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10 Things to Watch in Paris Rolex Paris Masters

10 Things to Watch in Paris Rolex Paris Masters

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AccorHotels Arena | Paris, France | 29 October-4 November 2018 Draw: S-48, D-24 | Prize Money: €4,872,105 | Surface: Indoor Hard

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10 THINGS TO WATCH IN PARIS

1) On the Line: and will compete for the No. 1 ranking and the ATP Masters 1000 title record as the Top 2 seeds at the Rolex . Whoever advances further will be No. 1 in the ATP Rankings on 5 November. If Nadal and Djokovic lose in the same round, the Spaniard will remain World No. 1. Nadal boasts 33 ATP Masters 1000 titles to Djokovic’s 32.

2) Indoors is Hard: Paris is one of three ATP Masters 1000 tournaments that Nadal has never won. In fact, Nadal captured the only indoor hard-court title of his career as a 19-year-old at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid in October 2005. Nadal has played at 24 indoor hard-court events over the last 13 years without a championship, losing five finals beginning with the 2007 Rolex Paris Masters.

3) Advantage, Nole: Djokovic has won four of his 12 indoor hard-court titles in Paris. The Serbian went 17-1 at the Rolex Paris Masters from 2013-16 before missing the 2017 event. Djokovic fell to No. 22 in the ATP Rankings on 21 May. Should he pass Nadal, Djokovic would be the first player since in 2000 to have been ranked outside the Top 20 then No. 1 in the same season.

4) Final Lap: The ATP Race to London ends in Paris with three spots remaining at the Nitto ATP Finals. , Marin Cilic and are on pace to qualify. On the outside looking in are and . Nadal, Djokovic, , Juan Martin del Potro and have already booked their trips to The O2 from 11-18 November.

5) First Time for Everything: If Anderson, 32, qualifies for the Nitto ATP Finals, he will be the oldest debutant since the tournament’s third edition in 1972. When he was last in London, Anderson beat Federer and Isner in five sets to become the oldest first-time finalist at Wimbledon in the Open Era.

6) Cilic’s Chance: Cilic seeks his fourth Nitto ATP Finals appearance in the last five years. The Croat has won an ATP World Tour title in each of the last 11 seasons and earned at least 35 wins in 10 of 11. Cilic ended Djokovic’s 122-week reign as No. 1 by beating him at the 2016 Rolex Paris Masters.

7) Dominant Thiem: Thiem leads the ATP World Tour by reaching the quarter-finals or better at 13 tournaments this season. The Austrian won three ATP World Tour 250 titles, advanced to his first final at Roland Garros and appeared in his second ATP Masters 1000 final at Madrid.

8) The Outsiders: Should Isner, 33, qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals, he will trump Anderson as the oldest debutant at the year-end championships since 1972. However, Isner is 10th in the ATP Race to London after being passed by Nishikori during last week’s ATP World Tour 500 event in Vienna.

9) Cinderella Returns: was No. 24 in the ATP Race to London when he captured the 2017 Rolex Paris Masters title to secure a berth at the Nitto ATP Finals. Sock went on to reach the semi-finals in London, but he’s just 7-20 in singles this season and outside the Top 150 of the race.

10) Men of Milan: The ATP Race to Milan has concluded and four of the seven direct qualifiers for the Next Gen ATP Finals are playing in Paris: , , and . All four broke into the Top 40 this season and have yet to turn 21. The Next Gen ATP Finals immediately follows the Rolex Paris Masters from 6-10 November in Milan.

Information accurate as of Friday, 26 October 2018 at 4 pm ET. For the latest stats, facts and figures about the ATP World Tour, follow @ATPMediaInfo on Twitter.

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