Top five oldest winners of ATP Finals

Novak Djokovic is the oldest man to win the ATP Finals trophy twice.

The annual ATP Finals is a truly exclusive event with its doors open only to the top eight players based on their ATP ranking every season. It began life as the Masters and was hosted first by Tokyo. The cities of Paris, Barcelona, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm, and Houston took turns hosting the event before it made the move to Madison Square Garden in New York. The city of New York played host from 1977 to 1989.

In 1990, the Masters was renamed the ATP Tour World Championships and moved to Europe. Frankfurt and Hannover took turns hosting the event until 1999. In 2000, the event went through another rebranding effort, emerging as the Tennis Masters Cup and was held in Lisbon, Sydney, Houston and Shanghai. 

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The O2 Arena in London took over as the host in 2009, with the event marking its 50th anniversary in 2020. Turin took over as host city in 2021. Stan Smith won the inaugural edition in 1970. Nastase was the first to win multiple titles, followed by John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras, who dominated the event until 1999. 

The turn of the century witnessed the rise of a new generation of champions. Leyton Hewitt, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Alexander Zverev were the players to win more than one ATP Finals since the year 2000.

Here we take a look at the top five oldest winners of ATP Finals.

Pete Sampras, 1999 –  28 years, 3 months

Pete Sampras began his Grand Slam exploits by becoming the youngest man to win the US Open men’s singles title. Sampras was 19 in 1990 when he defeated compatriot and rival Andre Agassi 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 for his maiden Grand Slam trophy. Sampras won his fifth and final US title twelve years later with Agassi standing across the net securing a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory. 

‘Pistol Pete’ and his signature slam dunk overhead volley helped him power his way to five ATP Finals trophies. Sampras qualified for the year-ending event 11 times and reached the final on six occasions. Two of his five wins came against Boris Becker. The marathon five-set final between Becker and Sampras took four hours to complete before the American emerged as the winner with the scoreline reading 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 6-7(11), 6-4.  

Ilie Nastase, 1975 – 29 years, 4 months

Romanian Ilie Nastase was the original bad boy of tennis before John McEnroe came onto the scene. The Romanian was often at odds with the linesmen and umpires over line calls, which he deemed incorrect. Nastase defeated  Arthur Ashe at the 1972 US Open to claim his first Grand Slam singles title.

Nastase gave the tiny European nation of Romania its time in the spotlight. He almost single-handedly guided it to the Davis Cup finals in 1969 and 1971-72.  

The 1973 season was his most successful and saw him win 16 titles, along with his third Masters event, as the ATP Finals was known then. Nastase made five consecutive finals between 1971 and 1975, winning four of them. He defeated Stan Smith in 1971 and 1972 and Swede Bjorn Borg for his final Masters trophy in 1975. In the 1974 edition, he was thwarted by Argentine Guillermo Vilas in five sets a year after getting the better of Tom Okker in the 1973 finals. 

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Andy Murray, 2016 – 29 years, 6 months

Andy Murray’s claim to sporting fame includes two Wimbledon trophies (2013 and 2016) and two Olympic golds in the singles event. The Olympic golds came at the London Games in 2012 and four years later in and Rio 2016. 

The 2016 season also gave Murray his first and only ATP Finals trophy. It was the Scottish player’s first trip to the final in eight attempts. He had reached the semi-final stage thrice (2008, 2010, and 2012). Murray defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4 to win on his debut run to the title round.

It took Murray until 2012 to win his first Grand Slam – the US Open, which he won by defeating Novak Djokovic in an epic five-set face-off lasting nearly five hours. After a prolonged match, the score would be 7-6(10), 7-5, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 in favor of Murray. The result helped erase memories of his defeat to Roger Federer, another card-carrying member of the big three, in the Wimbledon final a few months earlier.

Roger Federer, 2011 – 30 years, 3 months

By the time Roger Federer called time on his career following the 2022 Laver Cup, he amassed 103 tour-level titles and 1251 wins. Federer is second only to Jimmy Connors, who owns the Open Era record with 109 titles and 1274 wins. 

The Swiss maestro owns tournament records for most titles won at the the Cincinnati Masters (7), Wimbledon(8), Basel (10) and Halle (10). Before Novak Djokovic came along with his haul of seven ATP Finals titles, Federer owned the record at the venue with six wins.   

Federer made a noteworthy debut in the ATP Finals in 2002, making the semi-finals before falling to eventual winner Lleyton Hewitt. The former World No. 1 won the ATP Finals the next two years, defeating Andre Agassi in 2003 and Hewitt in 2004. 

The Swiss great finished with six wins from ten appearances in the championship round of the season finale. Federer made a semi-final run at his final outing at the ATP Finals, losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets.

Novak Djokovic, 2023 – 36 years, 6 months

Novak Djokovic won his ATP Final title in 2008 when it was known as the Tennis Masters Cup. The same year, Djokovic bagged the first of his ten Australian Open titles to begin his Grand Slam journey. The Serbian player has won seven ATP Finals titles and ten Australian Open trophies, a record at both venues.

Four of the wins in Turin came neatly packaged in a row between 2012 and 2015. During that four-year interval, the Serb picked up three Australian Open victories in Melbourne. 

Djokovic was 35 years and five months old when he won the 2022 ATP Final title. By defending his title in 2023, Djokovic broke his record to become the oldest man at 36 years and six months when he held aloft the trophy for the seventh time. The Serb also surpassed Federer’s collection of six titles at the end of the season.

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