London is calling Gael Monfils. The Frenchman officially clinched a spot in the World Tour Finals when Tomas Berdych fell in round one of the Erste Bank Open to Nikoloz Basilashvili on Monday. It will mark Monfils’ first-ever appearance in the year-end championship.
Monfils’ march to London was fueled by the most important title of his career in Washington, D.C., runner-up finishes in Monte-Carlo and Rotterdam, a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open, and a semifinal performance at the U.S. Open.
He has apparently not yet felt inclined to weigh in on the matter, instead leaving his Twitter account to his beloved basketball:
Berdych can still overtake Monfils in the 2016 race if the Czech wins the title at next week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. But the math is such that no more than two of the contenders immediately behind Monfils can pass him prior to London. For example, Berdych winning Paris would not leave enough points available to the likes of Dominic Thiem, David Goffin, and Marin Cilic.
Rafael Nadal, who is seventh in the race, has announced that his season is over. That means Thiem is the true No. 7 with Berdych still assuming the all-important eighth spot. Goffin is within 200 points of Berdych and it has already been a productive week for the Belgian, who saw his rival go down on Monday in Vienna before he took care of Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets at the Swiss Indoors Basel one day later.
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