So apparently these are some of the ensembles we can look forward to next year.

To be rocked by Gilles, Gonzo, Ernie and so forth.

They’re going to be putting Pico in this.

PICO.

And Jo will be wearing the colour of acidic bile.

London, Nov 18 (DPA) Andy Roddick withdrew from the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals due to a knee injury he suffered six weeks ago. The US player is being replaced in the eight-man draw by Swede Robin Soderling.

Roddick limped out of the Shanghai Masters with the injury last month. He had earned a berth at the season finale for a seventh straight year – the second-longest active streak after number one Roger Federer’s eight consecutive invitations.

Three-time Wimbledon finalist Roddick played the semi-finals in 2003 and 2004 in Houston and 2007 at Shanghai.

Soderling, who beat Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, was first alternate for the tournament, which begins Sunday at The O2 arena in London. Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga now becomes first alternate.

Soderling is the first Swede to play the season wrap-up since Thomas Johansson in 2002.

Roddick resumed light practice this week but said Tuesday he would not be fully fit for the tournament.

‘I’m really disappointed to miss the World Tour Finals,’ Roddick said. ‘I love playing in London, and I’ve heard so many good things about the venue. However, I have not fully recovered from my knee injury, and I won’t be able to compete. One of my goals in 2010 will be to qualify for this event again.’

The line-up features Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Juan Del Potro, Nikolay Davydenko, Fernando Verdasco and Soderling.

The draw will be made Wednesday, with the eight players drawn to play a minimum of three round-robin matches to determine which four players advance to the knockout semi-finals Saturday.

The London World Tour Finals is set, courtesy of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who defeated the remaining contenders Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Robin Soderling in the Paris quarterfinals this afternoon.

Nadal-Tsonga was by far the better match, it must be said. Soderling was wound visibly tight and Djokovic appeared exhausted, especially during the second set which he dropped 16, but in the end too many unforced errors cost Soderling. It was a ground-out win rather than domination by Djokovic, but a win all the same. Good stuff.

Nadal was probably the surprise of the day. Tsonga was picked as the favourite coming in by more than a few pundits, but really Rafa was unrecognisable as the same person who played Almagro and Robredo. I thought he was serving brilliantly and hitting his forehand really well to stave off five break points in the early stages of the match, and from then on he didn’t look like losing. As for Tsonga, he wasn’t playing badly but terrible shot-selection cost him at the biggest moments. It’s Nadal’s first win over a top 10 player since Madrid and would seem to signal a welcome return to form.

The elimination of Tsonga and Soderling gives Fernando Verdasco a lock on the no. 8 spot in the race, meaning we’ll be seeing him in the 02. I would have really liked to see Soderling qualify, just because for me his achievements and the way he’s played this year have been stunning, but Verdasco’s had the best year of his career too – no question. So congratulations to him.

Soderling and Tsonga will presumably be lined up as first and second alternates for London – if they chose to play. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.

It’s also worth noting that Nadal, Nole and JMDP all have opportunities to gain big points here and close the gap on those ahead of them in the rankings – although in JMDP’s case that may be a pipe dream. Still, there’s a lot of potential for ranking changes as a result of the last few matches of the year,* which I think is cool. Keeps things interesting.

*May not be true, I’m just repeating what I hear because I hate looking at the numbers.

Welcome to Bercy, where the laws of probability and causality no longer apply.

Soderling survives in the race to London, beating Kolya 64 in the third …

… but Kolya qualifies for London anyway, courtesy of …

… Marin Cilic’s victory over Fernando Verdasco, which means that …

… Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is still in the hunt if he can beat …

… Rafa, who survived in three sets against a fellow Spaniard again, this time …

… Robredo, who served for the match before choking spectacularly …

… not unlike Murray, who breadsticked Steps in 20 minutes and went on to lose …

… but unlike Juan Martin del Potro, who lost a 5-2 lead in both games and tiebreak points to drop the first set to Gonzo, but then saved seven match points to even up the match, at which point Gonzo abruptly retired.

Beat that, London.

