Nadal, Berdych book Finals spots

PARIS — Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych have secured their places at the ATP World Tour Finals, leaving just two spots in the eight-man field to fill. Nadal and Berdych will compete alongside Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka at the season finale in London from Nov. 15-22. Nadal qualified for the 11th consecutive season after reaching the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters, one week on from a runner-up showing at the China Open in Beijing. The 30-year-old Berdych will make his sixth consecutive appearance at the season-ending event. In the race for the remaining two places, Japan’s Kei Nishikori and David Ferrer of Spain are currently in seventh and eighth spots. Djokovic on the rise Men’s tennis has not been short of astonishing feats in recent years but Djokovic is eclipsing even the great Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as his record-breaking season reaches a crescendo. Two titles in two weeks in China, including the Shanghai Masters, show there’s no slowing down for the world No. 1, who has climbed above the competition this year and keeps rising higher. Record points and prize money and three of the four Grand Slams, plus an aura of surreal calm, mark one of tennis’s best ever seasons — and all emerging from the most unlikely of beginnings. Serbia was at war when Djokovic was a child in Belgrade, and he remembers dodging NATO bombing raids and practicing his tennis in a disused swimming pool. Those are experiences which he says keep him grounded as he methodically pieces together a career which could yet surpass anything seen in modern times. Gluten-free Djokovic, who got married and became a father last year, says his current season is even better than 2011, when he also grabbed three Grand Slams and had a win-loss record of 70-6. This year only an inspired Stan Wawrinka in the French Open final denied him a calendar-year Grand Slam, and he has nine titles already with the Paris Masters and World Tour Finals still to come. With only five defeats and 73 wins this year, the 10-time Grand Slam-winner hasn’t lost a set since the US Open final and has convincingly beaten Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray along the way. — Agencies