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Taylor Fritz & Ben Shelton in race for U.S. No. 1 at 2025 ATP Finals

Arthur Kapetanakis | November 08, 2025


After four American women competed in the WTA Finals singles tournament, the most since 2003, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton will represent the U.S. this week at the 2025 ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.

 

Fritz, 28, is a returning finalist at the event, while the 23-year-old Shelton is making his debut. The American doubles duo of Christian Harrison and Evan King will also compete at the indoor hard-court tournament.

 

The last time two American singles stars qualified for the eight-man season finale was in 2006, when Andy Roddick and James Blake were among the elite field. Blake reached the final that season, losing to Roger Federer.

 

Read More: Gauff, Anisimova, Pegula, Keys qualify for 2025 WTA Finals in historic U.S. feat

In addition to battling the likes of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz for the Turin title, Fritz and Shelton will also be competing with each other for the honor of No. 1 American this week. World No. 4 Fritz currently holds that distinction, helped by the points he earned from his Turin final run last year, but world No. 6 Shelton holds a narrow, 35-point lead over his countryman in the 2025 race. Both players enter the ATP Finals at career-high rankings.

 

The better-performing American in Turin will finish the year as the No. 1 American, with 200 ranking points on offer for each round-robin win, 400 points for a semifinal victory and 500 additional points for the title. An undefeated champion would earn a total of 1,500 points, a total that could lift either Fritz or Shelton to world No. 3.

 

Fritz returns to Turin for the third time, having reached the semifinals in 2022 and the final last season. The 28-year-old will open his campaign Monday against Lorenzo Musetti, with Alcaraz and Alex de Minaur joining them in the Jimmy Connors Group for the round-robin stage.

Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton among the ATP Tour's elite at the 2025 ATP Finals photo shoot. Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

Champion in Eastbourne and Stuttgart this season and finalist in Tokyo, Fritz hopes to pick up where he left off in Turin.

 

"I just felt like I was playing very good tennis the whole week [last year]. I had a really good training week leading into it. Obviously making the final was a really good result," said the American, who beat Alexander Zverev in a third-set tie-break to reach the final. "I would say that moment, winning the semifinal match, was the best." 

 

Apart from his on-court success, Fritz also holds fond memories of the Turin crowd: "Even though I played Jannik twice, and Jannik in the final, I thought the crowd was amazing and incredibly nice to me, so that was great as well."

 

Shelton, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title this year in Toronto and reached the Munich final, will meet Sinner this week in the Bjorn Borg Group, in which Zverev and Felix Auger-Aliassime were also drawn.

 

The American will play his first ATP Finals match on Sunday against Zverev, seeking his first win in five tries against the German. Shelton clinched his Turin debut at the Rolex Paris Masters with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win against Andrey Rublev, who competed at the ATP Finals each of the past five years.

 

If Fritz and Shelton were to meet in the knockout rounds, that matchup would likely determine who finishes the season as the No. 1 American man.

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