Next Gen ATP Finals 2022 tiebreak rules: How does the tiebreak work?

Since the beginning of the Next Generation ATP Finals, the Association of Tennis Professionals decided to make this tournament one-of-a-kind. First, with the participants, who have to be at most 21 years old or younger to participate, as well as top-ranked. However, there are two alternates in case something like Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner happens, when they withdrew from the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals.

Another major change from a regular tennis tournament is the format. The Next Gen ATP Finals gameplay setting is a round-robin two-group setting, in which the eight best players are divided into. For this year's edition, Brandon Nakashima, Jiri Lehecka, Franceso Passaro, and Matteo Arnaldi were drawn to the Green Group. While, Lorenzo Musetti, Jack Draper, Chun-Hsin Tseng, and Dominic Stricker were drawn to the Red Group. 

Each player will have to compete in three games, so the best two of each group will advance to the semifinals round, and eventually to the final game. There are other major changes like a shot clock to ensure 25-second rule, No-Ad scoring after a 40-40 score, as well as a pregame warmup of 4 minutes after the second player has entered the court. Other minor changes like coaches can talk to players, as well as people moving around during playing time. However, this article will cover both the set-format as well as the tiebreak rules for this tournament.

2022 Next Gen ATP Finals: Why is the match-decider up to 7 points?

In order to ensure tennis games are shorter for a five-day tournament, both the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Italian Tennis Federation as well as the Italian Olympic Comitee decided the games were to last only four games per set. In case of tie, there will be a 7-point tiebreak, in which the game winner will be decided. 

For example, in case of a 3-3 game scoring tie in a set, the winner of the following tiebreak will be the winner of the set. The first player to win three sets not necessarily in a row, in a best-of-five set game, will be declared the winner of the game. 

However, in the round-robin stage, the loser of the match won't be eliminated. In fact, he will have at least two extra games to win in order to qualify for the semifinals stage, as one of the best four players of the group stage.