London, Oct. 31, (dpa/GNA) – Rafael Nadal will return to France after winning his 13th French Open title this year when the Paris Masters begins behind closed doors on Monday.
It will be the Spaniard’s eighth attempt at winning the tree-shaped trophy as he looks to tie the record for most Masters titles with number one rival Novak Djokovic, who opted not to participate.
Djokovic won a 36th Masters in Rome before being beaten in the French Open final by Nadal, who became a 20-time grand slam champion.
There will be no rematch between the pair in Bercy, because the Djokovic won the Paris tournament last year, and a player cannot use the same tour-level tournament twice in the best-of-18 breakdown used in the rankings system revised owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s not my priority,” said the 33-year-old Serbian Djokovic who is rather looking ahead at the season-ending ATP Finals in London later in November.
“My immediate task is to collect as many points as I can in a bid to put as much distance between myself and the chasing pack ahead of next season.”
The 17-time major winner is not far away from Roger Federer’s all-time record of 310 weeks as world number one with Djokovic currently standing on 292.
“I want to go down in history as the world number one with the most weeks at the top of the ATP Tour and I will do all I can to make it happen,” said Djokovic who was a surprise loser in the Vienna quarter-finals against Italian lucky loser Lorenzo Sonego on Friday.
Before the French Tennis Federation (FFT) were forced to host the event without spectators due to new coronavirus rules, many players had withdrawn through injury.
Last year’s finalist Denis Shapovalov of Canada decided to end his season early after a first-round exit in Vienna meant he could no longer qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in London.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori pulled out with a shoulder injury as did Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut because of an elbow problem.
As well as Djokovic and Nadal, four other top-10 players have already qualified for the ATP Finals and are set to continue in the penultimate Parisian event.
US Open champion Dominic Thiem, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and German Alexander Zverev are all included in the draw.
Zverev has had personal matters to deal with in the media after one ex-girlfriend said she was pregnant with his child, and another, Olya Sharypova, told Russian publication Championat that she suffered violent abuse from Zverev.
“I very much regret that she makes such statements,” Zverev tweeted, dismissing the accusations as “unfounded” and “simply not true.”
Russian Andrey Rublev and French Open semi-finalist Diego Schwartzman of Argentina will try to seal the two remaining top-eight Finals spots in Paris along with 10th-ranked Italian Matteo Berrettini, who can also qualify.
GNA