Pretty good day for the home players in Bercy today. Well, unless you’re Jeremy Chardy. He put in a classic WTF?! (not the tournament) performance against Pico, who didn’t have to be any more than solid. Although, being Pico, he managed to sneak in some agony and drama-queen behaviour as well.

Toys. Pram. Out of.

Anyway, it was a disappointing end to the season for Chardy. Also out and not happy about it? Philipp Petzchner, who was ousted by Julien Benneteau in an odd match of wildly varying quality which also included more than a bit of handbags. I was trying to watch two matches at once (and work at the same time), so I’m not sure exactly what’s going on here:

But I did see Petzchner behaving badly in the last game, making ridiculous challenges on balls that were quite clearly three feet wide, and as he shook Lars Graf’s hand at the end, I could have sworn he said something like ‘Thanks for taking the money’. Apparently he also told Benneteau he was going to be aim for his face. In which case, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out of 2009.

More good news for France came in the unlikely form of French qualifier David Guez, 179 in the world, who upset Stanislas Wawrinka in not-even-hugely-close straight sets. Seriously, what has Wawrinka done for anyone lately? OK, I’m not a fan, but thinking back on 2009, I remember him for (a) beating Federer in Monte Carlo and (b) stretching Murray to five under the Wimbledon roof. Am I missing something? Because from where I’m sitting, two good matches in a year (one of which he still lost) isn’t really cutting it.

Anyway, Verdasco narrowly avoided being upset by Seppi himself, so there’s that good news to consider, and Kolya was in suitably crushing form, rolling over Becker with the loss of just three games. But back to the French. Qualifier Arnaud Clement dismissed Feliciano Lopez 63 61, and then defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga delighted the home crowd with inspired play in the first night match. Montanes was actually playing great tennis, I thought, even in the first set, but Jo was just that damn good. Loved it. Hope he hasn’t peaked too soon.

Also loving his hair at the mo.

I didn’t even mean to watch Simon-Ljubicic, as Gilles was 0-3 down against Ljubicic in the H2H and I thought it would be depressing, but I got sucked in and I’m glad I did. Gilles was playing very not like himself in the first set, being really aggressive, going for his shots and hitting big winners, and he took it 63. An inevitable lull came in the second set, but by the time the match was into the decider, it was really good stuff. Gilles finally earned a break point with Ljubicic serving at 2-3 down (I think), only to hurt his knee lunging for a return (which he missed). He immediately limped to the net and asked for the trainer; Carlos Bernades told him he would have to wait until the end of the game, only for Ljubicic to sportingly say that it was fine by him. After medical treatment, he somehow held serve for 4-3 despite double-faulting twice and received more treatment, saying to the trainer that came on that he was in pain but that stopping play wasn’t an option. And that point, you would be forgiven for thinking that Ljubicic really had the match on a plate, but oddly, it didn’t work out that way. Despite barely running for anything and clearly being in pain, Gilles chipped, sliced, drop-shotted and volleyed his way through two more service games to take the match to a tiebreak. Which he won. And I still don’t quite know how. Yes, he hit some ridiculously good shots, but all Ljubicic had to do was go for his shots or even just make Gilles run. Instead, Gilles seemed to hypnotise him into just chipping the ball right back. It was bizarre and not a good way to end the season for Ljubicic, but I’m a Gilles fan. So I don’t really care. Allez!

Singles - Second Round
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d B Becker (GER) 62 61
[7] F Verdasco (ESP) d A Seppi (ITA) 67(3) 64 64
[8] J Tsonga (FRA) d A Montanes (ESP) 61 75
[11] G Simon (FRA) d I Ljubicic (CRO) 63 36 76(4)

Singles – First Round
N Almagro (ESP) d M Chiudinelli (SUI) 62 64
[Q] D Guez (FRA) d S Wawrinka (SUI) 63 64
J Monaco (ARG) d J Chardy (FRA) 76(6) 75
J Benneteau (FRA) d P Petzschner (GER) 46 75 63
[Q] A Clement (FRA) d F Lopez (ESP) 63 61

