TENNIS TUESDAY: Sock Wins Paris Masters, ATP YEC Field Set, Nadal Clinches 2017 #1

SOCK ENDS YEAR WITH AMAZING RUN TO WIN PARIS MASTERS, REACH TOP 10 & QUALIFY FOR YEAR-END CHAMPIONSHIP
The player of the week was 25-year-old American Jack Sock who ended his 2017 with an amazing run that resulted in him winning the 2017 Paris Masters. That win was incredibly significant, because it qualified him into the ATP Year-End Championship and vaulted him into the ATP Top 10 for the first time. It also means that he is now the highest ranked American player on the ATP Tour, ahead of John Isner (who could have qualified himself if he had won the title instead of losing to qualifier Filip Krajinovic in the semifinals) and 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist Sam Querrey. Sock defeated Krajinovic 5-7 6-4 6-1 in the biggest match of both youngsters' careers.

THE ATP WORLD TOUR YEAR-END CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD SET
The elite eight players who have qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals year-end championship in London are (in order) #1 Rafael Nadal, #2 Roger Federer #3 Alexander Zverev #4 Dominic Thiem #5 Marin Cilic #6 Grigor Dimitrov #8 David Goffin #9 Jack Sock. Stan Wawrinka is #7 but he has ended his season with early. Both Andy Murray (#16) and Novak Djokovic (#12) have also ended their seasons early and will end the year out of the Top 10 for the first time in a long long time.

NADAL CLINCHES 2017 WORLD #1 THN WITHDRAWS FROM PARIS MASTERS
After winning Basel, Federer decided not to play the Paris Masters which meant that Nadal only needed to win one match to clinch the 2017 Year-end #1 ranking. The Spaniard did that, and then promptly withdrew from the tournament. Should Federer have played Paris? In retrospect, probably, because it looks Nadal will perhaps not be playing in London either, where he has never done particularly well, having lost in the final a few times. However, all that is past and Nadal is now the ATP's oldest ever World #1 at age 31.

GOERGES WINS ELITE WTA ZHUHAI TROPHY OVER VANDEWEGHE
The WTA basically ended its season last week when Wozniacki beat Venus to win the WTA Tour Year-End Championships in Singapore. This week the year-end championships for the Top 20 players happened in Zhuhai and Julia Goerges of Germany won the biggest title of her career by defeating Coco Vandeweghe in the final.

2017 YEAR-END WTA TOP 10 HAS INTRIGUING NEWCOMERS: COCO AND CARO.
The WTA Tour year-end Top 10 has Caroline Garcia at #8 and Coco Vandeweghe at #10. Simona Halep ended the year at #1 with Garbine Muguruza at #2, Wozniacki at #3, Karolina Pliskova at #4 and Venus at #5. Just outside the top 10 are #11 Kiki Mladenovic, #12 Sveta Kuznetsova, #13 Sloane Stephens and Goerges at #14.