Fitting End to a Wild Year

Well, it all comes down to this.

It’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. David Nalbandian not only for the Masters Series Paris title, but also for the last spot in the year-end Masters Cup. The winner is in. The loser is out. It’s as simple as that.

Sure Tsonga could still get in with a loss if Nalbandian decides not to play, and the Argentine has said that he won’t, choosing instead to focus on Davis Cup. Still, there’s something to be said for legitimately qualifying as a member of the prestigious top eight as opposed to getting in through the back door.

Regardless of whatever transpires in the aftermath of Sunday’s final showdown, it’s without question a monumental meeting between Tsonga and Nalbandian. And it’s one heck of an appropriate end to a chaotic 2008 season on the ATP Tour.

In recent years, Roger Federer dominated everything other than the clay-court swing and Rafael Nadal dominated the dirt. There was little left for anyone else and little suspense for fans. That’s not to say a dominant Federer and Nadal are bad for the game (quite the contrary!), but it does mean that tennis fanatics knew exactly what to expect and could bet their life savings on almost every outcome of every tournament.

In 2008, the only thing to expect was the unexpected.

Nadal owned the game for a while this season, but a lot of new contenders took turns capturing the imagination of the tennis world. Federer came out of the gates hindered by illness and Novak Djokovic took the Australian Open and the Masters Series Indian Wells. Then it was Nadal’s turn to roll through the clay-court campaign in record fashion. He followed that up with massive titles at Wimbledon and the Olympics.

Juan Martin Del Potro emerged thereafter, winning every single one of the four tournaments he played in between Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. In New York he finally fell to Andy Murray, the next man in line to steal the show. The Scot reached the final in Flushing Meadows after winning the Masters Series Cincinnati, then he captured a second straight Masters Series shield by hoisting the Madrid trophy. A week later he successfully defended his St. Petersburg crown.

Adding the craziness in 2008 were plenty of surprise winners and finalists. Tsonga started the trend off by finishing runner-up at the Australian Open. The Frenchman is a borderline superstar, but that run still came out of pretty much nowhere. Sergiy Stakhovsky won in Zagreb, Kei Nishikori won in Delray Beach, Steve Darcis won in Memphis, Marcel Granollers won in Houston, Victor Hanescu won in Gastaad, Albert Montanes won in Amersfoort, and Igor Kunitsyn won in Moscow.

Even Philipp Petzschner won in Vienna. Who? Andrey Golubev finished runner-up in St. Petersburg. Who?

Gilles Simon, once known as tennis’ ultimate “pusher,” is now heralded as a fighter of Spartan-esque proportions. Nobody can say they saw Simon being the second alternate for Shanghai coming!

And that takes us to this. There’s one day left of the regular season, and the Masters Cup picture is about as dark as the All-England Club was at the end of Nadal-Federer!