Heading into the Paris Masters weekend, the following six players have qualified for Shanghai – Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray, Davydenko and Roddick.  That leaves two spots, which are currently held by Juan Martin del Potro and Gilles Simon, open for the taking.  Both del Potro and Simon have lost, leaving David Nalbandian, James Blake & Muhammed Ali (err, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) an open door to sneak into.  Nalbandian needs to win the event to qualify; Blake merely needs to make the finals (far easier now that he is already in the semis courtesy of a Federer default); Tsonga must make the final as well – however he is currently up against Roddick and if he wins that, will play Blake tomorrow.  By process of deduction, this all means that for del Potro to qualify, he must hope that Nalbandian does not win the title over Blake (if Blake reaches the final, it also means that Tsonga did not); furthermore, for Simon to qualify, he must hope that Roddick defeats both Tsonga and Blake (leaving both of them out of the finals).  (more…)

James Blake (who lost today in the Quarters of in Basel to Feliciano Lopez) on the “tough” season that Federer had.

Back and forth review of James Blake’s Book “Breaking Back,” courtesy of Steve Tignor & Kamakshi Tandon.  Start with the post about halfway down the page on 10/22/

Why can’t Kuznetsova win when it matters.

Comparing the ATP and WTA Number 1’s.

Updated ATP & WTA year end championship races.

Peter Bodo on Andy Murray.

More praising of the Greatest Player of All Time, who only won a gold medal and one major this year!

And as always, latest Wertheim mailbag.

So I know just posting links is a copout, but you have to understand, it is virtually impossible to pay attention to anything besides the Red Sox during the playoffs.  It is especially hard to focus when they had the second biggest comeback in postseason history last night with the season on the line, but I digress…

Steve Tignor’s latest Madrid Notebook.

The current economy affects the US Davis Cup Team.

Even in a “down” year, Federer continues to reach milestones.

Great piece from James Martin of ESPN on Roddick.

Key moments of the last decade in tennis, courtesy of ESPN.  Notice the sidebar on that page, where you can see the top moments from each decade of the Open Era.

TennisWeek interview with Mardy Fish.

Jon Wertheim compares the two Serbian at the top of the WTA, and delves into other tennis subjects in his latest mailbag.

With Game 1 of the ALCS looming, I have no coherent thoughts of my own:

Up to the minute tennis news provided by tennis.com.

Wondering what happened to Yevgeny Kafelnikov? Peter Bodo knows.

Wertheim discusses what Federer should do with the remainder of 2008, and more in his latest mailbag.

Australian Open prize money has been revealed.

Tennis Week interview with Pat Cash.

Site for Argentina vs. Spain Davis Cup Final has been announced.

More gambling news. Always exciting.

Peter Bodo’s ideas on how Federer should go about the rest of 2008.

More good news about the economy and tennis.

Not much excitement in the world of tennis right now, so for today just a bunch of links (that and all I can think of is a potential second consecutive World Series title for the sox), but as we get closer to Shanghai I’ll keep everyone posted on key matches to watch.

Official Race info from the ATP.

Ravi Ubha’s thoughts on the race, courtesy of ESPN.

Ad In/Ad Out from Jon Wertheim.

New Wertheim mailbag with more Davis Cup talk.

Pretty entertaining youtube clip of trick shots.

Some thoughts from ESPN’s Sandra Harwitt.

#1 ATP/WTA talk from Roger Waltz at Tennis.com