Gael Monfils will make his debut at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after becoming the sixth player to qualify for the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be held from 13-20 November at The O2 in London.

The Frenchman joins Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori in the elite field, securing his berth following Dominic Thiem’s loss today at the Erste Bank Open 500 in Vienna. Thiem is looking to join Monfils as debutants at the prestigious season finale and currently sits in the eighth position in the Emirates ATP Race To London.

“It feels great to qualify for the (Barclays) ATP (World Tour) Finals for the first time in my career,” said Monfils. “It is a great way to finish my best season on the tour and I look forward to competing against the other best players of 2016. I heard a lot of great things about the event, every match is like a final and I always love to play on a big stage.”

Buy Your Tickets Now

It has been a career-best season for the 30-year-old Monfils. He opened his campaign with a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open (l. to Raonic) and finished runner-up at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam the following month (l. to Klizan). Back-to-back quarter-finals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Sony Open in Miami then preceded a run to the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters final (l. to Nadal).

Injury forced Monfils to miss Roland Garros, but the right-hander returned to top form over the summer, winning the biggest title of his career at the Citi Open in Washington (d. Karlovic) before reaching the semi-finals at the Rogers Cup in Toronto and the US Open, both times falling to Djokovic. Earlier this month, he reached the semi-finals at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships 2016 in Tokyo (l. to Kyrgios).

Two singles and two doubles spots remain up for grabs with less than two weeks remaining in the regular ATP World Tour season. Earlier today, Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram clinched their place at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals for the first time. The South African-American duo will join Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, and Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in the English capital.

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals has welcomed more than 1.8 million fans to The O2 arena over the past seven years, establishing itself as the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world since moving to London in 2009. A record 102 million broadcast viewers also tuned in across the eight days of competition in 2015. The ATP announced last year that the event would remain at The O2 through to 2018. Tickets can be purchased at: www.BarclaysATPWorldTourFinals.com.

Norbert Gombos was already eliminated in last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Brest, France, before main draw action even began. But with the help of a withdrawal, the Slovakian made an improbable run from Lucky Loser to tournament champion.

When #NextGen star Quentin Halys was unable to take the court, the 26-year-old Gombos took his place in the draw and found his top form. He defeated fellow Slovakian and second seed Lukas Lacko in a third-set tie-break in the quarter-finals, then prevailed over Yannik Reuter of Belgium in the championship match to win the biggest Challenger title of his career.

“I was disappointed I couldn’t make it into the main draw there after a good run in Asia, but thankfully Quentin could not make it. I knew I had another chance and didn’t want to miss it,” said Gombos. “I played my best match in the final and was really happy with that. I had a really hard year with my surgery, so this victory meant a lot to me.”

But after briefly soaking in the win for a few moments, Gombos immediately had to refocus and set his sights on this week’s $75,000 Challenger in Budapest, Hungary. He prevailed in his opening match on Wednesday night over Hungarian wild card Peter Nagy before falling to seventh seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

“I couldn’t have a big celebration because I had to travel to Budapest,” said Gombos. “But me and my coach went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, had a bit to drink and lots of great food.”

After a difficult season due to injury, Gombos has turned his season around over the past two months. He’s posted a 17-6 record in Challengers since the end of August, which includes a runner-up finish in Orleans, France, and semi-final showings in Izmir, Turkey and Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite the early loss in Budapest, Gombos said he was impressed by what the tournament had to offer in its debut year.

“We have everything in one place, which is nice,” said Gombos. “The hotel is walking distance from the tournament and the court are great too.”

Roger Federer has been named the top athlete brand in the Forbes Fab 40, the world’s most valuable sports brands.

The Swiss superstar has a brand value of $37 million a year, the amount by which endorsement income exceeds the average endorsement income earned by the Top 10 earning athletes in the same sport during the past year.

Federer’s brand value is greater than NBA basketball player LeBron James ($34 million), golfer Phil Mickelson ($28 million), sprinter Usain Bolt ($25 million), golfer Tiger Woods ($23 million) and footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($19 million).

View Full Forbes Fab 40 List

Last month, the 35-year-old Federer was ranked No. 4 with $67.8 million in the The World’s Highest-Paid Athletes 2016 list compiled by Forbes. The Basel native’s commercial partners include Nike, Wilson, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Credit Suisse and Moët & Chandon.

Federer will return to the ATP World Tour at the start of the 2017 season.

Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi remain on track to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after beating local wild cards Antoine Bellier and Marco Chiudinelli 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday. Huey/Mirnyi are currently No. 8 in the Emirates ATP Doubles Race To London. There are three more berths up for grabs for the year-end showdown.

No. 2 seeds Nicolas Mahut, who is already qualified for London alongside usual partner Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Edouard Roger-Vasselin beat Henri Kontinen and John Peers 6-4, 7-6(5). The Frenchmen landed 78 per cent of first serves and saved both break points faced.

Vienna: Bryans A Win Away From 1,000

Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan are within sight of a tremendous milestone. They notched their 999^th team win at tour-level with a 6-0, 6-1 rout of hometown favourites Dennis Novak and Dominic Thiem in the first round of the Erste Bank Open 500. The Bryans, seeded second, dropped only five points on serve and needed just 38 minutes to dispose of the Austrians.

Top seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares rallied to win 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 against John Isner and Scott Lipsky. Murray/Soares bore down in the Match Tie-break, winning all four second-serve return points to prevail in 82 minutes.

No. 3 seeds Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez, who are already qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, knocked out Austrian wild cards Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-6(5). Knowle was chasing his 400^th tour-level doubles win.

Two-time champion Juan Martin del Potro returned to the Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday for the first time since he had beaten Roger Federer in the 2013 final. Apparently there were no hard feelings as a packed crowd in St. Jakobshalle welcomed the Argentine back with a rowdy applause. Del Potro thanked them with his 11^th consecutive win in the Swiss city, dismissing Dutch qualifier Robin Haase 6-3, 6-4.

The 6’6” right-hander converted all four break points and won nearly 60 per cent of his second-serve points in the one-hour, 22-minute contest. After beating Federer in both the 2012 and 2013 Basel finals, del Potro missed the 2014 and 2015 tournaments because of a left-wrist injury that caused him to miss almost all of those seasons.

He’s made quite the comeback this year, though. When he returned in Delray Beach in February, del Potro was No. 1,042 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He entered Basel as No. 42 and fresh off his first ATP World Tour title in more than 33 months. Del Potro won the If Stockholm Open title on Sunday (d. Sock).

“This year is very special… I’m just trying to enjoy all my matches,” del Potro said. “My wrist is OK. My biggest goal for this year is to finish healthy and then, if I’m still winning matches, that would be great.”

The 28-year-old del Potro, who received a wild card into Basel, will meet fifth seed David Goffin in the second round. The Belgian is in close contention for a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. Goffin is currently in 10^th place in the Emirates ATP Race To London, 190 points behind No. 9 Tomas Berdych.

Goffin needs to reach the Basel final to pass Berdych. The top eight players at the end of the season will qualify for the year-end championships, to be held 13-20 November at The O2 in London.

View the Emirates ATP Race To London