For much of the ATP Tour, this marks the final week of the season. The Paris Masters offers some players the chance to go out with a bang, while for others it is an opportunity to prolong their 2017 campaigns with berths in the World Tour Finals. Additionally, this is a relatively up-for-grabs Masters 1000 tournament. A whole host of top guys have already been out for the year, Roger Federer is resting in between Basel and London, and just about everyone else has to be fatigued at the end of another long season. Chances are great that we will have a fist-time winner of this event. After all, the only former champions in the entire field are Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Ferrer.
Rolex Paris Masters
Where: Paris, France
Surface: Indoor hard
Prize money: 4,273,775 Euros
Points: 1000
Top seed: Rafael Nadal
2016 champion: Andy Murray (not playing)
Draw analysis: A World Tour Finals afterthought prior to last week, Lucas Pouille now has a shot at qualifying for the year-end championship. Even after triumphing in Vienna, the Frenchman still must reach at least the Paris final. But his draw may allow just that, because he took Federer’s place at the bottom of the bracket after the 36-year-old Swiss withdrew on Sunday. The other three seeds in that quarter are Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, and Jack Sock. Thiem and Sock have been slumping for several months and Anderson has cooled off since finishing runner-up at the U.S. Open.
Elsewhere in the bottom half, David Goffin is looking to cement his place in London. The Belgian is seventh in the race with a 280-point lead over Pablo Carreno Busta and at least a 360-point cushion over every other outside contender. Goffin, who won two titles on the Asian swing and appeared in the Basel semis, could run into Tsonga in the third round. Tsonga, a recent champion in Antwerp and runner-up in Vienna, must reach at least the Paris semifinals in order to punch a ticket to London.
Rafael Nadal headlines the field as the No. 1 seed and—with Federer out—almost certainly the year-end No. 1 player. Nadal’s top quarter also includes Carreno Busta and Sam Querrey, who are in serious London contention. They are on a collision course to go head-to-head in a massive third-round showdown that could potentially decide the last World Tour Finals spot.
Like Tsonga, Juan Martin Del Potro must make a run to at least the Paris semis if he envisions a trip to the O2 Arena. The recent Stockholm champion and Basel runner-up is in a tough section of the draw that also includes Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, and 2016 Paris finalist John Isner.
Second-round upset alert: Diego Schwartzman over (9) John Isner. Isner has the pressure of defending 600 points as the runner-up to Andy Murray last year. He may also have the misfortune of facing a red-hot Schwartzman in his opening match. Isner is more than a foot taller than the Argentine (6’10’’ to 5’7’’), but size does not necessarily matter. After all, the American lost to Dudi Sela at Wimbledon this summer—and Schwartzman is a much better player than Sela these days.
Hot: Rafael Nadal, David Goffin, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Juan Martin Del Potro, Lucas Pouille, Yuichi Sugita, Diego Schwartzman, Adrian Mannarino, Jan-Lennard Struff
Cold: Dominic Thiem, Jack Sock, Vasek Pospisil, Pablo Cuevas, Karen Khachanov, Jeremy Chardy
Quarterfinal predictions: Querrey over Nadal, Zverev over Schwartzman, Goffin over Cilic, and Pouille over Harrison
Semifinals: Zverev over Querrey and Goffin over Pouille
Final: Goffin over Zverev
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Comments and your own predictions are appreciated!
I see Querrey was beaten in his first match at Paris, he’s playing crappy tennis after USO, don’t know how he would beat Rafa playing like this.
OCTOBER 30, 2017 AT 1:10 AM, I already said:
Oh, and Rafa won’t lose to Querrey.
#TiredOfWinning
#OneDownThreeToGo
#HerbertWillWin
I add to My post AT 6:08 PM,
#Humb1e
S. Querrey played nonsense, Nadal would have crushed him.
Sometimes rafans belittle the importance of a tournament or make excuses for R. Nadal, but once he reaches the final or wins the title, boy! My oh my lol!
The celebration is crazy.
R. Nadal will do well in Paris but he might not win the title.
My Pick – Del potro will win
Semifinal: Delpo Vs Nadal – Delpo Wins
Final – cilic or pouille vs Delpo – Delpo wins
It’s possible but Delpo might be fatigued, he has reached the Finals in 2 of the last 5 tournaments he has played in, semifinals in 4 of his last 5 tourney.
Lot of tennis but it’s possible.
I hope Nadal loses in 3rd round. He needs to save himself for WTF.
