Federer & Murray: in good form

It's difficult to know what else you can say about Andy right now but the way he has been playing during the indoor season it would be no exaggeration to say that he is the best player in the world with a roof over his head.

Mark Petchey
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PARIS MASTERS TENNIS
Starts Monday live on Sky
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Paris is the venue for this week's ATP Masters series and with the race to Shanghai hotting up, those players still vying for a place will have an added incentive.

The top four of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have already secured their place for the season's finale but I still think Andy and Federer have to be the big favourites to win the tournament given their recent form.

The stadium in Paris is pretty big and early on in the tournament it can seem pretty cavernous and lack atmosphere because it really needs to be full for it to become great, but the playing conditions will suit Andy and Federer more than Nadal.

The ball tends to bounce a little bit lower and also slower in the French capital, which doesn't really help Nadal's game. He likes the ball up and around his waist but the other players will be able to use their slice a little more effectively against him while his own spin doesn't work quite as well on these courts.

I also don't think he would have prepared as well as some of the other guys for this either because he already has the world number one spot wrapped up and I wouldn't be surprised if he has one eye on Shanghai already.

Fantastic

Murray on the other hand is going into Paris off the back of another fantastic week after he followed up his win in Madrid with another title in St Petersburg.

Mentally it would have been pretty difficult for him to get himself back up for St Petersburg after his victory in Spain, but to win in such a convincing manner just emphasises his hunger and determination to become world number one as soon as possible and also how confident he is right now.

His straight sets victory over Andrey Golubev took just 56 minutes - the shortest final on the circuit this year - but his 6-0 6-3 win over Fernando Verdasco in the semi-final was even more impressive considering Verdasco's experience.

It's difficult to know what else you can say about Andy right now but the way he has been playing during the indoor season it would be no exaggeration to say that he is the best player in the world with a roof over his head.

Prove

A player that does have a lot to prove this week is Djokovic and I feel like he needs to finish the year on a high.

Last year he sort of fell away after a long hard season but he has the potential to get some points this week and I think he needs to re-establish himself as the world's third best player.

A quick glance at the draw and I would say that out of the top four Andy and Nadal have pretty favourable routes.

Meanwhile, Richard Gasquet's withdrawal will mean that Federer's toughest test will come in his opening match when he is likely to face Robin Soderling. If he can come through that I believe he will have a pretty comfortable ride through to the semi-finals.

Looking past the top four and there are still a lot of players in with a shout for a place in Shanghai. What tends to happen in Paris is your eyes are very much on those players attempting to qualify for the season finale than on your marquee name players.

Incentive

As Brits we are still very interested because obviously Andy has finished the season so strongly that our focus is still on him, but the main focus will be on those still looking to qualify.

There is a huge incentive for the likes of Juan Martin Del Potro to win and book their flight to China.

Del Porto has already admitted feeling tired, but Paris is the perfect place to get some of that lethargy out of his system and he is someone who is still playing phenomenally well and would be my outside tip, if he can still be described as an outsider that is.

In terms of the marquee players though it's difficult to look past Andy and Federer.