Paris Depleted

I must be one of the last people on earth to write about how the ATP Masters Series tournament in Paris has suffered a series of withdrawals from the top players. Still, this seems to be something that plagues tournaments like this scheduled towards the end of the ATP calendar, and it's something that's been magnified by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's dominance throughout the year.

Federer locked up the year-end #1 ranking even earlier this year than last year, and he and Nadal have split between them the past eight Masters Series tournaments. All that remains to motivate other players to keep playing is (a) qualifying for the Masters Cup event in Shanghai later this month, or (b) positioning themselves for a good start next year (for example: a higher ranking would help them gain direct entry to the top tournaments, instead of them having to play qualifying rounds). Some people on various tennis forums have also said tournament earnings--and even more importantly, appearance fees--are the biggest draw to playing tournaments this late in the season.

Federer's out, Nadal's out, Hewitt's out, Safin's out--these players have all claimed injury as the reason for their withdrawal from the tournament. Andy Roddick, the only top six player to make it to Paris this year, says it's because the tennis year is too long.

From Eurosport:
the American said: "It's ridiculous to have to play for 10 and-a-half months of the year.

"There is no other sport where you have to do that. Nothing changes and everyone agrees that the season needs to be shorter.

"At the moment, I am signed up to play the Paris Masters but the various pullouts prove that the players are tired at the end of a very long season."

Also on the withdrawal list are Andre Agassi (due to personal reasons) and Carlos Moya (due to the niggling shoulder injury that's plagued him all season). Tim Henman is the latest injury casualty; after his back struggles, he cracked cartilage coming off his second-round loss in Basel to Andrew Murray and ends his season without coming to Paris.

Now comes reports that Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt may not be playing the Masters Cup as well, although neither player has confirmed their non-participation. The news on Safin comes via Russian Davis and Fed Cup coach Shamil Tarpischev, who says that the best thing for Safin is not to play.

I don't think Safin always does what's best for himself, but he seems to be working hard to get his knee to mend well. I don't think he'd jeopardize his entire career just to make some appearance money at the Masters Cup. Still, he did try to play on a shaky knee leading up to the US Open, which aggravated the injury and forced him to withdraw from the last Slam of the year.

As for Hewitt, his wife Bec Cartwright is due to give birth in mid-November. Hewitt's manager Rob Aivatoglou says that if there's a chance the expectant father might miss the birth by playing in Shanghai, he won't go.

With so many players out of commission, the field at Paris is wide open for Andy Roddick, top seed, to swoop in and claim his first Masters Series title of the year. Still, there's the luck of the draw. Though Roddick has a bye through the first round, he stands to face either Sebastien Grosjean or Taylor Dent in the second round, then Gael Monfils (who he is to face in today's Lyon final) or Dominik Hrbaty in the third round, then either of the two Davids (Nalbandian or Ferrer) in the quarterfinal if the seedings hold true. Roddick potentially could meet Ivan Ljubicic in the semifinal, and their last match was the rubber that decided their Davis Cup tie in Croatia's favor earlier this year. That's not exactly a cushy ride to a Mickey Mouse final.

UPDATE: Roddick just steamrolled Monfils in the Lyon final 6-3, 6-2. Hopefully a sign of a strong performance this upcoming week.

UPDATE #2: Monfils withdrew from Paris/Bercy citing tendonitis. He has been replaced in the draw by fellow Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 9:53 PM