Latest report from Paris

You can read my latest article here:

http://thetennistimes.com/bnp-paribas-masters-day-4/

Don't forget to have a look at my photos too:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clare2904/

Day 3 in Paris

My latest article is up along with more photos.

Enjoy

http://thetennistimes.com/bnp-paribas-masters-day-3/

My Paris Reports

I am here in Paris and I have published my first report. You can read it here:

http://thetennistimes.com/bnp-paribas-paris-masters-draw-day-1-day-2-report/

A link to my photos is at the bottom. I hope you all enjoy.

:-)

Rafael Nadal - Non Paris :(

Well thanks Rafa :( I decide to go back to Bercy after 3 years, I get myself Press Accreditation and what do you go and do, pull out!

I have no idea why, I saw the first line of the FB announcement and stopped reading, I was too mad to continue. For me this just shows you how fragile Rafa is right now. Fast indoor courts are not this thing and he is not wanted to take a beating like Shanghai right before London. Some may say that is totally fine but for me, and not just because I am now in Paris, it proves to me why I can't say Rafael Nadal along side the very best this sport has produced. Yes he is a great tennis player but his lack of fast court tennis victories shows that.

Sorry if all these sounds harsh but right now I am mad, mad that he has ducked the challenge, mad that I would be able to attend one of his press conferences, mad that I won't see him play. I'll pick myself up now and go eat a croissant :-)

Rafael Nadal - Getting Ready for Paris

Courtesy: VamosRafelNadal

Rafael Nadal - Paris Press Accreditation

Hi

Remember that I have a press pass for Paris and will be able to attend the press conferences etc. This will give me a chance to get up and close to the players.

If anyone has a question they would like me to put to Rafa please leave it here and I will do my best to get an answer.

Thanks

Very Special Announcement

Fellow tennis fans, I have some fantastic news.

I have received Press Accreditation for the Paris Masters next month :-)

How great is that? I shall be working for The Tennis Times but don't worry, everything I write will be linked here.

This is a great opportunity to get up close to the players and find out what really goes on behind the scenes at a tennis tournament.

I welcome any suggestions for articles.

