Paris Masters: Who will make the cut to London?

The Paris Masters is going to be an exciting tournament

The Paris Masters 1000 ATP Series – the final ATP tournament of the year – began yesterday with 64 players competing for the title.

The road to the ATP World Tour Finals, which begins in London on November 9, is set for a thrilling climax as six players are going to battle it out for the final four spots on the rankings.

Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic have already qualified for the finals. With Rafael Nadal’s absence, the door opens up for the 9th-ranked player to qualify as well. The six players fighting it out for the final four spots are – Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer, Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov.

Murray has given it his all over the past one month, winning three titles – Shenzen Open, Vienna Open and Valencia Open, thus taking him 25 points ahead of Japan's Kei Nishikori to claim the 5th place in the race. Murray will guarantee his berth in the tour finals if he reaches the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters.

Meanwhile, Nishikori is looking to become the first Asian to ever qualify for the tour finals. He will guarantee his place if he reaches the semifinals of the Paris Masters.

Ferrer has been fighting really hard as well. He lost to Murray twice in the past two tournaments, and he too will be guaranteed a berth in the tour finals if he reaches the semifinals of the Paris Masters. Berdych is in the same position as Ferrer and Nishikori, but he will really have to improve his game as he has had a disappointing past two months with early exits from both those tournaments.

Raonic has had some ups and downs over the past month, and qualification would be really hard for him as he will be guaranteed a spot in the finals only if he lifts the Paris Masters. So Raonic would be hoping for Ferrer, Berdych and Nishikori to get knocked out early in the tournament.

Dimitrov, on the other hand, only has an outside chance to qualify. He will only be in contention to qualify (not guaranteed a spot in the finals) if he reaches the semifinals in Paris.

Along with the race to the finals, another battle to look out for will be the fight for the No. 1 spot in the rankings – between Djokovic and Federer. Federer has won two consecutive titles – Shanghai Masters and Basel Open, and will look to dethrone the Serb from the top of the rankings by outperforming him in Paris and London.