By Chris Oddo | Monday, October 13, 2014
With only three weeks of tennis left before the World Tour Finals, the races are heating up to a boil.
Photo Source: World Tour Finals
With just three weeks of tennis to go and four spots for the ATP World Tour Finals still up for grabs, the ATP tournaments should be pretty exciting to watch when it comes to race implications.
Shanghai: Federer Claims 23rd Masters Title
This week, a trio of 250-level events will take place in Moscow, Vienna and Stockholm (with seven of the nine players in the hunt for the last four spots in action), followed by two 500-level events in Basel and Valencia the next week, and the year’s final Masters 1000 event in Paris the week after that.
Here’s a list of the players with a shot (and for some of them, like Tsonga and Gulbis it’s a very long shot):
|
Rank
|
Player
|
Two Lowest 250 or 500’s
|
Points
|
|
1.
|
Djokovic
|
Qualified
|
9010
|
|
2.
|
Federer
|
Qualified
|
8020
|
|
3.
|
Nadal
|
Qualified
|
6745
|
|
4.
|
Wawrinka
|
Qualified
|
4805
|
|
5.
|
Nishikori
|
90,90
|
4265
|
|
6.
|
Cilic
|
90, 90
|
3990
|
|
7.
|
Berdych
|
90,150
|
3945
|
|
8.
|
Raonic
|
0,15
|
3750
|
|
9.
|
Ferrer
|
90,90
|
3715
|
|
10.
|
Murray
|
20,90
|
3655
|
|
11.
|
Dimitrov
|
45,90
|
3450
|
|
12.
|
Tsonga
|
45,45
|
2650
|
|
13.
|
Gulbis
|
90,90
|
2455
|
It’s important to note that players are only allowed their best six scores from ATP 500 and 250-level events, and all players already have fulfilled their quotas in this regard so they have to essentially replace and surpass points they’ve already earned to improve their standing at this point in the season.
This means a lot to a player like David Ferrer, who must reach the final in Vienna (he took a wild card to go for just that) in order to see any gain, especially when we consider that Milos Raonic has a 0 on the board and can therefore add all the points he earns this week to his score.
Though it might seem difficult for Ferrer and Andy Murray and Grigor Dimitrov, who are all on the outside looking in at the moment, the good news is that there is one Masters lingering on the calendar, and whichever players stay close enough could strike by putting up a big performance (semis = 360, finals = 600, title = 1000) in Paris.
There’s lots of tennis to play—and lots to play for—in the next three weeks, but make no mistake, it will take a big effort by any of the players outside the top eight right now to make the cut. Which one do you think can make it?
This Week’s Action
Vienna: Ferrer and Murray have both taken wild cards into the event. They are the top two seeds
Draw here
Moscow: Raonic (1), Cilic (2) and Gulbis (3) are the top three seeds.
Draw here
Stockholm: Berdych (1) and Dimitrov (2) are the top two seeds.
Draw here