WHAT'S NEWS IN SHANGHAI

NADAL OUT - SIMON IN

World number one Rafael Nadal of Spain said on Monday that he had pulled out of the Shanghai Masters and his place would be taken by France's Gilles Simon.

"I have decided not to compete in the Masters Cup in Shanghai. As I say this is one of the most difficult decisions in my career due to the importance of the event," he said in a statement posted on his official web site.

The 22-year-old had had to pull out of his Paris Masters quarter-final on Friday with a right knee injury.

BRAIN LAG

Researchers have confirmed what many tennis players have long complained that professional referees misjudge the balls which bounce off the line or close to it.

But they say it is not mere incompetence as some would allege but the result of programming of brain.

Researchers at UC Davis University in California found it is the result of brain's perception of the world lags a few milliseconds behind reality.

To compensate, brain estimates where the object should go next, based on its speed and direction of travel. Mostly those guesses work very well, but if the object is moving very fast and making sudden changes of direction -- like a bouncing tennis ball -- they can give the wrong answer.

While the brain is processing the image of a moving object received from the eyes, the object has already moved on, researchers led by David Whitney, associate professor at Center for Mind and Body and the Department of Psychology, found.

The common flaw in the visual system -- also known as a "perceptual bias"-- has rarely been documented in sports, the researchers say.

Whitney and his team reviewed a random set of 4,457 points from the 2007 Wimbledon tournament. All instances when the tennis ball landed close to or on the line were recorded, and three trained observers individually watched each play. They also examined instant replays.

SHANGHAI FIELD

Simon and Blake will be alternates if a top player withdraws.

TSONGA TAKES PARIS

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat defending champion David Nalbandian 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Paris Masters on Sunday and qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup.

The 13th-seeded Tsonga clinched his second career title and became the first Frenchman since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001 to win the indoor tournament in Bercy.

MASTERS CUP: SUNDAY SHOWDOWN!

 

James Blake's defeat means that Juan Martin Del Potro has qualified for Shanghai. The eighth and final spot will go to the winner of Sunday's final here between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Nalbandian.

If Tsonga wins,he will be the 8th player and  then Gilles Simon will be the 9th [injured reserve] player. If he loses, Tsonga himself will occupy that spot.

For Nalbandian, it is all or nothing.

LAST TANGO IN PARIS

Defending champion David Nalbandian beat Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 Saturday to set up a Paris Masters final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

 

 

 

 

 

Tsonga defeated 11th-seeded James Blake 6-4, 6-3 and could become the first Frenchman to win this event since Sebastien Grosjean in 2001.

The wins also kept the eighth-seeded Nalbandian and 13th-seeded Tsonga on course for a place in the season-ending Masters Cup.

The winner of Sunday's final will go to Shanghai with Juan Martin del Potro, who clinched a spot because of Blake's loss.

AP

SHANGHAI ON TSN

PARIS SEMIS

Nikolay Davydenko (No6) – David Nalbandian (No8)

24 hours ago, few would have been expecting this particular semi-final line-up. The great shame of the quarter-finals however is that we did not get to see Nikolay Davydenko do battle with a fully fit Rafael Nadal. The 2006 BNP Paribas Masters winner has been getting better and better as the tournament wears on and is very much the pleasant surprise of the tournament after a run of poor results this autumn.

The match will be a battle between a model of consistency and a flawed genius. Davydenko is solid as a rock when he’s in a rhythm, while David Nalbandian is the kind of person who can beat anyone on the world on his day with his variations of pace and length. The No8 seed took out the form player of the tour Andy Murray in the quarter-finals, and with a Davis Cup final to look forward to next month, Nalbandian seems to have got his appetite for tennis back. Particularly since he is now only four sets away from becoming the first holder to retain his title at Bercy, and also qualify for the Masters Cup while he is about it.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No13) – James Blake (No11)

Whatever happens, Tsonga has won the hearts of the Parisian crowd already with his incredible three-set wins over Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick on consecutive days. The crowd will be looking forward to another show in Saturday’s second semi-final and will be right behind the spectacular and charismatic 23-year-old. His three-hour epic against Roddick will no doubt have taken its toll on him, while his opponent has enjoyed a day off.

