Paris is being billed as the Final Battlefield. And rightly so, it is the last tournament of the season before the ATP Finals, and it has 1000 points on the line for the winner and approximately $5,810,000 in prize money for the participants. This is a 1000 level event which means that participation is mandatory. But that’s just added color to the real story. The real story is the fight for qualification to the ATP Finals, where just eight spots are allocated and the prize money there exceeds $8,000,000 to be distributed among eight players, and with the winner taking home $1.2 million. That’s a lot of dough to be divided out in the last two weeks of the season.

It is for this reason that those players that are not yet qualified will be fighting desperately to go deep in Paris.  Djokovic, Nadal, Medvedev, Federer, Thiem, and Tsitsipas have all qualified. The next seven players in the rankings all have a good chance of qualifying and are very close in points with two weeks out. In this field you see the following players:

• Zverev: 2,855 points

• Berrettini: 2,525

• Bautista Agut: 2,485

• David Goffin: 2,325

• Fabio Fognini: 2,235

• Kei Nishikori: 2,180

• Gael Monfils: 2,170

Out of the above players, Zverev has been starting to play rather well as the pressure builds to qualify and defend his title at the ATP Finals. Gael Monfils has had a great season but has not posted very good results since the heart breaker of a loss against Berrettini at the US Open. Of course, there’s Berrettini who after that Monfils win at the US Open followed it up with a semis appearances at Shanghai. My money would be on Zverev and Berrettini to go deep in Paris and qualify for London.

In terms of the other top men in the field, look out for Medvedev. He pulled out last week from the Kremlin Open citing fatigue after reaching his sixth final and winning at Shanghai. He’ll be back and rested in Paris and guess what. He’ll continue to win. Expect him in the semis or finals. The old guard should be making an appearance again, they’ve been very quiet since the US Open. This is also the last chance for Nadal and Djokovic to build some good points before the ATP Finals in their quest to finish the year number one.