The ATP Tournament of the Year will take place from 15 to 22 November in London.
Eight best athletes and eight best couples at the end of the season will play for the last title, which is on a par with victories at Grand Slam tournaments and Masters.
Among those who will fight for the singles victory, for the first time in 20 years, there will be two Russians.
Daniil Medvedev officially qualified back on September 14th, shortly after reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.
He became the fourth in the list of qualifiers after Serb Novak Djokovic, Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Austrian Dominik Tim.
A little later they were joined by the German Alexander Zverev and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.
On November 1, they were accompanied by Andrei Rublev, who won five ATP tournaments during the year.
Due to the refusal of the Swiss Roger Federer, who announced in the summer that he would skip the second half of the season due to a knee injury, Argentine Diego Schwartzman became the eighth participant in the ATP Final Tournament.
The selection for competitions in London did not follow the usual pattern with a set of points for performances in major tournaments throughout the year.
It had to be abandoned due to a break from March to August.
It was decided to distribute tickets among the best players according to the ATP rating.
However, if the previous selection format had been preserved, then the same tennis players who deserved it by rating would go to London.
The only exception would be Roger Federer, who has almost never scored any rating points this season.
For the last time, two Russian tennis players at once found themselves in the company of the best players at the final tournament of the year in 2000.
Then it was Marat Safin and Evgeny Kafelnikov.
Safin, who was the first racket of the world, lost in the semifinals to American Andre Agassi.
Kafelnikov was unable to pass the group stage.
In the entire 50-year history of the ATP Final Tournament, the Russian tennis player only reached the final twice, and only once won it.
In 2008 and 2009, Nikolai Davydenko achieved this.
Medvedev already has experience of participating in tournaments of this level.
Last season, he entered the final eight, but that performance can hardly be called successful.
In three group stage matches, he was able to win only one set against Nadal.
Rublev is waiting for his debut at the Final Tournament, previously he participated only in its analogue for young tennis players ATP Next Generation and reached the final in 2017.
At the draw, held on November 12, two Russian tennis players were in different groups.
In the quartet, named "Tokyo 1970" in honor of the first tournament of its kind, Medvedev will play with Djokovic, Zverev and Shvartsman.
In addition to Rublev, the London 2020 group includes Nadal, Tim and Tsitsipas.
If we take into account the statistics of personal meetings, then the Russians can hardly be called favorites, and Rublev should even be recognized as an outsider.
The ratio of Medvedev's victories and defeats with other participants is 17 to 16 (but 5 to 6 in the halls).
The Russian has negative statistics of games with Djokovic and Zverev, although in recent meetings they always had an equal fight.
Shvartsman can be called a convenient rival for Medvedev - all four matches between them ended with the victory of the first racket of Russia.
With Rublev, personal meetings are much worse.
During his career, he defeated only Tim and Tsitsipas, and it can be called luck that he will meet with them in the group stage.
However, his score with the Austrian and Greek is still a draw, he lost to them as much as he defeated them.
Rublev met with Nadal only once and lost to the US Open in 2017.
However, the results of this year do not allow Rublev to be discounted.
He is the leader of the season in winning matches, one victory ahead of even the first racket of the world Novak Djokovic.
The statistics of Rublev looks even better if we take into account only matches on indoor hard courts - these are the conditions that tennis players are waiting for in London.
The Russian won 13 meetings and lost only twice.
Nevertheless, the Russian tennis player is cautiously assessing his chances in the first-ever ATP Final Tournament.
“I don’t feel that I have made it into the final eight.
In general, I do not expect anything, I hope I will be able to show my maximum and fight to the end.
Of course, I'm insanely worried a week before the competition.
I don’t want to be a tourist, I want to show that it was not by chance that I got there ”, - said Rublev in an interview with Match TV.
Medvedev's chances of success in London are enhanced by his recent victory at the Masters in Paris.
In the French capital, he not only won the first title of the season, but also beat two rivals in the group stage.
In the quarterfinals, the Russian easily passed Shvartsman, and in the title meeting he won a strong-willed victory over Zverev.
Rublev, Nadal and Tsitsipas dropped out even before the meeting with the first racket of Russia.
With Djokovic and Tim, Medvedev did not have a chance to play - the last time a Serb and an Austrian entered the court at a tournament in Vienna, where they lost in the quarterfinals.
The final ATP tournament of the year could have a profound impact on the distribution of the world rankings.
Medvedev will have a chance to become the third racket of the planet for the first time in his career.
To do this, however, he needs to go through the entire tournament without defeats, and Tim must lose in all meetings.
Rublev can ideally play two lines and climb into sixth place if he wins the title, and Tsitsipas and Zverev will not interfere with him in this.