JEDDAH/WASHINGTON, December 14, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)
Last year’s finalist, Learner Tien of the United States, headlines the field of eight for the 2025 Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF, which begins Wednesday at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The 28th-ranked American, who enjoyed a break-through season in 2025 and finished with 32 tour-level wins, is joined by No. 116 Alexander Blockx of Belgium, No. 128 Dino Prizmic of Croatia, No. 134 Martin Landaluce of Spain, No. 136 Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, No. 167 Nishesh Basavareddy of the United States, No. 168 Rafael Jodar of Spain and No. 187 Justin Engel of Germany.
Both Americans, Tien and Basavareddy, qualified for last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals while the others will be competing for the first time. Engel, who at age 18 is the youngest player in the field, was late addition to the field to replace 19th-ranked Jakub Mensik of Czechia, who withdrew Thursday due for medical reasons. Last year’s champion, No. 24 Joao Fonseca of Brazil, opted not to defend his title.
Problem-solving at its best #NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/e199b0CKf5
— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) December 5, 2025
This will be the final year the tournament will be held in Jeddah. A new location for the year-end event, which began in 2017 and originally was held in Milan until 2022 before it shifted to the Saudi Arabian port city on the Red Sea in 2023, has not been determined.
On Sunday, the world’s eight leading 20-and-under players on the ATP Tour were divided up into two groups. Tien, 20, who won his first ATP Tour singles title at Metz and was a finalist at Beijing, headlines the Blue Group while the 20-year-old Blockx, who won two ATP Challenger Tour titles (Oeiras in January and Bratislava in November), tops the Red Group.
The groups are set ‼️
Who will be the 2025 #NextGenATPFinals champion? pic.twitter.com/XJyfhDKSbU
— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) December 14, 2025
Past champions include: Hyeon Chung of South Korea (2017), Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece (2018), Jannik Sinner of Italy (2019), Carlos Alcaraz of Spain (2021), Brandon Nakashima of the United States (2022), Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia (2023) and Fonseca (2024).
Round-robin group play begins on Wednesday and continues through Friday, with afternoon and evening sessions. The semifinals will take place on Saturday (Dec. 20) and the title match will be on Sunday (Dec. 21) at 8 p.m. (local time; 6 p.m. CET; noon U.S. Eastern Time).
España presente en Jeddah
Martín Landaluce y Rafael Jódar ya se preparan para las @nextgenfinals
: @fedetenismadrid pic.twitter.com/X0Dap46Fxv
— ATP Tour en Español (@ATPTour_ES) December 13, 2025
Next Gen ATP Finals groups
Blue: No. 1 seed Learner Tien, No. 4 Martin Landaluce, No. 5 Nicolai Budkov Kjaer, No. 7 Rafael Jodar.
Red: No. 2 seed Alexander Blockx, No. 3 Dino Prizmic, No. 6 Ninesh Basavareddy, No. 8 Justin Engel.
Next Gen ATP news & noteworthy
American Nishesh Basavareddy has returned to the Next Gen ATP Finals for the second year after going 1-2 in group play in his first appearance 12 months ago. This time, he will have a new coach – but one with a familiar name – in his box. Earlier this month, Basavareddy asked Gilles Cervara, former longtime coach of Daniil Medvedev, to join his team.
“Obviously, he had a long and successful partnership with Daniil, who was a good player before they started working together,” Basavareddy told the ATP Tour website earlier this week. “But they did a lot of great things together.”
Cervara coached Medvedev from 2017 until August of this year and guided Medvedev to his only Grand Slam title, at the 2021 US Open, as well as 19 other ATP Tour crowns and achieving the World No. 1 ranking.
“I thought that experience at the highest level could help me where I’m at in my career,” Basavareddy added. “It’s not just tennis; he’s interested in all aspects. He’s diligent and professional in areas such as nutrition and fitness and that will help me.”