Thanks

Clare

Monfils' Paris Masters run evokes creative essence of French tennis

As always, it was a matter of style. Gael Monfils plays to win, naturally, but he also plays to entertain, to dazzle, to perform in the truest sense. As much as Robin Soderling needed a victory to join the list of this year's significant performances, the Paris Masters was mostly about Monfils, who stormed past Fernando Verdasco, Andy Murray and then Roger Federer in his march to the finals.
It was a treat to witness, via the Tennis Channel, a joy to behold. And as Monfils dismantled that fine Swiss machinery known as Federer's game, I wondered (not for the first time): Where would we be without the French?
Quickly comes the cynic: "We'd be right here, pal. What else you got?"
But wait; just hold on a second. I won't argue that the sport of tennis would survive unscathed without French influence, particularly in modern times. Over the course of recent years, how many of their players have really come through when it counts? That's not the argument, though. For me, so much of tennis is about flair, a bit of wit and whimsy, the element of character. In that realm, the French are unsurpassed. Come to think of it, no other country even comes close.
Just for starters, the French invented tennis style. To quote Bud Collins on the great Suzanne Lenglen, who burst onto the scene in the early 1920s: "In the days of ground-length tennis dresses, Lenglen played at Wimbledon with her dress cut just above the calf. She wept openly during matches, pouted and sipped brandy between sets. Some called her shocking and indecent, but she was merely ahead of her time. She became easily the greatest drawing card tennis had known. Along with a magnetic personality, personality, grace and style, she was the best woman player the world had seen."
And let me just say that any time a player stops for a sip of brandy in mid-match, I'm right there with a refill on request.
In a splendid bit of historical symmetry, the fabled "Musketeers" happened to be the mainstays of French men's tennis during Lenglen's time. Henri Cochet was a magician on court, a mastery of timing and finesse, and he ended Bill Tilden's six-year, 42-match winning streak at the U.S. Championships in 1926. Rene Lacoste was more of a self-made player, relying on smart-money tactics and supreme knowledge of the opposition. Jean Borotra was a dashing, cosmopolitan sort who enlivened every party and carved out more than his share of history on court. Together, the trio won every French title between 1925 and 1932; three more at the U.S. Championships, and an astounding six straight Wimbledon titles between 1924 and '29, in addition to countless heroics in Davis Cup competition.
(There was a fourth Musketeer, Jacques Brugnon, somewhat diminished in the historical context because his greatest accomplishments were in doubles.)
In his book, Behind the Scenes at Wimbledon, former Wimbledon secretary Duncan Macaulay wrote, "They were all very different in style and temperament, and they sometimes clashed bitterly with one another on the courts. But whenever they were playing for France, they always put France first. Thus it was the combined pressure of Lacoste and Cochet which began to rock the great Bill Tilden on his pedestal and finally toppled him off it."
It was difficult to match the Roaring Twenties for essential French panache, and a titanic lull ensued, but in the years I've been following tennis, the French have constantly been at the top of my must-watch list. At my very first Wimbledon, 1987, I had the pleasure of watching Henri Leconte -- nutty showman, pure shotmaker, consummate entertainer -- dispatch the young Andre Agassi with such authority, Agassi went into a shell-shocked Wimbledon retreat for a spell.
After a few go-rounds watching Yannick Noah play the majors, I happily latched onto his mystique. I'll never forget one of my female friends, sometime in the early 80s, saying, "With this guy, I don't even care if he wins or loses. I just like watching him. He's so cool." It was a great moment for mankind when Noah won the 1983 French Open -- thus becoming the first French man to win the singles title since 1946 -- and the cosmopolitan community rejoiced when Noah danced so joyously around the court after captaining the 1991 French Davis Cup team to a stunning upset over the United States.
It goes on, always with a nod to aesthetics. Richard Gasquet may be a total flake (cocaine kiss, my shoe), but his one-hand backhand is a thing of majestic beauty. I've seen few athletes more formidable in women's tennis than Amelie Mauresmo, who had great courage and humility to match. In an era of dreadfully tedious baseliners, she played the game in the manner it was designed: with imagination, with a sense of risk, and with pure elegance. Fabrice Santoro, who recently retired from the men's tour, had roughly 16 shot variations at his disposal each time he addressed the ball; such was the endless well of his arsenal. And we should never forget Michael Llodra, a whimsical sort (he once climbed naked into Ivan Ljubicic's locker, just for the delightful element of surprise) whose serve-and-volley attack was such a refreshing tonic to baseline monotony all year.
Monfils definitely belongs in a French category all his own. He attempts shots that are clearly beyond reason. He contorts his body into positions that leave him more stifled than a mummy. But as we watch him, we see the work in progress: the wild colt being tamed, the brazen rebel gaining a sense of purpose. There aren't many players who combine world-class serving and baseline power with imagination and defensive brilliance, and that's what carried Monfils to his 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 victory over Federer last Saturday, fighting off five match points in the process.
In the end, the Paris Masters' chief storyline may have been Federer, trapped in a year-long (if sporadic) malaise of botched forehands and blown match points. It was the rugged endurance of Soderling, and the fact that Monfils, standing on the precipice of a career moment, simply ran out of steam. Ask the Parisians, though, what this tournament was about. It was about a long, lanky, wild-haired local favorite, a man whose creative performances represented the essence of French tennis and its great tradition. Such memories tend to linger.

Courtesy: SI.Com

Paris Masters match highlights & post match interviews

Match highlights

http://www.tennistv.com/page/Video/0,,11444~1698765,00.html

Post match interviews

Runner up Monfils

http://www.tennistv.com/page/Video/0,,11444~1698715,00.html

Winner Soderling

http://www.tennistv.com/page/Video/0,,11444~1698722,00.html

Paris Masters Final

A slight anti-climax to the tournament.

