After skipping the Basel Indoors, Rafael Nadal
will be looking to add more silverware to his dream season by performing
well at the Paris Masters, the one title which still eludes the King of
Clay. The 13 times Grand Slam champion has been handed a relatively
easy draw with only David Ferrer in his half of the draw. It would be
really interesting to see whether Nadal be able to create history by
winning the tournament in Bercy for the first time in his career or not?
Paris is usually the last stop for a top tennis
player on the men’s circuit as a competitor strives to qualify for the
Tour Finals and therefore holds a special importance for the players in
the race to the ‘Fifth Major’. For some it might be the last opportunity
to secure a berth at the Season Ending Finale while others might be
trying to end their season on a high by performing well here. However,
in the case of Rafael Nadal none of the above factors hold significance.
The
World No. 1, coming after an eight month hiatus was the first player
this year to qualify for the Elite Event and has already bagged 10
titles on the Tour thereby making one of the most phenomenal comebacks
ever witnessed in sports. His list of notable conquests this year
includes winning the French Open, US Open, Cincinnati, Madrid, Rogers
Cup, Indian Wells and Rome. Now the Spaniard will be looking to add the
one trophy missing in his cupboard – The Paris Masters.
Compiling
a not so great 9-3 win loss record as per his standards, Nadal has
never particularly warmed up this event, with his last appearance coming
at 2009. After playing a long and exhaustive season, Paris seemed to
put excessive burden on his knees and that has been the reason why the
Southpaw has usually skipped this tournament in the past. This year,
however, the Spaniard is fully energized and is looking forward to make a
mark at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy.
In Nadal’s half of the draw, his highest ranked rivals are third seeded David Ferrer and the sixth seeded Tomas Berdych.
The Spaniard has a 20-4, 8-3 and 16-3 head-to-head record over them
respectively. Though, Nadal has faced most of the losses at the hands of
these players on hard courts but these are the least harmful players he
could have had in his half of the draw.
The main contenders to the title apart from Nadal are Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro.
They both are in top form which can be corroborated by Djokovic’s
back-to-back title wins at Shanghai and Beijing and Delpo’s trophy
defense at Basel against Roger Federer.
The good thing here for the Mallorcan is that both the Serb and the
Argentine are in the other half of the draw and will be fighting out
amongst themselves to claim a berth in the finals.
The
players, apart from Ferrer who are most likely to pose a challenge to
Nadal are the resurgent Russian, Dmitry Tursunov who was recently
nominated for the ATP Comeback Player of the year award and the tall 22
year old Polish talent, Jerzy Janowicz, who surprised everyone by
reaching the finals here last year. But Nadal has beaten both of these
players comprehensively, not losing a single set against either of them
in the past.
Nadal also has a chance to create
history by becoming the first person since Andre Agassi to win Roland
Garros and Paris Masters in the same year and also the only player to
win six Master Series Tournaments in a Calendar year if he wins his
maiden Paris title. On being asked about the achievement, he said “It’s
going to be complicated to achieve at a tournament I’ve never won.
Nobody has done it before. Six would be almost impossible to match".
Regarding
his preparations for the tournament he light heartedly said "I’ve
prepared for this tournament at home, with my family and friends,
playing some golf. I’ve also played a bit of tennis. Two weeks of rest
don’t make you forget how to play the game. I am going to Paris with
motivation to keep playing well and keep enjoying the season. At the
end, the rest of the season is to enjoy what I had as what happened to
me this season is just very emotional and fantastic”.
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