R. Nadal wants to win Paris, if he wasn’t fit, he would have rested.
Rafito is fit and will be ready for WTF but he won’t win it, R. Federer will.
I said that I did not see Querrey beating Rafa. He didn’t even get there.
Yes, you said so.
Welp, Rafa unquestionably making the semis now, barring an epic fail. I didn’t think Querrey would have ultimately beaten Rafa, but he definitely would have had a puncher’s chance had he been good enough to meet Rafa. But now that he’s out, ain’t none of these other chumps even testing Rafa…
Yep. If Querrey qualified to that point of meeting Rafa, he would have put a much better performance than his 1st round fail. Players tend to motivate themselves better when playing against all time greats. Most likely he would have lost anyway. Zverev out, even a greater chance for Rafa not only to end y.n.1, but to distance himself from Fed.
However, this might come to a cost of not being very fresh at WTF, which makes me wonder if Rafa really wants to win Paris…
There’s a one week break between Paris and WTF; Rafa will be fine. Also, there’s a one day break between each RR match he plays at WTF; I doubt he’s very much affected playing Paris. If he plays Basel and Paris B2B then yes I think physically he may feel the strain.
Hope Chung does not surprise us all Tomorrow with great upset:). LOL!!!
A.Zverev loses to Haase ?! 🤔🤔🤔
Confusing…
Not from this trash-talking “troll”…
OCTOBER 30, 2017 AT 1:10 AM, I already said:
Neither Pouille nor Goffin will make semis and neither predicted finalists will make the finals.
Oh, and Rafa won’t lose to Querrey.
#SammyQOut
#SaschaZOut
#1.5Down2.5ToGo
#HerbertWillWin
#TiredOfWinning
#HowManyTimes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYzG9W_DhAU
I wouldn’t disagree with Zverev not making the semis or finals, but losing to Haase is surprising. I guess that Montreal title is already ‘enough’ for him.
Sasha is tired! I’ve already seen that in him in his earlier events. I know he’ll crash out early sooner or later. He has played > 70 matches this season, his young body needs time to adjust to such hectic schedule. He wasn’t doing all that well after the USO.
I was surprised when after winning Montreal, he decided to play Cinci… I mean why? He knew it’s highly unlikely to go deep. Why not save resources and try to win first grand slam. At least try…
He should have rested but when you are winning it’s hard to rest, you are inspired to win more.
I hope A. Zverev does well in WTF.
Well, I hope not against Fed. He can win against the rest though. I would avoid him at WTF from Roger’s perspective.
Lol😂😁😋😎🤗😂!
I like this guy.
he will certainly be well-rested!
Paris is a crap shoot. That’s my point.
#NothingNew
I was really hoping Rafa would skip Bercy. Throughout his career it has probably been his least successful tournament: he’s only ever made one final and that was ten years ago. On the other hand a good result here would be a big boost to his confidence going into the WTF.
and a bad result would give him more rest
And 1 win here can secure his No 1 too…
Goffin out LOL.
Two out of three…
As Hawkeye predicted with glee…
Pouille will flee…
And it’s congrats to Meeee!!!!
#Humb1e
Hawkeye OCTOBER 30, 2017 AT 1:10 AM
Neither Pouille nor Goffin will make semis and neither predicted finalists will make the finals.
Oh, and Rafa won’t lose to Querrey.
I just love Ricky’s predictions:
Semifinals: Zverev over Querrey and Goffin over Pouille
Final: Goffin over Zverev
Lol
He predicted a crapshoot. The tourney has still been a crapshoot just not in the way he expected. Aka Krajinovic and Benneteau are in the quarters.
Querry out.
Goffin out.
Pouille out.
CHECK, CHECK and CHECK!
Hawkeye predicted with glee…
And it’s congrats to Meeee!!!!
Hilarious!
(fsutomahawk’s definition of talking trash LOL.)
#HOWMANYTIMES?????
#Humb1e
#HerbertWillWin
Hawkeye OCTOBER 30, 2017 AT 1:10 AM
Neither Pouille nor Goffin will make semis and neither predicted finalists will make the finals.
Oh, and Rafa won’t lose to Querrey.
Only one of eight of NostraDimon’s predicted quarterfinalists made it.
In all seriousness though, I couldn’t do that poorly if I tried LOL.
#HerbertWillWin
1 right is very good for the last tournament of the season
Just yanking yer chain Ricky.
Herbert will win eventually.
Don’t you? 🙂
“Humble”….