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Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka will miss the Fed Cup final against the United States as she continues to battle for custody of her baby son.
The 28-year-old pulled out of the US Open in August as she was unwilling to leave 10-month old Leo in California where a judge has ruled he must stay while his future is being decided.
“It’s a pity but we just can’t change anything right now,” said Belarus captain Eduard Dubrov.
The tie begins on 11 November in Minsk.
Azarenka has not played since her fourth-round defeat by Simona Halep at Wimbledon in July.
In her absence, Belarus, who are competing in the final for the first time, will rely on world number 78 Aryna Sabalenka, 19, to lead their campaign.
The United States, who are without both Serena and Venus Williams, have selected US Open champion Sloane Stephens, Coco Vandeweghe, Shelby Rogers and Alison Riske.
It was a disappointing Wednesday for a couple of Nitto ATP Finals contenders. But David Goffin, who is the next player in line to qualify for the year-end finale, continued his push for a first London appearance after playing last season as an alternate.
The Belgian managed to battle past an in-form Frenchman playing in front of his home crowd, eliminating Adrian Mannarino, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters.
The victory put Goffin within one match of guaranteeing his spot at The O2 from 12-19 November, as he has to reach the quarter-finals to clinch his year-end finale berth. Next in his path to London will be a home favourite, Julien Benneteau. Goffin won their only past tour-level meeting at this year’s US Open in four sets.
The 26-year-old was always the frontrunner to take one of two spots remaining in this year’s Nitto ATP Finals. But he has benefitted from losses by his nearest competitors. The three players directly below him at the start of the week are all out of the Paris draw: No. 9 Pablo Carreno Busta, No. 11 Sam Querrey and No. 12 Kevin Anderson.
Grigor Dimitrov, who already qualified for his first Nitto ATP Finals, continued his career-best season with an emphatic 6-4, 6-4 triumph against the in-form home favourite, Richard Gasquet.
The Bulgarian will achieve a new-career high Emirates ATP Ranking next week of, at the very least, No. 7. If he manages to win his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title of the season (Cincinnati), Dimitrov will rise to No. 3 in the world, five spots better than his previous career-high of No. 8, where he is in the standings this week. Dimitrov faces a stiff test next in ninth seed John Isner, as the pair has split their two FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, with three of four sets going to tie-breaks.
Marin Cilic, like Dimitrov, gained more momentum as the Nitto ATP Finals approach, eliminating compatriot Borna Coric, 6-4, 6-3.
Cilic will next face a familiar foe in Roberto Bautista Agut, who ousted French qualifier Jeremy Chardy in the final match of the day, 6-4, 6-1. The Croatian owns a 3-1 lead in the pair’s FedEx ATP Head2Head series, which includes a lopsided victory at Wimbledon this year, where Cilic dropped just six games over the match’s three sets. If Bautista Agut will have any chance of qualifying for his first Nitto ATP Finals, he will have to win the title in Paris.
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British number three Kyle Edmund let slip a 5-1 final-set lead as American Jack Sock surged back to win their Paris Masters second-round clash 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5).
Edmund, who won his only previous meeting with Sock in July, twice served for the match.
But Sock, ranked 22nd in the world, trained his power on Edmund’s weaker backhand wing to fight his way back.
Edmund saved two match points in the final tie-break before losing a third.
It is the final match of the 22-year-old Yorkshireman’s 2017 campaign and comes after an impressive run to the semi-finals in Austria last month that included a victory over David Ferrer.
He is expected to finish the year ranked 49th in the world.
Britain’s Andy Murray will drop out of the world’s top 10 for the first time in three years when the men’s tennis rankings are released on Monday.
The three-time Grand Slam champion finished 2016 as world number one after winning the season-ending World Tour Finals.
However, Murray has not played since July as he recovers from a hip injury,
As a result, the Scot is about to lose 2,500 points, which will see him slip from third to at least 15th.
A player’s ranking is determined by his best 18 tournament results over the preceding 52 weeks.
This means that some of Murray’s successes in 2016 Masters events, including reaching the final in Cincinnati and winning in Shanghai, are no longer counted in ranking calculations.
Murray has been unable to amass any points since reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in July.
The last time the 30-year-old Scot was outside the top 10 was in October 2014, when he was 11th in the world.
Rafael Nadal, who won both the French and US Opens in 2017, is guaranteed to finish the season as the year-end world number one.
Rafael Nadal will end 2017 as world number one after a second-round win over Hyeon Chung at the Paris Masters.
The Spaniard, who has risen from ninth at the start of the year via French and US Open victories, advanced 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 48 minutes.
“The most important moment of the year was the clay-court season and winning a 10th Roland Garros title here,” he told the crowd in his on-court interview.
Nadal, 31, will play Uruguay’s world number 36 Pablo Cuevas in the last 16.
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The 16-time Grand Slam champion did not have it all his own way in a see-sawing first set in which he and Chung exchanged two breaks apiece before Nadal broke to love in the final game.
South Korea’s Chung, 21, held his own in the second set but again crumbled in the latter stages, surrendering to love to give up the solitary break.
Nadal is 1,460 points clear of Swiss world number two Roger Federer in the world rankings and victory over Chung ensured him an unassailable lead before the World Tour Finals in London later this month.
Nadal, who also finished 2008, 2010 and 2013 at the top of the rankings, is the oldest player to finish a campaign at world number one since they were introduced in 1973.
Andy Murray, who was 2016’s season-end number one, is third with 20-year-old Alexander Zverev fourth.
BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
A shade over 12 months ago, Nadal announced a premature end to a season which had been seriously hindered by a wrist injury. It was time to turn his attention to 2017, where in his words: “I need to create pain for my opponent.”
He has done plenty of that. His second-round victory in Paris was his 66th of a season in which he has so far won six titles and contested three of the four Grand Slam finals.
His trademark forehand has been far more menacing than in recent years, but his backhand has also been very solid and his serve – especially the second serve – much improved.
Nadal’s biggest frustration has been Roger Federer. He has simply not been able to find a solution to the puzzle presented by the 36-year-old in 2017. Their four matches have all gone Federer’s way, but there may be a fifth to close the season at this month’s World Tour Finals.
The indoor hard courts there favour Federer, but there is every incentive for Nadal as it is the one major title which has so far eluded him.
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