James Blake has had a far easier passage through to the semis, with Roger Federer pulling out just before their quarter-final clash. The New Yorker struggled to get past Italian youngster Simone Bolelli in the second round, but he now finds himself a mere two sets away from a Masters Cup berth – surely motivation enough for the 28-year-old who finished runner-up in the season-ending competition two years ago.

Tsonga is also still in the running for Shanghai – a final berth will suffice if Davydenko wins, but should Nalbandian get through, then Jo-Wil will face another winner-takes-all shoot-out. And the way he is playing at the moment, anything is possible.

NADAL'S KNEES AND ROGER'S BACK

Rafael Nadal retired with a knee injury after losing the first set 6-1 against Nikolay Davydenko in the Paris Masters quarterfinals Friday, just hours after Roger Federer pulled out of the tournament with a sore back.

Nadal had received a lengthy massage treatment on his right thigh at 4-1 down to try and loosen the muscles around his right knee but was unable to start the second set.

"When I push with the right leg all the time the knee wasn't there, the knee is going down," Nadal said. "I felt a sharp, acute pain."

The Spaniard felt nagging knee pains earlier this week, and it got worse Friday morning.

"Today when I woke up I felt it a lot. I try to practice but still feel it," Nadal said. "Later I went the doctor and the doctor gave me some anti-inflammatories."

Nadal said he has never had a similar injury and that he needs further tests before he decides whether to play the season-ending Masters Cup, which begins Nov. 9 in Shanghai.

"We are going to have the tests and everything," Nadal said. "Hopefully it's going to be fine for Shanghai, but you never know."

Federer, meanwhile, pulled out shortly before his quarterfinal against James Blake because of a stiff back, but said he didn't have a serious injury.

AP

NALBANDIAN BEATS MURRY

Fourth-seeded Argentine David Nalbandian (pictured) maintained his chances of clinching a spot at Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai by reaching the BNP Paribas Masters semifinals on Friday. The defending champion snapped the 14-match winning streak of fourth seed Andy Murray with a 7-6(3), 6-3 win in one hour and 44 minutes for a place in the semifinals.

The 26-year-old Cordoba resident must clinch his 10th career ATP title to be guaranteed of qualification for the prestigious circuit finale to be held at the Qi Zhong Stadium in Shanghai from November 9-16. With 320 points in the ATP 2008 Race, he stands 36 points behind No. 8-placed Gilles Simon of France who made a third round exit (l. to Roddick) on Thursday.

FED BACKS OFF

Roger Federer pulled out of the Paris Masters with a back injury just before his quarter-final against American James Blake on Friday.

"My back has been stiff for the last couple of days and I woke up this morning and it did not respond to the treatment I had last night."

Federer's withdrawal means the Swiss has failed to win a regular Masters Series event this year for the first time since 2003.

Federer is next scheduled to play in the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, which starts on November 9.

ARRIVING IN SHANGHAI VIA PARIS

MASTERS CUP : RODDICK THROUGH

With his win over Gilles Simon and Juan Martin del Potro's loss to David Nalbandian, Andy Roddick has secured his berth at the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai in 10 days time. Del Potro and Simon are still seventh and eighth, and will qualify unless Blake or Tsonga make the final here or Nalbandian, Verdasco or Monfils win the tournament.

No. 13 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recorded his second successive victory in three meetings over No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win in one hour and 54 minutes. Tsonga, who captured his first ATP title over Djokovic in Bangkok last month, is 41 points behind No. 8-placed Simon in the ATP 2008 Race.

THURSDAY IN PARIS

ONLY CHALLENGE "OUT" CALLS

Two tennis players are locked in a furious baseline exchange. Eventually, a line judge calls the ball "out." Should the player who lost the point protest the ruling?

