Top 5 Photos, October 31: Nadal plays Paris trick, Tsonga offers treat
The Spaniard moved another step closer to securing the year-end No. 1 ranking, while the 2008 Rolex Paris Masters champion erased two match points to advance Thursday.
It was another action packed day in Paris and Shenzhen as more competitors saw their runs fall short while others prevailed under pressure. These are the Top five photos from Thursday.
1. Rafael Nadal captured his sixth consecutive win over Stan Wawrinka. The Spaniard controlled the match from start to finish to post a 6-4, 6-4 win, and his 19th victory in 23 meetings with the Swiss. Nadal is three matches away from snagging his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Paris and is closing in on clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fifth time.
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2. Ashleigh Barty defeated Petra Kvitova, 6-4, 6-2, to win the Red Group and triumph over the world No. 6 for the third time this season. The Aussie, who fell to alternate Kiki Bertens in her previous WTA Finals round-robin matchup, redeemed herself, and is now just two matches away from claiming her first WTA Finals crown.
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3. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lifted his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy 11 years ago in Paris, wowed the home crowd to reach the quarterfinals. The Frenchman saved two match points in a decisive tiebreaker to deny Jan-Lennard Struff, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6). Tsonga is seeking his third ATP tour title on home soil this year, having tasted victory in Montpellier and Metz, both indoor hard-court events.
4. Grigor Dimitrov faced Dominic Thiem for the first time since their 2017 ATP Finals clash, where Dimitrov slipped past the Austrian. In Paris, Dimitrov posted a dominating 6-3, 6-2 score to upset the world No. 5 and advance into the ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals. The Bulgarian will attempt to keep his winning momentum going when he takes on Cristian Garin in their first career meeting.
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5. Belinda Bencic, who was the last player to qualify for the WTA Finals Shenzhen as a result of her Moscow title run, finished second in the Red Group to reach the semifinals. The Swiss trailed 5-3 in the first set but dug deep to win five successive games against Kiki Bertens. Trailing 7-5, 1-0, the alternate retired due to illness, giving Bencic her WTA-leading 11th Top 10 scalp of 2019.
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