Doubles – First Round
B Soares (BRA) / K Ullyett (ZIM) d P Cuevas (URU) / O Marach (AUT) 61 76(6)
M Granollers (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) d J Del Potro (ARG) / F Gonzalez (CHI) 76(2) 62
C Kas (GER) / P Kohlschreiber (GER) d J Monaco (ARG) / R Nadal (ESP) 46 75 15-13 – saved 2 M.P.
J Kerr (AUS) / T Parrott (USA) d M Damm (CZE) / J Erlich (ISR) 63 64
J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) d [WC] S Grosjean (FRA) / F Santoro (FRA) 63 36 10-5

This is one of those times.

Love these two.

Various members of the French football team were in Bercy today, although to be honest I only really recognise Thierry Henry and possibly Anelka (and Cedric Pioline, and yes I do know he’s not a footballer). Anyway, I thought the better educated might be interested …

All aboard for the final Masters of the year. Draw here.

Conspicuous absences include Andy Roddick (knee injury), David Ferrer (hamstring), Lleyton Hewitt (something), and Mikhail Youzhny (unbelievably not wildcarded in). As for those that are there, questionable physical form is the order of the day: defending champion Tsonga has a wrist thing, as does Elf; Soderling has an elbow issue; Haas has swine flu (ha). In fact, it’s the top four seeds that seem to be in better physical condition than basically everybody else. Maybe there’ll be no surprise winner this year …

First Quarter: A probable second-round meeting between Gael Monfils and Stanislas Wawrinka catches the eye immediately, with the winner taking on Federer in the third round. Marin Cilic doesn’t have a bad draw and is certainly capable of beating Verdasco, but I get the feeling Marin may be running out of steam after his good results lately – and he needs the Paris title and a miracle to make London, whereas Verdasco is right on the edge of clinching his spot. I’d expect a Federer-Verdasco quarterfinal with Federer winning.

Second Quarter: The Murray-del Potro quarter. Other seeds Steps and Gonzo are still in with a tiny chance of making London (although they need the title or a final spot respectively), and I wouldn’t put it past either of them to make the semis. Having said that, if Gonzo’s on any kind of form of late, he’s been hiding it well. Murray will open against James Blake, and I don’t quite trust Murray’s form yet; Blake is certainly capable of hitting him off the court, but hopefully Murray’s greater mental toughness will tell. A third-round meeting with Steps should be well within his capabilities. As for JMDP … I don’t expect much (best way to be). He’s only played two matches since the US Open and won neither; even if the wrist is better, there’s a whole rust issue. He will open against the winner of Thierry Ascione and Marat Safin, and with Marat looking for some glory in his final tournament, I wouldn’t bet against the upset. Gonzo has to deal with recent nemesis John Isner in his first match. I call it like this: Isner-Safin meet in the third round and Steps beats the winner. Am I crazy? Hope so.

Third Quarter: The Kolya-Djokovic quarter. Two of the most in-form players at the moment against an injured Soderling and a swine-flu’d Haas? Yeah, I call Kolya for the semis right now. Some fun first-rounds though; Karlovic vs. Pablo Cuevas, Lopez vs. Clement, and Chardy vs. Pico, which is what we call a tragedy.

Fourth Quarter: Bookended by Tsonga and Nadal. Big question marks around Tsonga’s fitness, and he has to deal with the winner of Hanescu-Montanes in the second round. Things don’t look much better for Simon, who has to cope with recent nemesis Ivan Ljubicic (probably) in his first round. I think Ljubicic will make the quarters. Tomas Berdych is certainly capable of upsetting Tommy Robredo in the second round, but can you ever really bet on Berdych? Almagro-Chiudinelli should be an interesting match, but the winner (and probably everybody else) will be steamrolled by Nadal.

Predicted finalists: Federer, Nadal

Winner: …. Nadal

If that depresses you like it does me, check out the doubles draw. Pico is playing with Rafa, and JMDP is playing with Gonzo. LET THERE BE PHOTOS, TENNIS GODS. LET THERE BE PHOTOS.

