Humph!!!! :angry: Tim didn't get a wildcard and Greg manages to get into the draw because somehow his race ranking was in the 30's on 17th of october :wacko: How the heck is it that high! He is about 150 in the main rankings so how he gets in the top 40 of the race beats me.

I do like Greg and I want him to do well but I dont understand how he gets in and Tim doesen't when Tim's had a much more successful year! They really should have offered Tim a wildcard for his showing in Tokyo and the fact he won it in 2003, instead they favoured Florent Serra who was 84th in the ATP race when the draw was done on 17th of october, yes he may be French but I'm sure Tim was 40 something in the ATP race on 17th of october so I'm not very happy about that :(

Wait a minute....

According to their website those players were the ones in 2005! :blink: :wacko: But it says the new draw has been made... so at the moment I don't know who the players taking part this year are because they still have the old players taking part up! :doh:

This is the Paris draw:

http://www.fft.fr/cms/GetObject.asp?Type=5&ID=4212

Nadal has a potential first round match with Safin!

FFS let Tim play :pray:

2 WC were awarded on thursday & the third on friday. I think tim would have got the last but in between that time he injured his ankle and i think thats why he didnt get it. Either the tournament directers thought it wasnt worth giving it to him if he might be injured and decided to give it to one of their own or they offered it to him and he declined because of the injury.

Greg hasnt retired yet?!!! :rolleyes:

Quality players like Tim are being denied while archaicshambles like Rusedski gets a place in the main draw :doh:

Greg has pretty much retired...Last tournament will be the aberdeen cup, i think.

Read the original post again...he was reading the 2005 draw.

Only brit in the 2006 draw is murray.

Nadal has a TOUGH draw....most likely opponents being:
Safin
Gasquet
Blake
Berdych/Murray/Nalbandian
Federer

That is a TAALLL ORder

Federer in comparison most likely will have:
Johannsen
Niemenen
Djokovic (i'd back over Robredo atm)
Gonzalez
finalist (could be anyone)

id back safin to beat nadal on carpet...

then either wawrinka or gasquet (id favour the swiss).

he wont be getting through to the QF....

Yip.. that's a toughie for Rafa, any way which you slice it. Kind of reminiscent of Fed's Wimbledon draw.

Presumably Rafa will play? Or could/ should he pull out if he is suffering from fatigue? :shrug:


As he is feeling mentally fatigued, then this would suggest that it would be beyond him at this point in time. But if he were able too get through it (and it's a huge "if") then it would be a massive confidence booster.

Will be interesting to see how he gets on. Will be especially interested in his match against Marat (hoping that Marat will win his opening match, of course) :)

I agree Andy and he is a past winner there so he should have been offered one. Maybe with his injury though he may not have been able to play anyway??

Federer is surely going to be too tired mentally to compete well in Paris. Holding up physically is one thing (yesterday he looked pretty tired by the end which is unusual for him) but the mental strain of getting ready for competitive matches must surely take its toll on him. This would be his fourth tournament in five weeks. It would be a shame to see him repeat Cincinatti

I'd like to see him give Paris a miss.

I had argued that he should not have played Cincy as well. I think that he's not the sort of guy that likes to shirk his obligations though. One story that I'd heard was that after winning one tournament, he put on a watch made by his sponsors for those photos when he was lifting the trophy!

Mirka probably does keep him right in terms of overdoing things, otherwise he'd do just about every tournament, interview request.

I want him to play and see him win it. It would be a great achievement

It would be a great achievement.. but I wouldn't want it to be at the expense of winning the ye masters though.. ;)

But if he can win both then great! But if I had to pick one, then the ye masters

But he must play. He has to. He should the fans expect it and he is definitely the favourite.
I really do not go along with all this . " Well he may be tired, worn out exhausted etc"
They get well rewarded for what they do so they should show up for the big ones. And Federer mainly misses the smaller tournaments so he really has not had a full calendar like most of them.

But unlike most of them he nearly always reaches the final.

Him and gonzo will be wrecked at Paris. gonzo has reached three finals in as many weeks and is despertae to secure a place at shanghai.

Ideally id like him to play and win paris aswell (and basel) but if its at the cost of an injury or the TMC i think he should give it a miss. If he wins basel this year im sure he'll compete at paris next year (and probably miss madrid).

Well is he going to Paris or not.
?
He is down for it.

He's always insisted he wants to play Paris. But he looked unusually drained at the end of both the Ferrer match and yesterday's epic. If he gets drawn into a really "slugfest" with Gonzalez today (two punch drunk fighters hammering it out!) then surely he'll withdraw.

He has surprised us in the past so perhaps he'll come skipping out, fresh as a daisy, against Gonzalez, dispose of him in 90 minutes and then Paris will seem possible. I'm half expecting 3 hours of nail biting agony though (my fear is that both players are running on dangerously empty tanks)

He's got nothing left to prove this year anyway.Better saving himself for the YEC.

Nadal has withdrawn from Paris - and could be even be a doubt for the YEC.

http://www.fft.fr/bnpparibasmasters/?ID=2162

I remember the Paris organisers being most upset last year by all the withdrawals - and with Nadal, Roddick and Ljubcic out, i doubt they'll be very happy again. last year they were asking that the ATP make the season shorter, or put more weeks between masters' series events so that it wouldn't happen again. I guess part of it is that once players have qualified for Shanghai, if they can get away with pleading exhaustion or injury then they will....it's such a shame really :(

Hi Dinky Jo...It is indeed a shame...ATP is the most useless organization in the entire planet (and the list of useless organisation on earth ins unfortunately quite long :angry: )...I really do not understand why they do not change the rules and they impose an important reshape of the calendar. Some ideas that need to be considered are ;) :

1) Never oh Never let Master series being back to back. In the current calendar we have this phenomena, on clay: Rome-Hambourg, on hard Toronto Cicy. :yikes: This is absurd!!!! Manage to have a free week always between two majors and this always ;)

2) Change the calendar so to guarantee a real season in each surface: Why Tennis on grass is reduced to a single month...
The US hard season needs to be reorganized so to allow a start of Wimbledon 2 weeks later than in the current calendar: This is needed if we want to have a Master series event on grass (The Hamburg one on clay should be closed and this Master title be organized in Halle on grass B) ).

