Paris Masters begins this week

The final Masters 1000 tournament for 2018 begins this week in Paris, and two events leading into Paris have just concluded.

The Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna was won by Kevin Anderson (2) who defeated Kei Nishikori (5) 6-3 7-6(3)

The Swiss Indoor Basel was won by Roger Federer (1) who defeated qualifier Marius Copil 7-6(5) 6-4

The Rolex Paris Masters is indoors on Hard GreenSet, and the top seed is Rafa Nadal, the world number one.

The main draw includes 33 of the worlds top 40.  Five of the seven not in the mix are missing through injury - Juan Martin del Potro, David Goffin, Hyeon Chung, Gaël Monfils and Nick Kyrgios.  The other two lost in qualifying - Andreas Seppi and Matthew Ebden.

The sixteen seeds are from the top 18 ranked players, and all have first round byes.

The quarter finals, as per the seedings are expected to be:

• Rafa Nadal (1) v Dominic Thiem (6) 

Last meeting - Nadal d Thiem at the US Open in September 2018, 0-6 6-4 7-5 6-7(4) 7-6(5)

• Sascha Zverev (4) v John Isner (8)

Last meeting - Zverev d Isner in Madrid in May 2018, 6-4 7-5

• Kevin Anderson (7) v Roger Federer (3)

Last meeting - Anderson defeated Federer at Wimbledon in July 2018, 2-6 6-7(5) 7-5 6-4 13-11

• Marin Cilic (5) v Novak Djokovic (2)

Last meeting - Djokovic defeated Cilic in Cincinnati in August 2018, 6-4 3-6