The ATP circuit has got closer to the moment when the show will close for the current season. But, the businesses are far from being completely settled as the race for the world No. 1 seat is still up. Moreover, the battle for the eighth spot at the Nitto ATP Finals is also a tight one. Thus, two Atp 500 events will try to please everyone this week with Vienna and Basel as the hotspots on the radar.
Alexander Zverev will lead the pack of Erste Bank Open in Vienna while Roger Federer will try to spice things up with another surreal run at Swiss Indoors in Basel.
He is the only one who can spoil Nadal's party by replacing him at the ATP summit. Even so, the odds are small and Federer would have to deliver a flawless tennis in order to keep his chances viable.
Federer leads an interesting draw
The ATP 500 event in Basel has quite a draw with several big names waiting to get involved in the action. Federer is not the only big fish in the water as Marin Cilic (the defending champion) will lead the bottom half of the draw. This event gives no first-round-bye privileges for the top seeds, and Federer will start his bid tomorrow. He will face Frances Tiafoe, the same player that pushed the Swiss into a five sets thriller in the opening round of the US Open earlier this year.
Ranked 76th in the world, the 19-year-old received a wild-card entry at this event. He is expected to challenge Federer on his own ground.
Assuming that Federer survives the first round, the next phase will put him inside the same battle box either with Steve Johnson or Benoit Paire. The quarterfinals can bring Adrian Mannarino (the seventh seed) or maybe Denis Shapovalov on the other side of the net.
The poll for a semis' guess is large, still, David Goffin and Jack Sock remain top names in the field.
The bottom half of the draw has Marin Cilic (seeded second) and Juan Martin del Potro (the fourth seed) as the main stars, but others, like Borna Coric, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Fernando Verdasco or Mischa Zverev, can make a deep run.
Federer needs a success both in Basel and Paris Bercy
Although the last Masters 1000 of the year may not be on his radar, depending on how things will turn up in Basel, Federer can travel to Paris for a last-minute push just before the Nitto ATP Finals in London. Nadal had decided to skip this week's action due to a knee related issue which provides with an unexpected opening for his rival.
Putting aside this mad race, Swiss Indoors Basel has been a fertile ground for Federer. He has won the event on seven different occasions and his last success here occurred two years ago after a three-set wing over Rafael Nadal.