I only half watched as i was more interested in the F1 finale and that provided more drama than what was served up in Paris.

Gael did not step up and i wonder what the point of that fightback against Roger was all for. Did that previous match take it all out of him? Why did the crowd not carry him more?

Can't take anything away from  Robin though, he knew what he had to do and he went out there and did it. In the process he has secured the #4 ranking which will make the draw for London a little bit more interesting.

Match reports

Sky Sports
ATP
ESPN
Bettor

So it au revoir from Paris, roll on London!!!

Paris Masters Final Preview

After thrilling semi-final matches in which they saved match points to win, Robin Soderling and Gael Monfils are the last two players standing at the BNP Paribas Masters, and they will duke it out Sunday, both hoping to win their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown. This is the first time both finalists at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament are looking for their first Masters 1000 title since Paris in 2006 when Nikolay Davydneko beat Dominik Hrbaty in the final.

Soderling leads the head-to-head series, 2-0, recording routine straight-set wins against Monfils in Milan in 2005 and Valencia last week (both indoors). In last week's quarter-final match, Soderling broke three times (once in the first set, twice in the second set) and never faced a break point while winning 63 62 in 54 minutes.

Soderling, the No. 4 seed, saved three match points to beat Michael Llodra in the semi-finals, and is now in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final (his best showings at this level had been semi-finals at Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year). He is the first Swede in 10 years to reach an ATP Masters 1000 final, the last being Thomas Enqvist at Cincinnati in August 2000 (Enqvist beat Tim Henman). The last Swede to reach the final in Bercy was Jonas Bjorkman in 1997 (l. to Sampras). The last Swedish winner here is Enqvist in 1996 (d. Kafelnikov). If Soderling wins this title, he will rise to a career-high No. 4 in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings (passing Andy Murray).

Monfils, the No. 12 seed, has saved match points against two players this week - two against No. 6 seed Fernando Verdasco in the third round and five against top seed Roger Federer in the semi-finals. He also upset No. 3 seed Murray in three sets in the quarter-finals. He is playing in his second ATP Masters 1000 final. Last year he was runner-up to Novak Djokovic here. He is trying to become the fifth Frenchman since 1990 to win an ATP Masters 1000 title (after Guy Forget, Cedric Pioline, Sebastien Grosjean and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga). Tsonga is the last winner in Bercy two years ago while Grosjean won here in 2001 and Forget in 1991.

This is the second time in a month two players who both saved match points earlier in the week have made it all the way to the final. Last month in Tokyo, where Rafael Nadal (who saved match points against Viktor Troicki) beat Monfils (who saved match point against Andy Roddick). Both are trying to become the fifth player this year to capture a title after being match point down (after Nikolay Davydenko, John Isner, Sam Querrey - who has done it twice, and Nadal).

WHAT’S AT STAKE 

Winner: € 450,000 and 1,000 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points
Runner-up: € 212,500 and 600 South African Airways 2010 ATP Ranking points

FINALS HISTORY 

Monfils: Appearing in his 13th ATP World Tour final. He is 3-9 in finals (1-2 in 2010). Appearing in his 2nd ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final. He is 0-1 in finals
Soderling: Appearing in his 16th ATP World Tour level final. He is 5-10 in finals (1-3 in 2010). Appearing in his 1st ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final

2010 UPDATE

Six of the first eight ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments have been won by the top four players in the South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings – No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who captured titles in Monte-Carlo, Rome and Madrid, current No. 2 Roger Federer, who repeated in Cincinnati, and No. 4 Andy Murray, who captured titles in Toronto and Shanghai. Here is a look at the 2010 finals:

Tournament/Champion/Finalist

Indian Wells Ivan Ljubicic Andy Roddick
Miami Andy Roddick Tomas Berdych
Monte-Carlo Rafael Nadal Fernando Verdasco
Rome Rafael Nadal David Ferrer
Madrid Rafael Nadal Roger Federer
Toronto Andy Murray Roger Federer
Cincinnati Roger Federer Mardy Fish
Shanghai Andy Murray Roger Federer
Paris

