Frantic Push For Final Milan Spots This Week

DAVID PINTENS/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images

A host of #NextGenATP stars will this week battle for the final spots at the eight-player Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals as the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan concludes Sunday.

Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Jack Draper, Brandon Nakashima and Jiri Lehecka have already qualified for the 21-and-under event. Who will join them at the Allianz Cloud in Milan? Chun-Hsin Tseng, Francesco Passaro and Dominic Stricker lead the hunt to claim the remaining places.

View Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Milan

Tseng of Chinese Taipei has 490 points, but is not in action this week. The 21-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season, clinching two ATP Challenger Tour titles and earning his first ATP Tour win in Los Cabos.

Italian Passaro will be looking to make his debut in Milan, where he could join his countryman Musetti. The 21-year-old has 473 points, 51 points clear of 10th-placed Dominic Stricker (422 points). The Swiss lefty is competing on home soil at the ATP 500 event in Basel, where he will face American Maxime Cressy in the first round.

Italians Matteo Arnaldi and Luca Nardi will be ready to pounce should Stricker fall early at the tour-level event. The 11th-placed Arnaldi (401 points) is the sixth seed at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, while 12th-placed Nardi (385 points) will play in Ortisei. Arnaldi has won one ATP Challenger Tour crown this year, with Nardi triumphing at three events at that level.

Filip Misolic (376 points), Timofey Skatov (373 points) and Mattia Bellucci (362 points) are also still in contention. Bellucci has lifted Challenger trophies in each of the past two weeks.