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Tournament Preview:
The final Masters 1000 event of the season will once again host the game's best at the Paris Bercy. The 51st edition of the elite event will showcase 48 of the top players in the world, battling it out for a prestigious Masters 1000 title.
A surprising statistic heading into Paris this year remains that none of the top five seeds have ever captured the title in Bercy.
In fact, there are only four participating former champions in the draw, defending champ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko, Marat Safin, and Tomas Berdych.
Tsonga, who has dropped to the No. 11 position in the rankings, will need to defend his title in order to have a shot at qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour final in London.
Tsonga did suffer a left wrist injury last week in Valencia, forcing the Frenchman to withdraw in the first round.
Davydenko, who all but clinched his London spot with a solid performance in Valencia, will attempt to win the fourth Masters 1000 event of his career, after claiming his third title in Shanghai, China.
The final tournament of torn former No. 1 Safin will also take places this week, with the powerful Russian returning to his most successful Masters 1000 event, claiming the title in 2004, 2002, and 2000.
Berdych, who remains in the top 20 at No. 19, claimed his one and only Masters 1000 title in Paris, defeating Ivan Ljubicic in a five set thriller in 2005. Berdych remains an outside but solid candidate for the title his year.
The tournament, which boasts nine of the top 10 players in the world, lost world No. 6 Andy Roddick earlier in the week due to an ongoing knee injury. Roddick remains hopeful of participating at the Tour finale in London.
World No. 1 Roger Federer leads a deep field which consists of No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal, No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic, No. 4 seed Andy Murray and No. 5 seed Juan Martin del Potro.
The first-prize winner of the event will receive 450,000 euros and 1000 ATP World Tour points.
With the surface at Paris Bercy changing back to a hard court, the results throughout the event should remain more consistent. The previous carpet surface which the event was played on, provided a distinct advantage to a more powerful brand tennis.
With that mind, let's see how the top four seeds will shape up during the official final event of the season.
Federer quarter
Fresh off a glorious run in his native Basel, R-Fed returns to one of the few venues in the which he has not taken home the hardware.
In fact, Federer has yet to reach a semifinal in Bercy, falling in the quarterfinal stage on three occasions. The world No. 1 did not play the event last year, opting to rest a back injury.
Federer, who is undefeated in the quarter against the 11 players present, encounter a lone defeat to countryman and Olympic gold medal partner Stanislas Wawrinka at the Monte Carlo Masters earlier this season.
Federer is slated to meet Wawrinka in the third round, with No. 15 seed Gael Monfils being another formidable opponent along the way.
Monfils all but ended his chances at qualifying for the London finale with his loss to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Valencia last week.
Monfils is playing at home however and would like nothing more than to ignite the hometown fans with a productive end to the season.
Marin Cilic, who holds an outside chance at qualifying for London, could face Federer in the quarterfinals.
Cilic would likely have to defeat No. 7 seed Fernando Verdasco in the third round, but with the Spaniard all but qualifying for London with a stellar showing in Valencia last week, a sharp Cilic may be the best candidate for a showdown with Federer.
The top-ranked Swiss holds a week of rest between Paris and London, further exemplifying why he will likely surpass, or at least equal his best-ever quarterfinal finish in Bercy.
Barring a catastrophe of sorts, look for Federer to come out of this quarter with a keen outlook to his first Bercy title.
Pick: Federer
Nadal quarter
Playing in only his third Bercy event, the Spaniard comes into Paris in search of his first title since capturing his fifth straight Barcelona Open crown in the spring.
Nadal, a finalist at the Paris Indoors in 2007, has a tricky quarter which includes defending champ Tsonga, former champ Berdych, Gilles Simon, and countryman Tommy Robredo.
Tsonga would likely provide the stiffest resistance to Nadal claiming his seventh different Masters 1000 title. The Frenchman is playing hurt, but will use the electricity of his home country supporters to advance to the latter stages of the event.
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