Roland Garros & Bercy Finals 

Soderling is the fifth player to reach the Roland Garros and Bercy final in the same year. Here is a look at the players to accomplish the feat since 1986 when this tournament began:

Roland Garros Result Bercy Result

2010 – Robin Soderling lost to Rafael Nadal vs. Gael Monfils
2007 – Rafael Nadal def. Roger Federer l. to David Nalbandian
1999 – Andre Agassi def. Andrei Medvedev def. Marat Safin
1996 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov def. Michael Stich lost to Thomas Enqvist
1989 – Stefan Edberg lost to Michael Chang lost to Boris Becker

WINNING A TITLE FROM MATCH POINT DOWN

The winner will become the fifth different player this year to win a title after saving match point. Monfils saved two match points in his third round win over Verdasco and five in the semi-finals vs. Federer while Soderling saved three match points in the semi-finals against Llodra. Sam Querrey has achieved the feat twice, so this would be the sixth overall time it will happen:

• Davydenko, Nikolay (Doha - saved 2 M.P. to beat Nadal in final)
• Isner, John (Auckland - saved 1 M.P. to beat Clement in final)
• Querrey, Sam (Belgrade - saved 1 M.P. to beat Isner in final)
• Querrey, Sam (Los Angeles - saved 1 M.P. to beat Tipsarevic in SFs, then 1 M.P. to beat Murray in final)
• Nadal, Rafael (Tokyo - saved 2 M.P. to beat Troicki in SFs)

SUNDAY CHAMPIONSHIP HEAD-TO-HEADS 

(12) Gael Monfils (FRA) vs (4) Robin Soderling (SWE) Soderling Leads 2-0

05 Milan (Italy) Carpet R16 Robin Soderling 6-3 6-4
10 Valencia (Spain) Hard QF Robin Soderling 6-3 6-2

	Monfils	Soderling
Age (Birthdate)	24 (September 1, 1986)	26 (August 14, 1984)
Residence	Nyon, Switzerland	Monte Carlo, Monaco
ATP Ranking (Career-High)	No. 14 (No. 9 – March 2, 2009)	No. 5 (No. 5 – July 5, 2010)
2010 W-L Record (on Hard)	45-18 (35-12)	55-20 (37-13)
2010 Finals W-L	1-2	1-3
Career Finals W-L	3-9	5-10
Last ATP Final/Last ATP Title	’10 Montpellier/’10 Montpellier	‘10 Bastad/’10 Rotterdam
2010 Tie-Break W-L	19-15	12-9
Paris W-L (Best Result)	10-4 (Finalist – 2009-10)	10-4 (Final – 2010)
Coach	Roger Rasheed	Magnus Norman

MONFILS FASTFACTS

Tournament Highlights:

• The Frenchman is making his second straight final showing after defeating top seed and World No. 2 Roger Federer 76(7) 67(1) 76(4) in two hours, 41 minutes (saving five match points)…He also beat No. 4 Andy Murray 62 26 63 in the quarters…He opened the tournament with a 76(4) 64 win over German qualifier Benjamin Becker on Tuesday and then saved two match points in a 67(4) 76(2) 75 victory over No. 6 seed Fernando Verdasco in the third round on Thursday…Has a 10-4 career mark in Bercy

• Last year he reached his first final here, falling he lost to Novak Djokovic in a third set tie-break…Along the way he defeated No. 13 seed Radek Stepanek in the semi-finals, No. 12 seed Marin Cilic in the quarter-finals and countrymen Julien Benneteau and David Guez

2010 Highlights:

W: Montpellier (d Ljubicic); F: Stuttgart (l Montanes); Tokyo (l Nadal); SF: Brisbane (l Stepanek); Johannesburg (l Lopez); QF: Rotterdam (l Youzhny); Marseille (l Benneteau); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid (l Nadal); Nice (l Starace); US Open (l Djokovic); Valencia (l Soderling)

