Djokovic wins in Paris; Davydenko and Verdasco head to London

ATP World Tour

The 2009 Masters 1000 season came to a close in Paris with Novak Djokovic claiming the title with a hard fought 6-2 5-7 7-6(7-3) final victory over home favourite Gael Monfils.

Djokovic now has five different Masters 1000 titles: Miami 2007, Montreal 2007, Indian Wells 2008, Rome 2008 and Paris 2009.

The 22 year-old Serb fought past ninth seeded Robin Soderling in the quarter finals before hitting top form to over power Australian Open Champion Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-3 in the semi-finals. It was the 20th meeting between the pair; Nadal now leads the series 14-6.

Djokovic’s five previous victories over Nadal had all come on North American hard courts.

The world number three was appearing in his tenth final of the year – the most on tour – but had lost the four Masters 1000 finals he had reached during the year. The Serb also leads the tour with 76 match wins and 94 matches played so far in 2009.

Djokovic is on course to become the first man to finish three consecutive seasons ranked at number three.
 

2009 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Finals

16th seed Monfils was appearing in his first Masters 1000 final and was aiming to become the fourth French winner in the event’s 23 year history after Guy Forget (1991), Sebastien Grosjean (2001) and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (2008). The 23 year-old broke into the top 10 early in 2009, reaching a career high of ninth on March 2nd.

Monfils would have become the 56th different Masters 1000 title winner since 1990.

Nadal had been aiming to pick up his first title since May and endured an eventful week before his defeat to Djokovic. The Spaniard had survived five match points against compatriot Nicholas Almagro in his first match and was two points from defeat against another Spaniard Tommy Robredo in round three.

Nadal has only lost five times to fellow Spaniards since 2004 – Carlos Moya at Miami 2006, Juan Carlos Ferrero at Cincinnati 2006, David Ferrer at 2007 US Open, Ferrer at 2007 Masters Cup and Ferrero at Rome 2008.

The second seed was impressive in ending Tsonga’s reign as Champion with a 7-5 7-5 win in the quarter finals. Nadal will now head to the ATP World Tour Finals with a chance of usurping Roger Federer to end 2009 as world number one. Federer was upset in three sets by Frenchman Julian Benneteau in his first match.

Federer has never progressed past the quarter finals in Paris in seven appearances.

Going into the week seven players were still in contention for the final two places at the World Tour Finals. After the quarter finals were completed it was Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco who booked their places at the prestigious season ending event.

Davydenko lost 3-6 6-3 4-6 to Soderling in the third round but had his London berth confirmed after Verdasco lost his third round meeting with Marin Cilic. Soderling and Tsonga still had a chance of taking the final spot heading into their respective quarter finals; Verdasco’s participation in London was assured after both players lost.

In 2008 the battle for the final Masters Cup spot went down to the wire with Tsonga and David Nalbandian playing a ‘winner-takes-all’ Paris Masters final.

Paris also brought down the curtain on the careers of Marat Safin and Fabrice Santoro. Three-time Paris Champion Safin ended his 13 year professional career by saving three match points against Frenchman Thierry Ascione before losing in three sets in the second round to US Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro.

Former US Open and Australian Open Champion Safin retires with a career win loss record of 422-267 in singles.

Santoro signed off with a straight sets defeat to former world number four James Blake in the first round. The 36 year-old, affectionately nicknamed ‘The Magician’, won 6 singles titles and 24 doubles titles during his 21 year professional career.

Santoro won the Australian Open doubles title with compatriot Michael Llodra in 2003 and 2004.

The doubles title in Paris went to the top seeded pair of Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic who defeated Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Tommy Robredo in the final.  Having lost their first two finals of 2009; the duo have now won their last nine. They head to London with an 830 points lead over Bob and Mike Bryan in the race to the end the year as number one.

Nestor has won 64 career titles – the most among active players – whilst Zimonjic has 32.

The Polish partnership of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matowski sealed the final spot in the doubles field for London by upsetting the Bryan twins 6-4 7-6 (9-7) in the quarter finals.

ITF / Challenger circuit

Fifteen year-old Laura Robson reached the quarter finals of the $50k event in Minsk, Belarus. The 2008 Wimbledon Junior Champion brushed aside her first two opponents for the loss of nine games before falling in straight sets to fourth seeded Russian Vitalia Diatchenko. British number four Mel South went down in two tight sets to Lyudmyla Kichenok in the first round.

Jamie Baker continued his impressive run of form by coming through qualifying at the $50k ATP Challenger in Knoxville, Tennessee. The 23 year-old did not drop a set in his first four matches before going down 2-6 5-7 to eventual champion Taylor Dent in the last 16.

Baker has won 33 of his last 39 matches going back to mid August.

British No.7 Jade Curtis progressed to the semi-finals of the $10k AEGON Pro-Series event at Jersey’s Les Ormes Indoor Tennis Centre. The second seed from Cornwall dropped only one set en route to the last four before falling to eventual Champion Matea Mezak from Croatia.

Curtis achieved a career high singles ranking of 335 on June 22nd this year. 

