I’m in Paris until Thursday for the BNP Paribas Masters (aka Bercy Masters). There’s usually plenty at stake in the ninth and final Masters 1000 event of the year: the race for world number one ranking or the battle for a place in the season-ending London finals. But this year, the eight players who have secured their spots are already known: Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych, David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori.
I have however big expectations for this tournament:
– I’m eager to see the “new” Bercy arena: the POPB that hosts the Bercy Masters has been completely renovated (read more about the modernization project)
– I didn’t manage to get tickets for the Davis Cup final, so I would like to see the clash between Andy Murray and David Goffin in the third round. I also would like to see Rafa Nadal and Kei Nishikori.

My first impressions about the renovated arena: everything looks so … grey: the court, the seats, the hallway. It’s quite depressing! The food is expensive, as usual: €8 for a pizza slice, €4 for a 50cl Coke bottle! If you plan to attend the Bercy Masters next year, bring your own food. There’s also a bakery just in front of the arena where you can buy good sandwiches. On the plus side: free wifi is now available in the arena, and the seats are much more comfortable!

Below, today’s order of play. I arrived just in time to watch the second match on centre court: Tomic vs Fognini. That’s one of the great things about Masters 1000 tournaments, you can watch two top 20 players clash in the first round.

Bernard Tomic defeats Fabio Fognini

Two unpredictable players but a boring match. The match looked exciting on paper, but only on paper. Fognini was the first to break his opponent’s serve, but he made unforced errors after errors and didn’t look concerned in the match anymore; 6-3 6-2 for Tomic in under an hour.

Dusan Lajovic defeats Nicolas Mahut

A disappointing performance by the Frenchman who lost in straight sets to qualifier Dusan Lajovic. A good season nonetheless for Mahut for captured his third singles career title, reached the Australian Open doubles final and won the US Open doubles title with Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Alexandr Dolgopolov defeats Jiri Vesely

After Mahut’s first set loss, I made my way to court 1 to watch the second set of Dolgopolov/Vesely. There are in fact 3 courts in Bercy: centre court where big names and Frenchmen play, and the much smaller courts 1 and 2 (about a few hundred seats each). There are often interesting matchups on court 1, like Nishikori vs Robredo last year . 6-3 7-6 for Dolgopolov who’ll face David Ferrer in the second round.

Tomas Berdych/Radek Stepanek defeat Fabrice Martin/Lucas Pouille

The Czechs rallied from one set down to defeat the French pair 3-6 6-0 10-4. More pictures here.

And that’s it for the morning session.

Benoît Paire defeats Gael Monfils

It all started well for Gael Monfils:

but then he lost his focus, and 5 games in a row, perhaps he thought the match was already over?

and Monfils ended up losing the match 6-2 6-7 4-6! Benoit Paire will meet another Frenchman in the next round: Gilles Simon.

I left the arena after the second set and guess who I met in the subway?

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