2010 in Review:

• The No. 2 Frenchman (behind No. 13 Tsonga) is making his fourth ATP World Tour final appearance this season…He is 1-2 in finals…This is his second career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final (’09 Paris)

• Has a 45-18 match record (most career wins) this year (35-12 on hard) and has won at least 40 matches for second straight year (42 in ’09)…Has a 4-5 mark this season against Top 10 opponents (18-31 in career)…He’s trying to post his fourth Top 10 win of the week for the first time in his career

• He is one of four French winners on the ATP World Tour this year, joining Michael Llodra-2, Richard Gasquet-1 and Gilles Simon-1

• Last week he was a quarter-finalist in Valencia (l. to Soderling) and the previous week he captured his first ATP World Tour title of the year and the third in his career (3-9) in Montpellier (d. Ljubicic)…In July, he was runner-up in Stuttgart (retired vs. Montanes - w/right ankle injury) and last month he reached the final in Tokyo (l. to Nadal)

• Was sidelined for two months between March and May w/left hand injury

• Began year at No. 13 and is now No. 14 (has hovered between No. 12 and No. 20 all season)

• Career-high is No. 9 (set March 2, 2009); has had 14 career weeks inside Top 10 (all within 15-week span between February 23 and June 7, 2009)

ATP World Tour Masters 1000 History:

• Has a 40-37 career match record and his best result was a runner-up in Paris last year (l. to Djokovic) and the semi-finals in Rome in ‘06 (d. No. 5 Roddick in QF, l. to No. 2 Nadal) and QFs in Madrid in ’08 and this year

Miscellaneous:

• In 2009, finished in Top 15 for second straight year; season highlighted by second career ATP World Tour title in Metz (d. Kohlschreiber in final) and making debut in Top 10

• His best Grand Slam result was the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2008 (l. to Federer) and following year he advanced to the quarter-finals in Paris (l. to Federer again)

FRENCH ATP MASTERS 1000 WINNERS 

Monfils is trying to become the fifth different Frenchman to win an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title (since 1990). Here are the French winners:

Guy Forget (2)
Sebastien Grosjean (1)
Cedric Pioline (1)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (1)

SODERLING FASTFACTS

Tournament Highlights:

• The top Swede enters his first final with a 10-4 career mark…Has only dropped one set in posting wins over Gilles Simon 64 60, Stanislas Wawrinka 76(3) 63, No. 8 seed Andy Roddick 75 64 and unseeded Michael Llodra 67(0) 75 76(6), saving three match points…Has held serve 44 of 47 games (saving 12 of 15 break points) and hit 55 aces en route to the final, including 19 in semi-finals

• The last Swede to reach the final was Jonas Bjorkman in 1997 (l. to Sampras)…Thomas Enqvist is the last Swedish winner in 1996 (d. Kafelnikov)

• His previous best result was the quarter-finals in his debut in 2004 (l. to Mirnyi) and last year (l. to No. 3 Djokovic)

2010 Highlights:

W: Rotterdam (d Youzhny); F: Barcelona (l Verdasco); Roland Garros (l Nadal); Båstad (l Almagro); SF: ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells (l Roddick); ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami (l Berdych); Valencia (l Ferrer); QF: Marseille (l Llodra); Wimbledon (l Nadal); US Open (l Federer); Kuala Lumpur (l Golubev); Beijing (l Ferrer)

2010 in Review:

• The 25-year-old Swede is appearing in his fifth final of the season (1-3) and his first career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final…Has a 5-10 career mark in finals (3-0 on carpet, 1-4 on clay, 1-6 on hard) and he looking to win two ATP titles in the same year for the first time

• This is his first final since July when he was runner-up on home soil in Bastad (l. to Almagro)…His lone title this season came in Rotterdam (d. Youzhny) in February

