’s good to be proud and to look back at what you achieved and to remember how important it was: winning that title was – I’m very sure of this – the biggest achievement of my career.

Hell was what I experienced after my opening round-robin match. I had arrived in Lisbon with hopes and lots of expectations, with Marat Safin and I in contention to finish the year at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. But then, at the start of the tournament, things went very wrong. I lost that first match to Andre Agassi. Even worse, my body had collapsed, with pain in my muscles, and it felt as though there was no way I could have any happiness that week.

On a day off, I spent around 12 hours in the physio room, doing everything possible to heal my body, and still not knowing whether I would be back on the court again to play Magnus Norman in my second match. I’ll also never forget how my mother had a great impact on me. I remember how I was trying to get to sleep, but my mind kept taking me somewhere, and around 4am I was still rolling around in the bed, still awake. My mother was there with me in the room. She was watching me trying to sleep, much more worried about her son than the tennis player. It was around 5am that I finally got to sleep. I was at the beginning of the Lisbon rollercoaster, and going through a low moment. I was suffering.

But when I woke up, everything was completely different. For months, I had been running like crazy, trying to become No. 1. But that morning, it was like a new world. I had a new appreciation for all the effort and commitment I had put into this. My eyes were opened. I started to laugh again, surfing around the circumstances and not trying to change everything down to the last detail. I left space for the universe, for the circumstances, to happen too.

Like this, I was satisfied and motivated again. I was also very inspired, and I got myself back on track for my second group match. I started to play every single match as if it were my last. I wasn’t so worried about the results, just how I was playing. It was a simple approach, and my game just came back. There were some ups and downs in the match, and suddenly I was steady again in the court. I wasn’t in my best shape, but the self-confidence was there.

I was surprised at the way I played and how I was able to beat Norman in straight sets, and especially how I was able to keep going at the crucial moments. I was in the same mood when I played Yevgeny Kafelnikov in my final group match, and I beat him on a surface that favoured him much more than it favoured me. So I was into the semi-finals, and I felt so happy, probably as happy as I have ever felt on the tennis court. I was happy that the four players left were Safin, myself, Pete Sampras and Agassi. Safin and I were going for No. 1, and Sampras and Agassi had been the best guys around for 10 years. Having suffered so much after my first match, I had gone from hell to heaven.

All week, after losing my first match, I had just been trying to let it roll. But then Safin lost to Agassi in the semi-finals and suddenly I was in control – I could determine whether I finished the year as No. 1 or not. How could I handle that change? Well, from the start of my career, I had always liked to smile on the court, to experience the sensations and the favours, and to enjoy every single moment, and that’s how I handled it.

Just before going on court to play Sampras, Safin was waiting for us, and said to my opponent: “Please, Pete, I need your help.” That was a funny moment. I had never beaten Sampras before. For me, he’s still the best opponent I ever played. But the way I was feeling, and the momentum I had built up during the group stages, that had given me confidence. I lost the first set on a tie-break, and that was hard to digest. But I remember very clearly that, after losing that set, I sat down and immediately knew the steps I had to take to win the match. I was using the strength that I built up when I had been suffering, and during the hard moments. It was the last sprint of the season, and I was through to the final.

I was 100 per cent sure that I was ready to get through to the end and win the tournament. That was a fantastic feeling, though very surprising that I was able to play a final like that against Agassi. In the biggest match of my life, I was able to play at 100 per cent. It was such a high level, an amazing, magical performance. Usually, when you’re playing a big match, and you’re dealing with the pressures and the circumstances, you’re playing at 80 or 90 per cent, and that’s more than enough. But that day my mind was as clear as a crystal. If I could have chosen any match in which to play an untouchable performance, it would have been that one. And that’s what happened.

I did something unbelievable that week in Lisbon. I played to the limit of my capabilities against Agassi, a genius of my generation. I beat Sampras and Agassi in back-to-back matches, playing at an intense level. For me, that was heaven.

This year, on the 10th edition of the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2, the season finale celebrates players who competed at the event in the 2000s.

Jaume Munar’s momentum for the 2018 season did not start on 1 January. To gain positive energy in this campaign, the Spaniard built his own springboard long before.

In August 2017, the Majorcan triumphed on the ATP Challenger Tour in Segovia, joining a list of champions that includes names such as Rafael Nadal, Juan Martin del Potro, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez. There, without knowing it, he built momentum for his breakout 2018 season.

The Spaniard has made many changes this year, including returning to Mallorca, his home, after living and training in Barcelona for a few years. The Spaniard admits he learned to listen better, thanks to his coaches Tomeu Salva and Pedro Clar.

He understood that he should eat better and that it was important to look after himself. And above all, he realised that tennis was his life. That’s why he decided to train at the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar, under the tutelage, company and constant support of 33-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion Rafael Nadal.

Watch: Munar Makes His March Towards Milan

This season has been a year that Munar has to be immensely proud of after achieving his two main goals. Munar broke into the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings and also qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals.

The 21-year-old started the year at No. 188, dropped to No. 200 in April, before a strong European summer led him to climb as high as No. 87 in the ATP Rankings. He soon reached his career-high No. 79 and is now guaranteed to end the season among the Top 100.

Munar, however, at the start of the season did not consider reaching the Next Gen ATP Finals a realistic goal. Not in the preseason, not in January, when he qualified for his first Grand Slam main draw at the Australian Open, and not in June, when he was already climbing positions in the ATP Race To Milan.

“I do not know exactly the numbers but I’m far away because the top ones are extremely good,” Munar said in June.

“The players who dominate [the ATP Race To Milan] are members of the Top 50. They are players who have won a lot. It is still not a real goal. My goal is to finish the year in the Top 100 and if we can go further, fantastic.”

Little did Munar know that he was going to overachieve his goal by a great margin. But who is Jaume Munar? He defines himself.

Watch: Munar Qualifies For Milan

“Jaume Munar is a very normal boy from Santanyí, Mallorca. I started playing tennis for a hobby because I had always played football since I was three years old and I stopped because I liked the tennis environment more. Little by little I have been growing, and today I think I can say that I am a professional tennis player and that I dedicate myself exclusively to it. For me, it is a privilege to be where I am,” he said.

“Beyond tennis, I am a person who likes to give everything. If you have to play from one to 10, always give 10. Give your 100 per cent. If it’s time to study until 10 p.m., then study… If you have to work until five in the morning, then you do it. It’s something that I’ve been taught at home since childhood. That you have to give everything you have in what you like and especially when it’s your job. In the end, it is hardly an effort for me to give that extra because for me it is normal.”

Giving 100 per cent was rewarded when he qualified for Roland Garros, and above all, when he beat 2013 finalist David Ferrer in the first round in an intense five-set thriller. Although he was beaten in the second round by Novak Djokovic, Munar drew many lessons from his time in Paris.

Proof of this were the two consecutive ATP Challengers titles in Prostejov and Caltanissetta. The European summer did not stop there. In July, Munar reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final in Kitzbühel, where he lost to the eventual champion Martin Klizan.

Munar, nominated in the “Newcomer Of The Year” category in the ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon, continues to make progress. He will go for more in Milan.