Paris (AFP)
Who from Novak Djokovic, whose throne falters, or from Rafael Nadal, who is about to relocate there, will finish the year in the N.1 world costume? The first two world players are resuming their duel at the Masters 1000 Paris-Bercy, from Monday.
Roger Federer, who had made his comeback on the Paris courts a year ago, is expected again, in the wake of his tenth crown in Basel, his hometown. Will come ? Will not come? "I guess I'll know by tomorrow," said Sunday Switzerland, who will meet with his team on Monday. His coming depends on the fate of a possible semi-final against Nadal.
. Djokovic, N.1 in suspension
It is in the skin of a world N.1 in suspension that Djokovic addresses the penultimate tournament of the season, two weeks of the end of year Masters (11-17 November) in London. For whatever happens during the Paris week, the 32-year-old Serb will give Nadal the top of the ATP ranking the very next day, precisely on November 4th, since he will lose on that date the points collected in London. a year, when the Spaniard, injured, was absent.
Mathematically, it is clearly "Rafa" who is in a strong position to finish 2019 on the throne of world tennis for the fifth time in his career.
At the "Race", the ranking established over the calendar year, it has 1280 points ahead of "Djoko". So that a title in the east of Paris, where the king of Roland Garros has never been imposed, would ensure him to finish the year with the bib of N.1, whatever the results of the Serbian . To be out of reach of Djokovic before the Masters, Nadal needs to increase his margin to more than 1500 points.
It remains to be seen whether the 33-year-old Majorquin will have the physical resources, which he has not seen in official competition since his triumph at the US Open in early September, his 19th Grand Slam, and which has experienced yet another alert left hand during the Laver Cup.
"I had to stop for a while but I feel better, that's why I'm here," said Nadal briefly on Sunday, which aims to "be 100% Wednesday" for his entry into contention. And who knows exactly what his priorities are.
"Of course, I would love to finish the year N.1 world.But I have already said, my goal now is not to be N.1, but to organize my calendar to last the most If with this calendar, I'm N.1 at the end of the season, great, but I will not do more stuff to be, "he ponders.
Djokovic will start against Richard Gasquet or Serbian Dusan Lajovic, Nadal against Adrian Mannarino or a qualifier.
In the meantime, they have been training together for two hours on Saturday. Like nothing ever happened.
. Where will Medvedev stop?
He is objectively the best player of the last three months: from the Washington tournament in early August to the Shanghai Masters 1000 in mid-October, to his unstoppable resistance in the final of the US Open, Daniil Medvedev has reached the final of the last six tournaments he has played (3 wins for 3 losses).
It is precisely the 23-year-old Russian who won the last two Masters 1000 trophies, in Cincinnati during the summer and then in Shanghai.
"Very tired," Medvedev has since granted a well-deserved rest. Will he manage to stretch his impressive series again on the Parisian courts?
"You do not want it to stop, I'm doing my best so it does not stop, at the moment it's working well, I hope to continue," he says.
It may go through a duel against Djokovic, which he is promised in the semifinals.
. Last call for the Masters
As often, Bercy will deliver the last sesames for the Masters. Six players already have theirs in their pocket: Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Medvedev, the Austrian Dominic Thiem and the young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Two remain to be attributed.
Virtually, they are in the hands of the German Alexander Zverev, outgoing champion, and the Italian revelation Matteo Berrettini. But a handful of other players, including Gael Monfils, currently in tenth place, 195 points of the last theoretical qualifier, and who may have to challenge Federer from the knockout stages, can still mathematically claim.
© 2019 AFP