The Bercy arena—the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy, to be precise—is on the other side of central Paris from Roland Garros. This is fitting, because the city’s two tournaments are opposites in virtually every way. The French Open is an outdoor spring celebration, a tennis flowering, and the traditional capstone of the old amateur spring clay circuit. Bercy, as you can see, is indoors, on a hard court that’s surrounded by concrete in a modern downtown district. The fashionable bustle of Roland Garros is replaced by a lounge-y, at times deadly, reserve here.
The former Paris Indoors is a big event in its own right, of course. It’s a traditional highlight of the fall tour, though old timers might also see it as a symbol of the endless season that came with the professional era. Either way, it’s in an odd spot these days. The tournament is overshadowed by an even bigger event, or what the ATP would like us to consider an even bigger event, the World Tour Finals, which takes place in London in two weeks. Unlike the vast majority of its tournaments, the ATP owns the WTF, so they make promoting it a priority. Bercy, at least in its early rounds, when crowds are quiet and big names are absent, can seem kind of in the way. And as far as the race for London, the field is nearly set already—Ferrer and Andy Roddick have claimed the final two spots for the moment, and they’ll be tough for anyone to dislodge. Only Fernando Verdasco, who won today, and Jurgen Melzer have a chance.
But the tournament will get better. They all do. At a certain point, they take on a life of their own, and that life will likely begin on Wednesday, when Roger Federer opens against local disappointment Richard Gasquet. Last year Federer lost early to France’s Julien Bennetteau, and Gasquet at his best is much more dangerous than Benneteau. He’s also not often at his best. If Federer gets through that, his draw to the semis is manageable—Stepanek, Almagro, Melzer and Ferrer stand in his way. What may trouble Federer the most is a letdown. His win in Basel on Sunday in front of his family was an emotional one; will he be sufficiently ready to go at it again three days later, with thoughts of the WTF to come somewhere in the back of his mind? Probably. He’s seemed eager so far this fall. He may even feel liberated by not being No. 1.
Andy Murray won’t have room for any kind of letdown in his opening match tomorrow. He faces David Nalbandian, and we all know what Nalbandian is capable of at this time of year, when it doesn’t quite count. He beat Federer and Nadal back to back here in 2007. Murray had seemed on track in Shanghai, but went off it again in Valencia. This is an important tournament for him; he’ll want to have momentum, and sufficient match play, going into his home indoor event in London. Other names of note in his section include Verdasco and Monfils. The latter is a threat, despite having just been run out of Valencia by Soderling. Monfils made the final last year, and is due someday, some year, somehow, to win a Masters event. And with the Davis Cup final on his horizon, the season won’t be over for him here. He shouldn’t be tempted to throw in the towel and get his vacation started early. Otherwise, does Marin Cilic still count as a name of note? If so, I’m noting that he is in this section as well.
The third quarter is a mixed bag. Soderling and Roddick, two semifinal losers last week, are the headliners. Roddick seemed to be enjoying a mini-surge until he ran smack into Federer; he won’t have to worry about that this time, unless they both make the final. It’s hard to tell what Soderling is going to do next. He’s a stronger and more confident player than he was once, no doubt about it; you might even say he’s now among the game’s “elite,” depending on your exact definition of that term. Still, though, Soderling can go bad on any given day. And when he’s bad, he’s really bad. He looked unbeatable against Monfils in Valencia, then fizzled completely in the third set against Ferrer.
Between Sod and Rod are Gulbis, already the beneficiary of not one but two retirements, Wawrinka, Ljubicic and Simon. The Frenchman has shown signs of life of late. Does he have it in him to knock off Soderling in the next round in front of the home folks? Can Gulbis win a tournament with six retirements? Seems like an Ernests type of thing to do.
At the bottom of the draw we have Novak Djokovic, who has played some of the best and most level-headed tennis of his career since the U.S. Open. But he must be ready for the next few weeks to be over. The Davis Cup final sits out ahead of Djokovic in the distance, an inspiration and a source of anxiety. While he is the defending champion in Bercy, it also must feel like a less-than-essential event for him.
Djokovic will need his focus, though, because there are some tricky opponents ahead. Juan Monaco, his opener, has been on a surprising indoor roll of late—he beat Murray last week, and beat a less-than-totally engaged Sam Querrey today. After that, Djokovic will get the winner of Llodra-Isner, neither a very welcome sight. On the other side of his quarter are Tomas Berdych and Nikolay Davydenko. The former is slumping, and the latter has failed thus far to rise to the indoor occasion. But I’m holding out hope. Come on, Kolya, Nalbandian threw down the gauntlet today. It's go time!