An off-colour Carlos Alcaraz suffered a shock 6-1 7-5 defeat against Norway's Casper Ruud in his opening match at the ATP Finals as the Spaniard's hopes of winning the year-end title for the first time suffered a blow on Monday.

The capstone to the 2024 men’s pro tennis tour—the Nitto ATP Finals tournament—starts today in Turin, Italy, featuring the eight most-highly ranked players in the world (well, mostly: Novak Djokovic elected to sit this one out due to injury).

Jannik Sinner may be the world No.1 and king of the hard courts after winning this year’s Australian Open and US Open but Carlos Alcaraz can give him a run for his money in the ATP Finals in Turin. Sinner started the tournament as 11/8 favourite with BoyleSports,