• He is one of six players on the ATP World Tour this season to register at least 50 match wins…He enters with a career-best 55-20 match record, including 37-13 on hard courts

• He was the fifth of eight players to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London …Last year reached the semi-finals in his debut…He is the Swede to qualify in back-to-back year-end championships since Thomas Enqvist in 1995-96

• He advanced to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon (l. to Nadal in four sets) and reached a career-high No. 5 on July 5…Also reached the Roland Garros final for the second straight year (d. No. 1 Federer in QFs, l. to Nadal)…It was his first win over Federer after 12 straight losses

• In Grand Slam play, since losing in the first round at the Australian Open (l. to Granollers), has compiled a 14-3 mark with runner-up at Roland Garros and QF at Wimbledon and US Open

• In March, reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final in Indian Wells (l. to Roddick) and followed with same result in Miami (l. to Berdych)

• In April was runner-up in Barcelona (l. to Verdasco) on clay

ATP World Tour Masters 1000 History: 

• Has a 65-50 career record (17-7 this season) and his previous best results are the semi-finals in Indian Wells and Miami...Also a five-time quarter-finalist in his career
Miscellaneous:

• He cracked the Top 10 on Oct. 19, 2009 and hasn’t fallen out since (reaching career-high No. 5 after \Wimbledon on July 5)

• Coach Magnus Norman reached a career-high No. 2 and advanced to the Roland Garros final in 2000…He also won the biggest title of his career at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome in May 2000

SWEDISH ATP MASTERS 1000 WINNERS

Soderling is trying to become the sixth different Swede to win an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title (since 1990). Here are the Swedish winners:

Stefan Edberg (4)
Thomas Enqvist (3)
Magnus Norman (1)
Thomas Johansson (1)
Mikael Pernfors (1)

Courtesy: ATP

Tennis TV Interviews/highlights

Monfils - http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20101113/gael-monfils-paris_2252221_2219262

Soderling - http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20101113/robin-soderling-paris_2252221_2218872

Llodra - http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20101113/michael-llodra-paris_2252221_2218994

Highlights from todays matches - http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20101113/atp-paris-semifinals_2254580_2219266

Paris semi final reports

Well what can we say about the level of tennis seen today in Paris?

There were by far the best 2 matches i have seen this year.  All 4 players played their part and both losers had MP's as well.

ATP
Sky Sports Soderling v Llodra
Sky Sports Monfils v Federer
IOL Monfils v Federer
Live Tennis Soderling v Llodra

So the final Masters 1000 of 2010 will produce a first time champion.  Will it be 2 time French Open finalist Robin Soderling or will Gael Monfils be able to take that extra step from last year and delight the local crowd?

Whatever the result if we get a match anywhere near the quality of today tennis will be the winner.

Good luck to both players.

Paris Masters Semi Finals

We are guaranteed a "first time" Masters 1000 finalist with Robin Soderling & Michael Llodra contesting the 1st semi final.

This will be the 3rd meeting between the 2 players with both other matches having been played on indoor hard with Llodra the winner in both matches.

This is Robin's 3rd Masters 1000 semi final of 2010 (Indian Wells & Miami) whilst until this week Llodra had never got past the Quarter Final stage.

Following that match will be Roger Federer against local boy Gael Monfils.

Monfils will be hoping for a repeat of last year when he reached his maiden Masters 1000 final here in Paris.  He has a tough ask today against Federer who is (since Wimbledon) 33-3 in matches.  Roger is going for Masters 1000 final #30 but competing in his first semi final here in Paris.  Current H2H is 5-0 Federer so Monfils will have to show the same fight and determination as he did in saving MP against Verdasco and beating Murray.

