That’s it for the Asian tour—it was short, but the Chinese fans’ enthusiasm for the game's biggest names was as sweet as ever. The big winners were Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer (more on him from me later today), both of whom walked away with their fourth titles of 2014, solidified themselves at No. 2 in the rankings, and made us highly curious about their immediate futures.

As for our immediate future as fans, we now cast our eyes back one more time to Europe; following the tour at this time of year feels a little like following a tennis ball as it crosses from one side of the net to the other. The indoor season—also known as the homestretch—begins today. Here’s a look at the five tune-up events that get us started. While the women are mostly biding their time before the year-end championships in Singapore, the men are still sprinting toward London. A total of 335 points separate the No. 6 through No. 10 positions. Which makes it a little less surprising that nine of the ATP’s Top 15 are competing in what we would normally consider a down week.

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Moscow
$776,620; 250 ranking points
Hard court
Draw is here

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

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Let's hope they like ’em long and lean in Moscow. Milos Raonic and Marin Cilic are the top two seeds here, and the two players who would qualify for the World Tour Finals if the cut-off were today. Raonic has more at stake; he’s No. 8 in the race, and the No. 6 Cilic has a Grand Slam title to fall back on. But each is making a push: This is Milos’s first appearance in Moscow, and Cilic’s first since 2007.

Also here:

Mikhail Youzhny: Fourteen of the 25 men's champions in Moscow have been Russian; Youzhny was the last, in 2009.

Ernests Gulbis: Last year he won an indoor title in Russia, in St. Petersburg. Here he’s scheduled to play Raonic in the semis. Before he got to China, he seemed, like his spiritual mentor Marat Safin always was, to be a likely candidate for a strong late-season run. Then he lost in his opener in Shanghai.

Ricardis Berankis: The tough-luck Lithuanian lost in the final round of qualifying at the French, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. This time he made it over the hump.

Stockholm, Sweden
*$658,675; 250 ranking points

Hard court

Draw is here*

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The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

“If,” Rudyard Kipling might have written, “you win in Stockholm, you come back to Stockholm.” That’s the case for the Top 2 seeds this year: No. 1 Tomas Berdych was the champion in 2012; No. 2 Grigor Dimitrov succeeded him as the winner in 2013.

Berdych and Dimitrov are also the only two players here with a chance to get to London, though neither has been roaring toward the finish line. Dimitrov, who is down to No. 11 in the race, hasn’t been past the quarters since July, and he suffered a bad loss to Julien Benneteau in the second round in Shanghai last week. Berdych revived himself in China, but he had a rough summer. He also received a rough piece of news yesterday; Ivan Lendl told his fellow Czech he was "too busy" to coach him next year.

Also here: Leonardo Mayer. The near-conqueror of Roger Federer in Shanghai will pass Juan Martin del Potro as the top-ranked Argentine this week. He’s in Berdych’s half.

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Vienna
*$658,675; 250 ranking points

Hard court

Draw is here*

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

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Another tournament, another bank sponsor—and this one, Erste Group, only received $2 billion from the Austrian government after the financial crisis. Not too shabby.

The word “wild” isn't often the first word that springs to mind at the Vienna event, but this year is different: Two wild cards, David Ferrer and Andy Murray, are the top two seeds, and they need points. Ferrer, who typically plays every event he can down the stretch, has a good reason to grind himself into the ground this season: He’s currently ninth in the race, 35 points behind Raonic.

Murray has joined Ferrer on his excellent adventure; this is the first year since 2008 that he’s entered four straight events after the U.S. Open. Muzz also needs the points if he’s going to make it back to London; he's currently in 10th position.

Murray, who could face Vasek Pospisil in his opener, and a hot-hitting Feliciano Lopez in the semis, has a slightly tougher draw then Ferrer. Lopez has just reached a career-high No. 14 at age 33.

First-round match of very minor note: Two guys named Lukas, Rosol and Lacko, face each other.

Moscow
$710,000; WTA Premier
Hard court
Draw is here

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The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

The Week in Preview: Into the Homestretch

When Dominika Cibulkova cracked the Top 10 for the first time, in Miami in April, she said she just wanted to be able to tell people she had been there. Domi can still tell people that, but she’s not there anymore. The Slovak, while she's the first seed in Moscow, is down to No. 14 and seems destined to drop farther. It’s hard to remember now that she started the season by reaching the final of the Australian Open.

The No. 2 seed, and top-ranked native, Ekaterina Makarova, is also currently 10th in the race to Singapore. There’s an outside chance that No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 5 Genie Bouchard, each suffering with leg injuries, won’t make it to the year-ender; in that case Makarova might still be in the game.

First-round match to watch: Caroline Garcia vs. Aleksandra Krunic

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Luxembourg
$250,000; WTA International
Hard court
Draw is here

Another tournament, another bank sponsor—this one is the local version of the behemoth BNP. The French firm still backs pretty much everything in tennis, though this hasn’t been the best season of its career. BNP's CEO quit in September after the company was fined nearly $9 billion by the U.S. government.

But there’s still $250,000 for the women in Luxembourg. Andrea Petkovic, from across the way in Germany, is the top seed.