Oh, and tomorrow’s OOP:

Well, at least one of them does. Stanislas “that other Swiss dude” Wawrinka beat Ivan Ljubicic 67(5) 63 64 today with his pregnant girlfriend Ilham Valoud (I’m too depressed to check the spelling) in attendance.

Wawrinka will be joined in the second round by Marin Cilic, who beat Philipp Petzchner in straights, and Richard Gasquet, who took care of surprise St Petersburg finalist Horacio Zeballos. In more surprising news, John Isner suddenly sparked to life, defeating Gonzo in three sets and dealing a possibly fatal blow to Gonzo’s London chances; and in news that made me happy, Jeremy Chardy beat James Blake 64 in the third after two tiebreak sets. I watched the decider and thought Jezza was simply too good. And smiled.

Unfortunately for Our Jezza, he’s in the same section of the draw as that not-other Swiss dude, who spanked Seppi 63 63. Radek Stepanek is also into the quarter-finals with what looks like a tough win over lucky loser Florent Serra. Whatever will be, will be.

The other half of the Czech Republic D Cup team didn’t fare so well in Valencia, falling to Gilles Simon in three sets. I will now post a shirtless photo of him for his many, many fans.

Good solid win for Gilles though, who sadly won’t be joined in the quarter-finals by compatriots Monfils and Tsonga. La Monf was defeated by Armada tugboat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in straight sets, which is just classic La Monf, and Jo was forced to retire 03 down in the decider against Mikhail Youzhny with a left wrist injury.

Congratulations to Youzhny and so forth, but it’s a bit of a bugger for Jo and puts his chances of defending his title at the Paris masters very much in doubt. But in news that’s bound to make everyone smile, Fernando Verdasco took another step forward by defeating Oscar Hernandez. So there’s that.

Basel

Singles – Second Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d A Seppi (ITA) 63 63
[5] R Stepanek (CZE) d [LL] F Serra (FRA) 36 76(1) 76(1)

Singles – First Round
J Isner (USA) d [3] F Gonzalez (CHI) 76(3) 46 64
[4] [WC] M Cilic (CRO) d P Petzschner (GER) 64 64
[6] S Wawrinka (SUI) d I Ljubicic (CRO) 67(5) 63 64
J Chardy (FRA) d [7] J Blake (USA) 76(4) 67(6) 64
R Gasquet (FRA) d H Zeballos (ARG) 76(3) 64

Doubles – First Round
C Kas (GER) / V Troicki (SRB) d [3] B Soares (BRA) / K Ullyett (ZIM) 76(4) 46 10-6
J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Rojer (AHO) d A Beck (GER) / B Becker (GER) 46 76(4) 10-6
L Dlouhy (CZE) / P Kohlschreiber (GER) d J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) 62 36 11-9

Valencia

Singles – Second Round
[5] G Simon (FRA) d T Berdych (CZE) 64 46 63
G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d [6] G Monfils (FRA) 62 75

Singles – First Round
M Youzhny (RUS) d [3] J Tsonga (FRA) 67(3) 60 30 ret. (left wrist)
[4] F Verdasco (ESP) d [WC] O Hernandez (ESP) 61 01 ret. (lower back pain)
J Tipsarevic (SRB) d V Hanescu (ROU) 64 63
F Lopez (ESP) d [Q] A Martin (ESP) 75 63

Doubles – First Round
M Granollers (ESP) / T Robredo (ESP) d [2] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) 67(6) 63 10-5
[Alt] G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) / A Montanes (ESP) d [4] M Damm (CZE) / J Knowle (AUT) 63 46 13-11
E Butorac (USA) / R Ram (USA) d N Almagro (ESP) / S Ventura (ESP) 76(3) 62
M Knowles (BAH) / M Llodra (FRA) d [WC] R Bautista-Agut (ESP) / J Marti (ESP) 63 61

Absolutely loving the way Valencia is promoting itself, seriously. Loads of promotional activities that don’t look awkward, tons of relaxed practice photos … good work, Boss and Ferru. This is how it should be done … leaving me nothing to do but pass on the cream of the crop.

