Lucas Pouille climbed into the ATP Top 20 on the back of his weekend success in Vienna as Rafael Nadal targets the end of year number one spot. Pouille was the biggest mover in the latest rankings released Monday with the Frenchman up seven places into 18th after his 6-1, 6-4 defeat of compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday’s final in Austria.
Nadal heads an unchanged top three from Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Federer won his eighth Swiss Indoors title in Basel on Sunday then announced he was missing this week’s Paris Masters to prepare for the end of season World Tour Finals in london.
The Swiss legend’s absence from Paris means Nadal can guarantee ending the year top of the charts by winning his second round match in Paris.
The Spaniard will open his campaign at the Bercy arena against either German serve-and-volleyer Mischa Zverev or Hyeon Chung, the promising South Korean Hyeon Chung.
Halep on top, Wozniacki climbs to third
End-of year world number one Simone Halep topped the latest WTA rankings released on Monday with Caroline Wozniacki up three places into third after the Dane’s WTA finals success in Singapore.
Halep became the 13th year-end women’s number one despite struggling at the WTA Finals winning just once to bow out at the round-robin stage. The Romanian reached the top ranking for the first time earlier this month and narrowly held on when world number three Karolina Pliskova lost her semi-final in Singapore. Former world number one Wozniacki beat Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 in Sunday’s final.