Rafael Nadal will look to add the Nitto ATP Finals trophy to his impressive collection when he returns to The O2 this November. The Spaniard becomes the first player to clinch a berth at the prestigious season-ending tournament, to be staged 12-19 November in London, after winning his record 10th Roland Garros title on Sunday in Paris.

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“I’ve had a great season so far and I am happy to have already qualified for London,” said Nadal. “I could not play last year because of injury so I look forward to returning in November.”

Since first qualifying in 2005, Nadal has earned a place in the elite eight-man field for 13 straight seasons. He achieved his best results in 2010 and ‘13, when he finished runner-up to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic respectively.

This season, Nadal has compiled an ATP-best 43-6 match record with four titles. In addition to becoming the first player in the Open Era to claim 10 titles at a single Grand Slam tournament, he joined Novak Djokovic at the top of the all-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title leaders list, taking his haul to 30 with his triumphs at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and Mutua Madrid Open. He also won the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell title and reached three other finals, at the Australian Open, Miami Open presented by Itau (l. to Federer at both) and Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.

Six-time champion Federer – winner of the Australian Open, BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open titles – is next in line to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals and returns to action this week on grass at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. Dominic Thiem stands third in the Emirates ATP Race to London, and is followed in the standings by Stan Wawrinka, Alexander Zverev, Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray.

The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena each year, as well as generating a global TV viewership of more than 100 million, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.

A rejuvenated Roger Federer is committing to a full schedule in the second half of the season, saying that he’s had enough of practice and is hoping to quickly recapture his stunning early-season form. Fresh off a two-month break to rest his 35-year-old body, Federer returns to the ATP World Tour this week at the grass-court MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

“There are no more breaks now,” Federer told ATPWorldTour.com Monday. “I’ve had enough breaks. I’m a practice world champion now and that’s not who I want to be. I want to be a champ on the match courts. So I’m going to be playing a regular schedule for the second part of the season… And this is the beginning here at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

After an unpredictable first half of the season that now sees Rafael Nadal and Federer in first and second place in the Emirates ATP Race To London, the Swiss said that he remains surprised at how the season has unfolded. When Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic played a pulsating final in Doha in the first week of the season, most tennis fans thought that last year’s No. 1 and No. 2 finishers would wage a two-man battle for the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking again in 2017.

So far this season it has been a two-way battle for year-end No. 1… between Federer and Nadal, The Spaniard has now firmed as a strong favourite following a dominant clay-court swing that included titles No. 10 in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Roland Garros, as well as a fifth crown in Madrid. But Federer will hope to close that gap during the next five weeks on his favourite surface, grass. He’s playing the next two weeks in Stuttgart and Halle before taking a week off before chasing an eighth title at Wimbledon.

“I was terribly surprised to win the Australian Open and to back it up and win the sunshine double in Indian Wells and Miami was a complete surprise to me,” Federer said. “I think Rafa winning the French Open is less of a surprise because he’d done it nine times before… I was hoping he was going to dominate the clay-court season like the olden days.

“But I’m still surprised we were able to do it. It maybe had something to do with Murray having a bit of a letdown after his great finish to last year and Novak not playing his absolute best. We were able to take advantage of the fact that we were in great shape and came refreshed into the season after our injuries at the end of last year.”

Federer readily admits that Nadal is a hot favourite to finish No. 1 for the fourth time, but says that the second half of 2017 promises to be much more competitive than the first half.

“Obviously Rafa is in great position to finish World No. 1. For him it’s going to be all about staying injury free. For me it’s about getting back to winning ways, where I left off in Miami.

“I’m sure a lot of guys are going to start playing their best in the second half of the season, like Murray, Djokovic, Nishikori, Raonic, Zverev, Kyrgios, Stan. We’ll all be playing our best tennis. It’s going to be an epic finish to the end of the season. Quite exciting actually for the ATP Tour.”

Federer’s opening match in Stuttgart will be against the winner of Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert and German veteran Tommy Haas.

Tommy Haas is ready for one last run in Stuttgart. The 39-year-old German, who has said he will retire after this season, is making his seventh and final appearance at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart this week.

Haas, who reached the final in 1999 when the tournament was played on clay, will be making his second appearance at the grass-court edition of the event. He fell in the second round in 2015, the first year the tournament had transitioned to grass.

“I am very excited that my body is co-operating and I have the chance to play here one more time in Stuttgart,” Haas said on Monday.

The right-hander is 4-8 so far this season but he has thrived on grass courts. Two of his 15 ATP World Tour titles have come on the surface – the 2009 and 2013 Gerry Weber Open crowns in Halle.

“I’m also looking forward to Halle next week,” Haas said. “There are a lot of positive emotions after lots of gruelling hours to get ready again.”

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Haas and top seed Roger Federer visited the Stuttgart city centre on Monday morning, hitting some balls at the Schlossplatz, the largest square. It is also the home to the Neues Schloss, built between 1746 and 1807.

Federer is making his second appearance at the MercedesCup after falling in the semi-finals last year to Austrian Dominic Thiem.

“It was a great experience last year, a lovely tournament with great people,” said Federer. “So I am happy to begin the grass swing here again, playing with Tommy and doing activities in the city together. I can’t wait to play my first match on Wednesday possibly against Tommy. I’m happy to be back in tournament mode again after a 10-week spell of not playing tournaments.”

Federer, a winner of 15 grass-court titles, could meet Haas or Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the MercedesCup second round. The 35-year-old Swiss right-hander is competing at an ATP World Tour tournament for the first time since capturing the 93rd title of his career at the Miami Open presented by Itau (d. Nadal) on 2 April.

German wild cards Tommy Haas and Florian Mayer upset third seeds Florin Mergea of Romania and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 7-6(5), 2-6, 10-7 on Monday at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

Haas, 39, and Mayer, 33, saved four of seven break points and will next meet Marcin Matkowski of Poland and Max Mirnyi of Belarus. Matkowski/Mirnyi beat Spaniard David Marrero and Frenchman Benoit Paire 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.

Sixth seed and home favourite Mischa Zverev was ruthless on serve during his grass-court opener on Monday, winning 84 per cent of his service points (32/38) to beat Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri 6-3, 6-1 at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart.

Zverev hit seven aces and never faced a break point during the 54-minute victory. The 29 year old, who reached the Stuttgart quarter-finals in 2009 and 2015, is one of eight Germans in the draw and will next meet wild card and compatriot Yannick Hanfmann, who beat Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 7-5.

“I think it was a good match, and I felt pretty comfortable based on the circumstances, it’s the first match after changing surfaces,” Zverev said.

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The left-hander said he benefited from an early start on the grass-court season and a more than competent practice partner. Zverev, who lost in the first round at Roland Garros, spent a week practising on grass courts in London with his brother, #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev, who also fell in the first round in Paris.

“We played a lot of practice sets, and we had a lot of good battles. I think it definitely helped me to start off playing well today in the first round,” Mischa Zverev said.

Fifth seed Steve Johnson was forced to work hard during his MercedesCup debut to beat German wild card Maximilian Marterer 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. The American captured his first ATP World Tour title at last year’s Aegon International (l. to Cuevas), when the grass-court tournament was held in Nottingham. Johnson will next challenge Marcos Baghdatis or Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round.

German Jan-Lennard Struff also advanced, saving all eight break points to prevail past Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-4, 7-6(3) in 89 minutes.