Nadal Loses To 17-Year-Old Coric; Ends Season; Will Miss Paris and London

Well, well, well! We first mentioned 17-year-old Croatian Borna Coric's name here a few weeks ago as a potential heir to the throne of "hottest guy on ATP Tour" but I had no idea we would be discussing him again so soon. With his stunning defeat of Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of the Swiss Indoors in Basel, Coric gave Nadal the final push out the door to end his injury-plagued season. Nadal lost 6-2 7-6(4) and then announced he had scheduled his delayed appendicitis surgery for November 3rd and would be skipping the ATP Paris Masters and the ATP World Tour Finals in London.

'It's the day to say goodbye to the season,'' Nadal said. ''It's been a very hard year for me, mentally and physically. I'm not going to play Paris and London, I'm not competitive enough for that. I need to do the surgery for my appendix and I need to work on my back.''I need five weeks of rest and I want to have one month to try to work as much as I can to be ready for 2015. The only way to work on being fit is to be healthy. I need to fix all the things in my body first.''

Although 2014 was a mediocre year overall for Nadal he still won a major (his record 9th French Open) so there's no reason to shed any tears for him! Nadal's departure from the tour should turn the focus on the battle between father of four Roger Federer and brand-new dad Novak Djokovic for the year-end #1 ranking. If Federer beats David Goffin tomorrow in the finals of Basel he will be a mere 500 points behind the World #1 as they both play the Paris and London tournaments.  Nadal's departure also means that it is more likely Andy Murray will qualify for the big show in London, and possible re-enter the conversation at the top of men's tennis.

Things could get interesting down the final stretch of the tennis season!