Ridiculous 1st Rd Tests for Nadal, Federer, Seeds at ATP Paris Masters

The 47th edition of the Paris Masters features a ridiculous number of floaters posing opening-round threats to the 16 seeded players, including tough starts for Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Roger Federer.
ADHEREL
American Jack Sock will be tested to defend his title and avoid a huge rankings plunge.

The final two spots for the ATP Finals will be determined this week as the ATP regular season comes to an end.

ROLEX PARIS MASTERS
PARIS, France; surface: indoor hard

Seeds: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, John Isner, Grigor Dimitrov, Kei Nishikori, Borna Coric, Kyle Edmund, Fabio Fognini, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Diego Schwartzman, Jack Sock

Floaters: Fernando “Hot Sauce” Verdasco, Richard Gasquet, Denis Shapovalov, Daniil Medvedev, Gilles Simon, Lucas “Everyone Out of the” Pouille, Frances Tiafoe, (Q) Nicolas Mahut, (Q) Felicoano “F-Lo” Lopez, Alex De Minuar, Karen Khachanov, (Q) Benoit Paire, Milos Raonic, (Q) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Notes:

All 16 seeds receive opening-round byes…

Opening-round match-ups of note include (1) Nadal vs. countryman Hot Sauce, (16) Sock vs. the Gasquet-Shapovalov winner, (11) Coric vs. Medvedev, (6) Thiem vs. the all-French Simon-Pouille winner, (4) Zverev vs. the Tiafoe-Mahut winner, (15) Schwatzman vs. the Lopez-De Minuar winner, (13) Fognini vs. Paire, (12) Edmund vs. Khachanov, and (3) Federer vs. the Raonic-Tsonga winner…

Wildcards were allotted to Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Ugo Humbert and Tsonga…

Withdrawing from the field were Chung Hyeon, Juan Martín del Potro, David Goffin and Nick Kyrgios…

Jack Sock, finishing off a disastrous 2018, is getting ready to take a potential further plunge down the ATP rankings as the defending champion, in last year’s final coming from a set down to defeat Filip Krajinovic…

Former champions in the field are Sock (2017), Djokovic (2015-13,’09), Federer (2011), and Tsonga (2008).

Did You Know? Only Novak Djokovic has been able to successfully defend the long-standing Paris Masters title, winning three years in a row (2015-13). Winning then losing in the following year’s final were six players: Stan Smith (1972-73, lost to Ilie Nastase), Boris Becker (1989-90, lost to Stefan Edberg), Guy Forget (1991-92, lost to Boris Becker), Pete Sampras (1997-98, lost to Greg Rusedski), David Nalbandian (2007-08, lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga), and David Ferrer (2012-13, lost to Novak Djokovic).