This week on Tour

The 2009 Wheelchair Tennis season culminates this week with the 16th NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters at Amsterdam’s Frans Otten Stadium. The world’s top eight men and women will compete in round-robin groups in the early stages of the event. The quad event, introduced in 2004, will be contested by the world’s top four quad players.

Two-time Paralympic champion Peter Norfolk from Hampshire will be aiming for his second NEC Masters title, having won the prestigious event for the first time in 2006.  Should Norfolk take the quad singles Masters title this week he will finish as the year-end world No 1 ranked quad player for the fifth time in seven seasons.

Norfolk has won an impressive total of 16 major Wheelchair titles.

Meanwhile in the women’s event, world number one Esther Vergeer will be bidding for a staggering 12th consecutive women’s singles title at the NEC Masters.

Vergeer is on a 378 match winning streak since her last loss in January 2003. 

Next week on Tour

The ATP World Tour Finals kick off at London’s 02 Arena on Sunday 22nd November. Packed crowds at the 23,000 venue will enjoy an exciting eight days of tennis with the top eight singles players and doubles pairs of 2009 battling it out for the prestigious titles. 

In both events the players will be split into two round robin groups with the top two players/pairs progressing through to the knock-out stages.

Singles Event

* Nadal qualified in 2005 and 2008 but did not play due to injury

** Roddick qualified in 2005 but did not play due to injury

Battle for Number One

Heading into London Federer has a 945 point advantage over Nadal. With 1,500 points on offer for an undefeated winner, Nadal has a mathematical chance of ending the year ahead of Federer to take the title of ATP World Tour Champion for the second successive year. Below are some of the possible scenarios that may play out at the 02.

If Nadal becomes undefeated champion at the ATP World Tour Finals (winning all-three round-robin matches, a semi-final and final) he will earn the maximum 1,500 points. If that happens, Federer would need to either win all three round-robin matches OR reach the final to prevent Nadal becoming the 2009 ATP World Tour Champion.

If Nadal achieves a 2-1 record from the group stages and goes on to take the title he will earn 1,300 points. Should this happen Federer would have to either win two round-robin matches OR win one round-robin match and reach the final in order to finish the year at the top.

If Nadal is undefeated in his round-robin group (3-0), wins his semi-final but then is beaten in the final he will earn 1,000 points. If this were to happen, Federer would only need to win one round-robin match to finish ahead of Nadal and become 2009 ATP World Tour Champion.

Doubles event

Knowles and Nestor won the title together in 2007. Mirnyi won the title in 2006 with partner Jonas Bjorkman. Ram qualified in 2007 with partner Jonathan Erlich.

There will be match by match coverage of the ATP World Tour Finals on the website. 

For more information in the build up to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals

Movers and Shakers

The only change in the ATP top ten sees Soderling move past Tsonga to a new career high of ninth. Both players are expected to travel to London as alternates for the World Tour Finals.

Dan Evans becomes British number four for the first time in this week’s rankings.  Jamie Baker has increased his ranking again and now lies at 330, just outside the British top five.
 

ATP rankings 16/11/2009

• 1. Roger Federer (SUI)
• 2. Rafael Nadal (ESP)
• 3. Novak Djokovic (SER)
• 4. Andy Murray (GB)
• 5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)
• 6. Andy Roddick (US)
• 7. Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)
• 8. Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
• 9. Robin Soderling (SWE)
• 10. Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (FRA)

Top Brits

• 4.     Andy Murray
• 175. Alex Bogdanovic
• 252. James Ward
• 281. Dan Evans
• 326. Josh Goodall

WTA rankings 16/11/2009

• 1. Serena Williams (US)
• 2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
• 3. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
• 4. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
• 5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
• 6. Venus Williams (US)
• 7. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
• 8. Jelena Jankovic (SER)
• 9. Vera Zvonareva (SER)
• 10. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)

Top Brits

• 88. Katie O’Brien
• 89. Elena Baltacha
• 98. Anne Keothavong 
• 158. Mel South
• 206. Naomi Cavaday

The World News piece will be taking a break next week but will return in two weeks times with more news and stats from the world of professional tennis.

• 2010 Australian Open Preview
• ATP Players of the Year
• WTA Players of the Year
• Nadal leads Spain to Davis Cup Glory
• Brilliant Davydenko takes ATP World Tour Finals Title
• Murray back with a bang, Djokovic wins in Basel
• Sensational Serena seals WTA Championship
• Week of upsets sees titles for Baghdatis, Youzhny, Schiavone and Bacsinszky
• Red hot Davydenko beats Nadal for Shanghai Masters Crown
• Asian success for Djokovic, Kuznetsova and Tsonga
• Davydenko and Simon claim titles as race to London heats up
• Dream week in Seoul for veteran Date Krumm
• US Open Review
• US Open Week One
• Querrey & Dementieva clinch US Open Series
• Fed moves up a gear ahead of US Open
• Magnificent Murray reaches No.2
• Hard court season in full swing as Roddick joins 500 club
• Injury, revenge, first-time winners and British success
• Fed sets new records