There is always a calm after the storm that is the U.S. Open, as the fall swing struggles to get going in advance of Masters 1000 events in Shanghai and Paris followed by the season-ending World Tour Finals. Of course, this year there was a little bit more on the immediate post-U.S. Open menu. The inaugural Laver Cup thrilled fans in Prague, where Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Nick Kyrgios, and John Isner were among the participants.
Now the more standard ATP Tour action has resumed, with unheralded 250-point tournaments in Chengu and Shenzhen taking place. Only two top 10 players entered those events, and just one remains (Thiem lost his Shenzhen opener to Guido Pella, while Zverev is still alive in the Chengdu quarterfinals). Find Online Tennis Betting Odds for Chengdu and Shenzhen.
The Japan Open and China Open, both worth 500 points, are on next week’s more intriguing schedule. Nadal, Thiem, Zverev, Isner, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Grigor Dimitrov, and Marin Cilic are among those expected to participate.
The Shanghai Masters begins on Oct. 8, followed by Basel two weeks after that and Paris a week later. There is one week off in between Paris and the World Tour Finals in London.
There is still much to play for in terms of year-end ranking. Nadal’s lead on Federer for No. 1 is just about at 2,000 points thanks to the Spaniard’s recent Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open. The 36-year-old certainly has a mathematical chance to overtake Nadal prior to season’s end, but he would likely have to win two out of the big three tournaments in Shanghai, Paris, and London.
If Federer feels like he has no chance at No. 1, Paris may be scrapped from his schedule.
“Next weeks will be extremely important with Shanghai, Basel, maybe Paris, and ATP Finals in London,” the Swiss noted. “My goal is to get to Shanghai early, maybe on Friday. Basel will take priority over Bercy. [The year-end world No. 1 ranking] became a little bit secondary for me as Nadal got far away. I will focus on myself and I will play only when I am ready.”
Only Nadal and Federer have clinched spots in the elite eight-man field at the year-end championship. If it ended now, Zverev, Thiem, Dimitrov, Cilic, Pablo Carreno Busta, and Sam Querrey would also make the cut.
don’t think Fed will pass Nadal even if he plays everything
yup
Both were poor in laver cup.
Rafa fh was pathetic and the amount of errors he made off that wing in owner match was shocking. At 1 point it was 5 in a row.
Fed’s bh was also very poor and like his old bh just slicing it or chipping it and wonder where that over the top bh disappeared ?
However if you compare the 2, fed was better at laver.
Well this surface favors Fed. But he still has an extremely low chance of taking number one which is why he should skip Bercy to give himself the best shot at winning in London.
Have to agree. But over the years one has also learnt it is foolish to ever count Federer out of the equation. He has an uncanny way of proving us wrong.
Have never been a fan of the ‘walking wounded’ tournament otherwise known as the WTF but would live to see Rafa add that missing title to his c.v. before he finally hangs up his racquet.
#Wishful thinking
Easy 1500 points for #TheMaestro.
Will hate to see Fed extend his current winning streak of four over Rafa after bailing on clay and USO semi where Rafa would have certainly restored his dominant H2H over Fed from the current “still-quite-laughably-lopsided” to the previously glorious “whose-my-Daddy-walk-of-shame”.
Roger Federer sets question mark on his appearance in Paris Bercy event
27 Sep 2017 – View: 2156
by Gatto Luigi
Roger Federer will have a busy final part of the season. The Swiss player will play his next tournament in Shanghai, the Masters 1000 event that he won in 2014 defeating Gilles Simon in the final. In July Federer featured in a funny spot promoting the event in Chinese language.
Then the 19-time Grand Slam champion will be in Basel, where he will bid to win his eighth title and the first one since 2015. He also lost three finals there. And then there is a big question mark, Paris Bercy, where he may not play if he will go far in Basel and will still be out of Race to No.
1 spot in the ATP Rankings. Federer is World No. 2 and has 1,960 points less than Rafael Nadal, who will play five events by now until the end of the season. His final event will be ATP World Tour Finals in London which starts on 12 November.
‘Next weeks will be extremely important with Shanghai, Basel, maybe Paris and ATP Finals in London My goal is to get to Shanghai early, maybe on Friday. Basel will take priority over Bercy’, revealed Federer last week during Laver Cup men’s tennis event in Prague.
http://www.tennisworldusa.org/tennis/news/Roger_Federer/47729/roger-federer-sets-question-mark-on-his-appearance-in-paris-bercy-event/
Agree on the WTFs, it always seems more of a punishment after a long season, many of the usual suspects qualify earlier in the year, and the rest seem to kill themselves trying to get there, and seem too spent to make much of an impression anyway, and it seems to be the most predictable ones that make the final and win the thing with the odd exception, then theres the format with its lose matches, and can still win the whole thing ….
Having said that, its still important to a players resume so i would love for Rafa to win it to complete the set, but like Ed im not too hopeful though ….
Oh, and I do like the ATP WTF. Maybe not quite as exciting this year for me without Novak and Andy, tho.
Hi RC its great having TG up and running again, missed you girl 🙂
Anyone knows where all moya will be joining rafa now the last 2 months…I will be optimistic only when moya is around…rafa has done well mostly in tourneys moya was with him.
Just hope Rafa loses early in Beijing to save energy. One of the crappiest tourneys .
He has got such a tough draw. Ripe chance he will go out soon . Pouille in first round itself (:-
That will be better for him. He was out early in Montreal and Cincy and he looked real fresh against DelPo and Anderson. Nobody remmebers Masters1000 let alone crap Beijing.