Carlos Alcaraz concluded his official 2025 schedule as the ATP year-end No. 1, finishing the season with a tour-high 71 match wins, eight trophies and two Grand Slam titles that increased his career total to six. The 22-year-old did not play for Spain in last week’s Davis Cup Final 8 because of pain in his right hamstring.

Despite declaring that the tour calendar asks too much of players and leaves too little offseason time, Alcaraz is signed for two exhibition singles matches in December: against Frances Tiafoe at Prudential Center in Newark on Dec. 7 and against João Fonseca at loanDepot Park in Miami on Dec. 8. Those events will also include a singles meeting between Jessica Pegula and Amanda Anisimova plus mixed doubles elements.

Alcaraz addressed the apparent contradiction between criticizing the calendar and agreeing to exhibitions, saying: “First of all, it’s normal that people think that way and they don’t understand why we’re complaining about the calendar and then we set up the exhibition matches,” Alcaraz told The Associated Press. “But for me, the main difference is that, at a tournament, you’ve got to keep your focus and it’s really physically and mentally demanding for one week and a half. And an exhibition is just one day. You just stay focused, just warm up, just practice not that much—for one match.”

The exhibition stops are notable for taking professional tennis into venues that have not previously hosted the sport, including the home of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the home of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins.

Ross Hutchins, the International Tennis Federation chief who oversees the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup, defended such events and the interest they generate. “We have cities, governments, locations, individuals, entrepreneurs, federations that just want more tennis. Everyone wants more tennis, and the sport is growing and growing and growing with its appeal. So we’re in a fortunate situation at the moment,” Hutchins said. “It’s difficult to say it’s bad for players to play in a new location,” he added, “and it’s difficult to criticize the players for doing so because of the dynamics that they’re in” as independent contractors who “never know when your form is going to drop or what injury might hit.”

Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev closed out 2025 with one more unexpected encounter — this time in the skies. After Germany were eliminated at the semifinal stage of the Davis Cup Finals, Zverev posted an Instagram story showing the two players together and a smiling selfie with the caption “It’s Maldives season for everyone, huh?”

The social post followed a busy finish to the year on court. The year-end world No. 2 and No. 3 met four times in 2025, three of those meetings coming in the final four weeks of the season, and Sinner won each of those matches. Their penultimate meeting came in Vienna, where Sinner prevailed 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. After that match, the German told the Italian that “currently, for me, you’re the best player in the world,” even though Sinner ultimately surrendered the year-end No. 1 ranking to Carlos Alcaraz.

Zverev offered public praise as the season wound down. “I’d like to congratulate Jannik, whose level has been off the charts these last two years,” Zverev added, praising Sinner for “an amazing year” even before he became just the ninth man to defend a year-end championship since the ATP Finals began in 1970.

The Maldives post also reflects a broader trend among players unplugging ahead of 2026. Zverev referenced the destination’s growing offseason appeal just as other players have taken time away, with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko and doubles year-end No. 1 Katerina Siniakova all noted among those who have spent time there this offseason.

The image accompanying Zverev’s story was credited © 2025 Stefano Guidi. The shared flight is a light-footed coda to a year that repeatedly brought the two into close competition, both on the scoreboard and, apparently, on the same itinerary.

Italy completed a 2-0 victory over Spain to claim the 2025 Davis Cup, and Flavio Cobolli emerged as the deciding presence in a final that could have looked very different on paper. With Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz absent from the tie in Bologna, the title was settled by a match between 22nd-ranked Flavio Cobolli and 36th-ranked Jaume Munar.

Matteo Berrettini opened with an efficient straight-sets win over Pablo Carreño Busta, his 11th straight Cup victory and a week in which he did not drop a set. That set the stage for Cobolli to deliver the evening’s drama.

Cobolli arrived at the final having produced one of the year’s most extraordinary wins in the semifinal. In a 32-point deciding tiebreaker he saved seven match points while Zizou Bergs saved six, before Bergs finally, tearfully capitulating.

“It’s impossible to describe this feeling. I dreamed a lot for this night. … I found something in my body, in my heart. I gave everything for this team. Flavio Cobolli

Against Munar, the Spaniard began strongly, taking the first set 6-1 and breaking to start the second. Munar attacked second serves and hit a defensive lob while turned away from the court that led to a forehand winner. From the sideline, Barry Cowan called Munar’s level “Top 10 tennis.”

At 1-0 in the second, Munar reached game point but double-faulted to make it deuce. Cobolli seized the small opening, produced his best passing shot of the day, and after a break for a fan illness, broke again with a volley that clipped the tape and dropped over for a winner. He steadied, then built control with an inside-out forehand and an imposing smash.

The match turned in the second-set tiebreaker, which Cobolli won after a string of punishing rallies. Munar finally cracked in the 11th game of the third, when Cobolli broke at 5-5 and then held at love with a crosscourt inside-out forehand to clinch the Cup.

“It’s impossible to describe this feeling. I dreamed a lot for this night. I played an amazing match,” the 23-year-old said. “At the end I looked a little bit at my bench, I found something in my body, in my heart. I gave everything for this team.

“We cannot lose for our country. Sometimes you learn, but you can never lose if you give it all, what you have in your heart.”