JEDDAH/WASHINGTON, December 4, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

When the eighth edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF takes place later this month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Dec. 17-21, not only will the best young, 20-and-under talent on the ATP Tour be on display – including World No. 19 Jakub Mensik of Czech and World No. 28 Learner Tien of the United States – but also the ATP will experiment with some rules and innovations that one day soon could become commonplace on the ATP Tour.

✅ Free fan movement
✅ Reduced break in between points

The rules & innovations have been unveiled for the 2025 #NextGenATPFinals https://t.co/X12yIb1XeA pic.twitter.com/SZ9iusZDnA

— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) December 3, 2025

Among the rules related to scoring and change overs:

• In an effort to speed up matches, the scoring will be first-to-4 games, best-of-5 set scoring. Each match throughout the event – both group play as well as the semifinal and title matches – will see each set be first to 4 games with a margin of 2 game and a tie-break (first to 7 points with a margin of 2) played at 3-all. Each game will be played using the No-Ad scoring format with the server choosing the service box.

• There will be no change of ends by the players after the first game. 

• Players will change ends and sit for 90 seconds after the first three games are played, and once more if the the set score reaches 3-2, and then again at the end of the set (regardless of the final set score).

• Players will change ends after ever six points played in a tie-break.

• Players will sit at the end of a set for 90 seconds, reduced from two minutes. 

Among the rules initiatives:

• The warm-up between players will be 3 minutes on court.

• There will be a ball change after every 7 games. 

• A serve shot clock will used. Up to 8 seconds will be permitted between the first and second serve. A shot clock will display the time elapsed between the first and second serve.

• Regarding the time between points, the time will be reduced from 25 seconds to 15 seconds if a point is below three shots.

• Free fan movement will be allowed in the stadium for the first three games of a match. After the first three games, fans will be allowed to move freely except for limited areas behind baseline in direct player view. Movement by spectators in the designated free movement areas shall not constitute a legitimate pause in thes snot clock. 

• The umpire’s chair will continue to be lower than usual in order to reduce visual obstruction for fans in the arena.

Among the innovation initiatives:

• More match statistics and analytics will be made available to fans, players and coaches through in-area data analytics.

Among the data that will be shown in the arena includes:

• Traditional statistics such as aces, serve percentages and break-point performance.

Additionally, there will be player performance based upon rally length as well as player shot quality broken down by Serve, Return, Forehand, Backhand and Movement. Also, match insights data detailing which player has been “in attack” the most, who has won more points when attacking (“conversion score”) and who has won the most points when defending (“steal score”).

The data will be made available to the players’ coaches courtside via the ATP’s performance analytics platform, ATP Tennis IQ Powered by PIF, as well as the provision of video footage tagged with match data that will be available post-match.

The 2025 field is SET ‼️#NextGenATPFinals pic.twitter.com/zYxQ3Hcoiy

— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) November 29, 2025