So today we had the top players being introduced to the new ‘Agora’ building:

Some Spanish chick I should probably recognise cracking on to Boss:

Pico thoughtfully confirming his hotness for us:

La Monf and Jo having a giggle with coaches Roger Rasheed and Eric Winogradsky:

And Gilles Simon, Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez and Nicolas Almagro doing some Wii Fit:

Fairly fun day in Shanghai today with the obvious exception of del Potro’s withdrawal (Tommy Haas was also forced to retire after a set against Rainer Schuettler). The first and second seeds, Nadal and Nole, both came through; Rafa winning a thriller against Blake 64 in the third and looking increasingly like his old self, and Nole in fairly routine fashion over Fabio Fognini.

It’ll be Robredo and Schuettler next respectively. Probably the upset of the day was Fernando Verdasco, who really wanted a strong showing here to boost his London bid, falling to Ivan Ljubicic, 64 76(6). I flicked over from time to time and saw some truly horrible tennis from Verdasco, and some truly classic tantrums.

But at least Verdasco’s better half had a good day, putting out compatriot and sixteenth seed David Ferrer, while La Monf survived his own bizarre tactics and lack of attention span to beat Hewitt 62 in the third.

Marat Safin went out to Tomas Berdych and then bitched about it, and a blockbuster match-up was set between Robin Soderling and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Both guys are hoping to nab a London spot. Should be big fun.

Singles - Second Round
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d J Blake (USA) 62 67(4) 64
[2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [Q] F Fognini (ITA) 63 61
J Melzer (AUT) d [3] J del Potro (ARG) 75 21 ret. (right wrist)
[5] J Tsonga (FRA) d [WC] S Zeng (CHN) 63 63 
I Ljubicic (CRO) d [7] F Verdasco (ESP) 64 76(6)
[8] G Simon (FRA) d V Troicki (SRB) 63 64
[9] R Soderling (SWE) d N Almagro (ESP) 64 75
[11] G Monfils (FRA) d L Hewitt (AUS) 46 64 62
[14] T Robredo (ESP) d [Q] F Mayer (GER) 46 76(10) 64 – Saved 3 M.P.
[Q] R Schuettler (GER) d [15] T Haas (GER) 64 ret. (right shoulder)
F Lopez (ESP) d [16] D Ferrer (ESP) 46 75 61 
T Berdych (CZE) d [WC] M Safin (RUS) 36 64 64

Doubles – Second Round
J Benneteau (FRA) / J Tsonga (FRA) d [1] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) 64 64
[2] B Bryan (USA) / M Bryan (USA) d S Aspelin (SWE) / P Hanley (AUS) 63 62
[3] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) d T Parrott (USA) / F Polasek (SVK) 75 36 10-4
J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) d [4] M Mirnyi (BLR) / A Ram (ISR) 57 63 10-7
[5] W Moodie (RSA) / D Norman (BEL) d F Lopez (ESP) / F Verdasco (ESP) W/O (Verdasco knee)
[6] M Fyrstenberg (POL) / M Matkowski (POL) d L Dlouhy (CZE) / P Petzschner (GER) 62 76(3)
F Cermak (CZE) / M Mertinak (SVK) d [7] B Soares (BRA) / K Ullyett (ZIM) 57 63 10-5
[8] L Kubot (POL) / O Marach (AUT) d B Becker (GER) / T Haas (GER) W/O (Haas – right shoulder)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco play the fastest (and also gentlest and smallest) tennis in the world:

Ernests displayed some of his best tennis of the season during the current Asian swing of hard court tournaments, after he reached his first quarterfinal in over a year in Tokyo and stretched the top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to three tiebreak sets in Bangkok, despite a minor blip in his baffling loss to Fabio Fognini in Shanghai.

He battled his way past Junn Mitsuhashi and Dominik Meffert in the Tokyo qualifying, only to find himself facing Davis Cup finalist, Radek Stepanek, in the first round.

