ATP Finals Group Names Explained — Why Turin Has a John McEnroe Group and an Ivan Lendl Group, and Every Name Since 2015

The draw for the 2026 ATP Finals on 12 November put Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, Arthur Fils and Rafael Jodar in the John McEnroe Group, and Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Frances Tiafoe in the Ivan Lendl Group. The doubles teams were drawn into the Todd Woodbridge Group and the Mark Woodforde Group. The names honour former champions of the season finale. They do not change how the event is played: in the rulebook the two groups are still Group A and Group B.

What a group name changes

Nothing. The ATP Rulebook’s chapter on the Finals places the players by seeding, not by name: “The top-seeded player shall be placed in Group “A” and the second-seeded player shall be placed in Group “B”.” Seeds three and four, five and six, and seven and eight are then drawn in pairs, with the first of each pair going into Group A. Doubles teams are placed the same way. How the seeds are set is covered in how tennis seeding works.

The name is attached to the group after that. In 2026 the top seed, Zverev, is in the McEnroe Group, so it is Group A, and Alcaraz, the second seed, heads the Lendl Group. Everything else, including who reaches the semifinals, follows the order in ATP Finals round-robin tiebreakers explained. Even the ATP’s own match notes have kept the older labels: in 2024, when the groups were named after Ilie Nastase and John Newcombe, the notes still said the top seed “will be placed in the Green Group”.

Why McEnroe and Lendl

The 2026 names are a repeat of 2016, when the ATP’s notes said: “This year’s groups are named after five of the most successful players in the history of the season finale.” That year the singles groups were McEnroe and Lendl, and the doubles groups were named after Peter Fleming and John McEnroe, and Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd.

McEnroe won the singles title three times, in 1978, 1983 and 1984. Lendl won it five times and reached nine consecutive finals from 1980 to 1988, losing two of them to McEnroe. Both are in the list of most ATP Finals titles. With Fleming, McEnroe also won the year-end doubles championship seven years in a row.

Every ATP Finals group name since 2015

The Finals Club, the 50th edition and the colour years

The current run of names began in 2015 with the Finals Club, an ATP initiative that it said “will see many of the game’s former greats from the past 45 years return to the season-ending tournament”. “The first year of The Finals Club celebrates players from the 1970s,” the ATP said, and Groups A and B were renamed: “In singles, Group A has been named after Smith and Group B after Nastase.” The doubles groups were named after Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith, the first doubles champions, and after Fleming and McEnroe.

In 2020, for the 50th edition, the groups were named after places instead of players. “Group Tokyo 1970, the inaugural year of the Nitto ATP Finals, will feature the No. 1 seed,” the ATP said, and Group London 2020 marked “the 12th and final year at The O2 in London”. The doubles groups that year carried the names of Bob and Mike Bryan.

For the first three editions in Turin, from 2021 to 2023, the groups were simply Green and Red. The ATP’s draw announcements in those years listed the colours without explaining the change. Names returned in 2024 with Nastase and Newcombe, the same pairing the event had used in 1991.

Group names before 2015

Naming the groups after champions is older than the Finals Club. The results history in the ATP’s media guide shows these singles group labels:

• 1972: Group A / Group B
• 1973–76: Blue / White
• 1977–81: Blue / Red
• 1982–85: no groups (a knockout format)
• 1986: Fred Perry / Don Budge
• 1987: Rod Laver / Pancho Segura
• 1988: Rod Laver / Fred Perry
• 1989: Rod Laver / Ilie Nastase
• 1990: Arthur Ashe / Cliff Drysdale
• 1991: Ilie Nastase / John Newcombe
• 1992: Rod Laver / Ken Rosewall
• 1993: Arthur Ashe / Stan Smith
• 1994–99: Red / White
• 2000: Red / Green
• 2001 (Sydney): Ken Rosewall / John Newcombe
• 2002–09: colours (Red and Gold in most years, Red and Blue in 2003 and 2004)
• 2010–14: Group A / Group B

Names used more than once

• Ilie Nastase: 1989, 1991, 2015 and 2024
• Rod Laver: 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1992
• John Newcombe: 1991, 2001 and 2024
• John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl: 2016 and 2026, as a pair both times
• Bjorn Borg: 2019 and 2025
• Arthur Ashe: 1990 and 1993 in singles, and the 2015 doubles group with Stan Smith
• Stan Smith: 1993 and 2015
• Bob and Mike Bryan: the doubles groups in 2020 and 2024

McEnroe’s name has also been on doubles groups three times, with Fleming in 2015 and 2016 and on its own in 2025, so 2026 is the fourth Finals in 12 years to carry it.

Season Snapshot — 13 November 2026

• John McEnroe Group: Alexander Zverev (1), Ben Shelton (3), Arthur Fils (6), Rafael Jodar (8)
• Ivan Lendl Group: Carlos Alcaraz (2), Daniil Medvedev (4), Flavio Cobolli (5), Frances Tiafoe (7)
• Todd Woodbridge Group: Harri Heliovaara/Henry Patten (1), Marcelo Arevalo/Mate Pavic (4), Theo Arribage/Albano Olivetti (6), Orlando Luz/Rafael Matos (8)
• Mark Woodforde Group: Christian Harrison/Neal Skupski (2), Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos (3), Simone Bolelli/Andrea Vavassori (5), Kevin Krawietz/Tim Puetz (7)
• Play begins on Sunday, 15 November, at the Inalpi Arena, and the final is on 22 November.
• Jannik Sinner is missing the event through injury; the changes to the field are tracked on our ATP Finals 2026 withdrawals page, and the rules for replacements in ATP Finals alternates explained.
• Four singles players are debutants: Cobolli, Fils, Tiafoe and Jodar. Seven men have won the title at their first attempt, as listed in ATP Finals debut winners.
• Heliovaara and Patten are the defending doubles champions and the top seeds, having already clinched year-end doubles No. 1. Doubles places are earned through the ATP doubles team rankings, and singles places through the Race to Turin.

This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.