Tennis Atlantic

Ferrer Breaks Top Four Masters Stranglehold in Paris

David Ferrer claimed his first Masters title and broke the streak of top 4 winners in Masters series events with a 6-4, 6-3 win over shock finalist Jerzy Janowicz. Ferrer has claimed 7 titles this year, the most on tour and has 72 match wins, also the most on tour. He picked up wins against Marcel Granollers, Stan Wawrinka in 3, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and shock semifinalist Michael Llodra earlier in the week.

Janowicz, the young Polish giant killer with a powerful serve and nifty shotmaking, qualified and proceeded to run the gambit of Phillip Kohlschreiber, Andy Murray and Janko Tipsarevic (both comebacks from a set down) and Gilles Simon. Janowicz has been a fixture on the challenger circuit and was due for a big breakthrough soon. This was it. He skyrocketed 43 places in the rankings to 26, where he will now be seeded for the Australian Open in January and appears to have a bright future ahead.

To break the stranglehold of the top 4, it took losses from Murray and Novak Djokovic, who lost to Sam Querrey in 3 sets in one of Sam’s biggest wins ever (coming back from 0-6 0-2 to pull it out), as well as Federer and Nadal not being in the field.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna won the doubles title.

Only the World Tour Finals remain and then the ATP calendar will be concluded for the year. Most of the top players will be participating in exhibitions or taking a few weeks off until the season fires up again in January. It’s been a great year of tennis!

—Steen Kirby