Ernests, however, exceeded expectations with a display of fearsome hitting. He served 13 aces and saved all five break points against him to overpower the sixth-seeded Czech.

In the next round, he had his Argentine opponent, Juan Monaco, well under control before the latter retired when down 3:6 1:4 due to a right hip injury.

The retirement propelled Ernests into his first quarterfinal since the 2008 Cincinnati Masters, where he once again was drawn to play against Tsonga.

Alas, it was not his day to break his losing record against the Frenchman, as he once again capitulated after capturing the first set.

His quarterfinal defeat was also unfortunate on another level, as he would arrive too late in Shanghai to play in the qualifying but was ineligible for the Masters event’s special exemption slot, which is reserved for a player who reached the semi-finals or better of Tokyo or Beijing.

It was yet another stroke of luck which ruled in his favour after the Shanghai organisers then decided to award him with a wildcard into the main draw.

Having been paired up in the first round against unheralded Italian qualifier, Fabio Fognini, whom he had beaten in a Davis Cup tie last year, Ernests was expected to progress to the second round against Novak Djokovic with no drama.

However, Ernests has never been known to conform to expectations, and suffered a straight sets loss to the Italian in an inglorious end to his Asian campaign.

Nevertheless, Ernests appeared to be on track to getting his game into order, and credited his new coach, Hernan Gumy, for his new-found focus.

He will now return to Europe for the final month of the season.

He is an alternate in both Moscow and Stockholm, which will be played next week, where it is likely that he will have to compete in the qualifying unless last-minute withdrawals ensure him a spot in the main draw.

He is the second alternate in St Petersburg, scheduled for the following week, where he has played since his ATP debut in 2006.

The final fortnight of the year will feature tournaments in Basel and Valencia, as well as the Paris Indoors Masters in Bercy. Ernests did not make the main draw for any of these events as at the sign-in deadline, but he may still compete in the qualifying rounds.

Moscow, represent: Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova bagged her first title since tearing it up on the clay courts in early 2009 (with titles in Stuttgart and Roland Garros) by defeating Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the China Open. Not sure if it’s this new positive aura of hers, but she was lookin’ damn good in the cap-sleeve top from Fila’s fall Heritage collection. (Buy: $38.99 at TW)

Nole, unveiled: Were we really surprised that there was a Serbian striptease after Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles title at the China Open? He took out Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-6 (4) in a rain-addled final. Nole now has three titles (Dubai and Serbia Open); he heads Shanghai to take part in the Shanghai Masters tourney (this week).

If you know what’s going on with the bandana wrapped around their wrists, hit me up.

Stud, studded: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and his pearl studs were no match for Mikhail Youzhny in the Japan Open. The Frenchman won 6-3, 6-3. Props to Youzhny, though, who beat Gilles Simon, Tomas Berdych, and Lleyton Hewitt on his way to the final. That one-handed backhand was smokin’!

Seal of approval: That chinese name stamp the China Open tourney organizers gave to Marat Safin after his swan song in Beijing was a cool concept.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Victorious in Tokyo

ATP World Tour No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga used his Wilson [K]obra Tour racket as he clinched his third ATP World Tour title of the season in Tokyo. The dynamic Jo-Wilfried powered his way to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Youzhny in the final of the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships.

Since finishing runner-up to at the 2008 Australian Open, Tsonga has reached five ATP World Tour finals and won all five titles.

“Jo-Wilfried is a true force on the ATP Tour,” says Massimo Calvelli, Wilson Tour Director. “Not only is Jo-Wilfried a great player, but his pure joy for the game is infectious and he is a great ambassador for tennis.”

With his victory in Tokyo, Tsonga received 500 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points to bring him closer to earning one of the three remaining singles spots at ATP World Tour Championships, to be held at the O2 in London, November 22-29.

“I am so happy to win another title and this puts me closer to London,” said Tsonga. “I have so much confidence now going into Shanghai and all the indoor events. It’s a great time of the year for me.”

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be in action in Shanghai this week.