Roger Federer video

Post match interview after his straight sets win over Jurgen Melzer

http://www.tennistv.com/tennistv/20101112/roger-federer-paris_2252221_2218348

Michael Llodra video

Post match interview with Michael after his quarter final win over Nikolay Davydenko

http://www.tennistv.com/page/Video/0,,11444~1697871,00.html

Robin Soderling video

Post match interview with Tennis TV after his straight sets win over Andy Roddick today in Paris

http://www.tennistv.com/page/Video/0,,11444~1697793,00.html

Paris Masters - Day 6 - 12/11/2010

I am giving up predicting the outcome of matches after yesterday's showing.

We are now getting towards the business end of the draw with a few surprise players still in the draw. Well, given how quick the court is here i guess Llodra is not really a surprise. I think i just expoected a little better from Novak.

Anyway he have

Roddick v Soderling
Davydenko v Llodra
Federer v Melzer
Murray v Monfils

Preview:

Bettor

Paris Masters - Day 5 - 11/11/2010

Let's see if i can improve my prediction skills today.

Roddick v Gulbis:

Some nice stuff from Andy so far this week, he is loving the fast courts and rightly so with that big serve.  Gulbis on the other hand has not had much work to do as he seems to be the Grim Reaper this week.  Played 2 matches and won by retirement both times.  I can't see Andy losing this one, quick court and fighting for London.

Pick - Roddick

Monfils v Verdasco:

Monfils has been quoted saying that he is "fatigued"  Put that together with Verdasco still alive in the hunt for London means we could have a one-sided match here.  Verdasco came though against Clement (great choke Arnaud) so he should be up for this one.  If Gael can somehow summon the energy for one last push he could make a match of this.  We shall see.

Pick - Verdasco

Llodra v Djokovic:

Novak took a few games to get into his match against Monaco so Michael needs to be out of the blocks in todays match if he wants a chance.  He played superb yesterday against big serving Isner and if he can get his volley game working he can pose a real threat to Novak at the net.  That said Novak is too playing some good stuff (once he gets going) He knows what the court conditions are like so i expect a better start than yesterday.  I think this one could be a decent match.

Pick - Djokovic

Melzer v Ferrer:

Ferrer so nearly didn't make it, (3rd set TB against Fognini) so will be hoping for an improved performance today.  At times he got very frustrated against Fabio so will need a cool head today against an in-form Melzer.  Melzer has to win Paris to qualify for London in the Singles (already there in the Doubles thanks to his Wimbldeon crown).  Whilst it is unrealistic to think that he can win he has nothing to lose so will prove a difficult opponent for David.  But i think experience will help.

Pick - Ferrer

Berdych v Davydenko:

Unless Melzer wins today Berdych is in London.  Not sure what to make of this match, both have been playing some awful stuff of late.  I think the only way to decided who will win this match is to toss a coin!

Pick - Berdych

Wawrinka v Soderling:

Impressive from Robin last night to bagel Simon and an equally good performance from Stan.  Both players are capable of nice tennis and are showing that this week.  Whilst Robin is already in London and had the good showing against Simon i, for some unknown reason, fancy Stan for this.  He can be like this, quietly going about his tennis, no one paying attention then he plays a Top 5 player and puts in a good match.

Pick - Wawrinka

Federer v Stepanek:

I think Radek has a small chance here.  Radek has a decent net game and is one of those players who likes to get under the skin of others.  He had a straight-forward win over Almagro in the previous round and has nothing to lose here.  If he can keep up with Roger he may nick a set.  But Roger too is having a nice run of form and will up for a fight.

Pick - Federer

Murray v Cilic:

Slight scare for Andy in the previous match when he sought treatment for a wrist problem.  Does not seem to be anything serious so i expect him to play well today.  Cilic on the other hand, well he has been awful this year bar the Australian Open.  He will need to serve well today to have any chance and stop Andy coming into the net, a game plan that got him past Nalbandian yesterday.

Pick - Murray

The rest from Paris

Final round up of the days action from the Paris Masters

Roger Federer:

Sky Sports
Tennis TV

David Ferrer:

Tennis TV

Michael Llodra:

Tennis TV

I will update once further news reports are published