Yes, a new study suggests. Researchers say professional tennis players could increase their chances of having a ruling reversed in their favor by an instant replay review if they challenge "out" calls more than "in" calls.

A study of 57 randomly selected matches during the 2007 Wimbledon tournament found that officials were more likely to err by calling a shot "out" than "in." It's not a matter of bad refereeing, scientists say, but rather, it has to do with a bias in the way humans perceive moving objects.

"When a ball is called 'in,' a player should usually not challenge the call, even when she believes it to be an incorrect call," psychologist David Whitney of the University of California, Davis wrote in the study. "Players should concentrate their challenges on balls that are called 'out."'

In the study, three scientists independently reviewed TV footage of 4,457 points from Wimbledon in 2007. Calls were spot on most of the time. Of the 83 wrong rulings, researchers found, 70 -- or 84 percent -- were instances of a shot landing in but being called "out." Only in 13 cases was a ball that landed out ruled "in."

Researchers attributed the errors to perceptual bias in which a moving target appears to be farther along its path than it really is -- a bias phenomenon also seen in the general population.

AP

PARIS WILL DECIDE 3 SPOTS IN SHANGHAI

Three spots in the season-ending Masters Cup are up for grabs.

Andy Roddick, Juan Martin del Potro and Gilles Simon hope to earn enough points to hold their rankings in the top eight and reach the prestigious year-end championship in Shanghai.

But David Ferrer is just behind Simon, with James Blake, Stanislas Wawrinka and Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all hoping a good showing at Paris will help them qualify.

Robredo beat Jeremy Chardy 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) and Tursunov defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-2. Robredo saved the only break point he faced in the first set, while Tursunov broke Mannarino's serve five times.

Tursunov next plays third-seeded Novak Djokovic, while Robredo faces No. 15 Fernando Verdasco.

Roddick dented his chances of reaching Shanghai after losing to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals of the Lyon Grand Prix on Friday. Simon picked up points there by reaching the semis, and Roddick could play Simon in the third round in Paris.

Top-ranked Rafael Nadal, 13-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko have already clinched their spots for Shanghai, but Davydenko is the only one among them to have won the Paris tournament, in 2006.

AP

ATP

GETTING SERIOUS

Roger Federer will cut exhibition matches from his 2009 schedule as he pursues Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, his agent said Sunday. Federer and Sampras played three exhibition matches across Asia last November and again in New York City last March. Such commitments won't be repeated in 2009.

AP

FED WINS BASEL

Roger Federer won his hometown tournament for the third straight year on Sunday, beating second-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 in the Swiss Indoors final.

The top-seeded Federer hit eight aces and conceded just seven points on his serve all match.

"I'm very happy, everything worked as planned," Federer said. "It was a match played at a high level."

It was Federer's fourth title of the season after victories at the U.S. Open, in Estoril, Portugal; and Halle, Germany. He is 4-4 in finals this season and 57-21 overall.

Federer improved to 10-8 against the 26-year-old Nalbandian, who won in Basel in 2002 and is a three-time runner-up.

PARIS ON TSN

DOKIC COMEBACK?

Jelena Dokic was ranked as high as four in the world, but a split from her family - specifically her over-bearing father Damir - led to her career slipping into free fall. She has since made half-hearted attempts and short-lived attempts to come back, but they’ve always come to nothing. Until now.

Very quietly, with minimum fuss or publicity, the 25-year old has been going about her business this year. It’s meant starting again right at the bottom, with no ranking and playing $25,000 events instead of the Centre Court at Wimbledon, but her effort and perseverance have paid off.

She has won 35 matches and three small tournaments, and now that she has a ranking of 187 that is enough to get her into the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open. She’s also eyeing Auckland or Brisbane, and Hobart.

"It’s been good," she said of her 2008 season. "I’ve won a lot of matches this year and gone a couple of steps forward, which is the main thing. I just need to continue working hard and playing as many matches as I can get and just continue to be there when things don’t go well.