3) End of the year: Only one Master series event indoor. :ok: Madrid is enough.
Spain does not have a GS tournaments it is therefore a great event for then to have the only Master series indoor of the season...
Close Paris :D and let the players take an alt before the Master final...

I know it is difficult to do there is a lot of money from everywhere and a lot of cities they want a Tennis event: Still you cannot obtain hight quality Tennis with a calendar that does not allow players to be ready for a change on the surface or enough weeks to be ready for a new series of matches...Less is better in this case :rolleyes:

TV, agree with all of your points!! :ok: No back to back masters.. propert grass court season, incl a masters on grass.. close Paris as it already has RG.. all good :ok:

I would also add that the annual scheduling of the Davis cup is daft too.. have it once every 2 years, or once every 4 years. It just adds to the congestion of scheduling.

Hey TV,

Have you had a look at the thread on the change to round robin formats next year? I'd love to hear your opinion on that.... the thread is under future ATP tournaments i think

Having the davis cup less regularly would probably make it more exciting too - kind of more like the world cup in football!

Hi petalp & Dinky Jo fully agree with the Davis Cup. :)

I had a very interesting and long discussion once in the BBC board about that...The most interesting idea was indeed to do an event that takes place each 2-4 years (better 4 in my view) in a given city in which some national team-selected throughout a process spread over 1 year- participate to an event with several cross matches: Might be something spread over 2 weeks will be really nice.

I do not know precisely but less often and with a focal point somewhere to organize a sort of real (from the Tennis perspective) Olympics game...

B) BTW iFor the Olympics: Why do we not exclude the professional or the over 20? Is it something for the young? B)

roflmao Federer is an "old" tennis player... :D

I think you're right that he doesn't like to shirk his responsibilities.

However, I don't agree that he shouldn't play, or that he shouldn't have played Cincy. I think Roger is pretty good at judging how much energy he has or how much he should expend, so I don't think he would play if he seriously thought it would endanger his health. He might not put everything into Paris, as I think was also the case in Cincy. So we may well see a repeat of that.

But so what? I think it's a great sign of character that he is willing to go into a tournament even if he thinks he may be likely to lose early. Playing Cincy didn't damage his US Open form. Playing and winning Halle after FO still saw him fit for Wimbledon. This guy is absolutely amazing at pacing himself, not only physically but also mentally. I'm not worried about him endangering his Shanghai chances --- he'll be rearing to get his crown back there, and I expect him to be in good form for it!

And I think we'll see him in Paris. Maybe he'll go out to Johansson or Nieminen. So what?

I like that positive approach MJT!! :ok: Not that I think that I was being negative about this of course.

Of course Federer pulled out of Hamburg after his exertions in Rome, so clearly knows where to draw the line.. :)

Sure, his health won't be at stake.. And he has an 87-5 win-loss ratio, so even the odd loss here and there is hardly going to affect what has been a stunning season for him..

I still would like to have ssen him give Paris a miss, and it's poor scheduling by the ATP btw.. And what has Paris done to deserve 2 major tournaments? Is there anywhere else that gets this accolade?

Cincy wasn't really a mistake, and also not necessarily a mistake to play Paris. It's just thatwhilst he continues to win well, he can appear a bit jaded at times.. to me, at least, but that is my rather limited perspective.!

Anyway, good on him for fulfilling obligations, and if he plays I hope that he wins it too. He has a bye in the first round, and the draw seems relatively kind to him, so we shall see. :)

Reuters is reporting that Federer has pulled out of the Paris masters, citing exhausation. Not a big surprise, but a bit of a disappointment..... :(

Yes, I'm sad to hear that ... I really thought he was going to play.

As I said, I don't think he would play if he felt that it would damage his health/fitness, so I imagine that is what happened.

In any case, he's had a long and successful season, which he will hope to crown in Shanghai. Well done Roger! :yahoo:

I'm pleased he's pulled out - the others who are certain of playing at Shanghai have done, too, haven't they? Nadal has, + Roddick + I believe Ljubicic.

As he said himself, winning Basel was more important than winning Paris MS. Perhaps next year he'll skip Basel and play Paris instead. You can't deny he has played enough matches this year already. Let him take a break before the Masters.

If players pull out like Roger and Rafael have, then doesen't that mean the tournament directors can bring in a player in their place if they ask to be?

I *think* Andy it's lucky loser time......so probably still no Tim :(

I think Tim is out injured but they have got a lucky loser to take Fed's place- Gabashvili is the lucky player and the section of the draw has really opened up. Can see Gonzalez coming through this half of the draw if he is not too tired from reaching 2 finals in a row! :blink:

Isn't it three finals in a row now? :blink:

You are right, I had forgotten Vienna! :bow:

I would like to see Gonzo play the Masters Cup in Shanghai; he really deserves it after this. He's gonna be knackered though ... :blink:

I'd like to see a Gonzo-Murray final. :shrug:

Can i just put in a little :yahoo: safin won the first set 6-1 - go safin!!!! :wub:

I think the winner of the quarter that includes Blake, Safin and Gasquet will take the title.