Nadal, Federer, Alcaraz … absences from the ATP Cup

The tennis elite on the ATP circuit will open the season from January 1 in Sydney with the celebration of the ATP Cup, the other major country tournament of the season along with the Davis Cup. The ATP Cup will bring together prominent ATP ranking players such as Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and the reappearance of tennis players such as Dominic Thiem, but will also feature notable absences.

The most prominent of them all is that of the Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal, who this year has resigned from the tournament to focus entirely on his recovery from the foot injury and arrive in the best possible form at the Australian Open. Despite being in the team last year, Nadal did not play any ATP Cup matches in 2021 due to back discomfort, although he was very active in the 2020 edition, when Spain reached the final in which they lost to Serbia.

Along with Nadal, another notable loss in the ATP Cup is that of Roger Federer. The Swiss continues to recover from the operation he underwent on his knee and will not be in a tournament in which he has never wanted to participate since, since its first edition in 2020, Federer has not competed in the ATP Cup when he did participate in the Hopman Cup, the predecessor of the ATP Cup until 2019.

In the entry list, the absence of France in the tournament is also striking. One reason that may be due to the low ranking of French tennis players in the ATP rankings, since you have to go back to 21st place to find Gael Monfils and Ugo Humbert in 35th position. For the same reason, Croatia will not be in the tournament either, since its best ranked tennis player, Marin Cilic, is ranked 30th in the ranking.

Two other striking absences in this ATP Cup pre-list are those of Karen Khachanov and Carlos Alcaraz, two tennis players who, by ranking, could be included in their teams. The Russian comes from being a key piece in the conquest of the Davis Cup by the Russian Tennis Federation. For his part, Alcaraz would have had the option of taking out the thorn in the ATP Cup if he had not been able to play in the Davis Cup because of the coronavirus. Another notable loss in the tournament will be that of Nick Kyrgios that, after his inactivity in 2021 and his fall in the ATP ranking (now he is 93rd in the world) has not been included in the Australian team. This is how the ATP Cup 2022 is presented, a tournament with great stars … but also with great absences.