Arthur Fils lasted 45 minutes in his Basel quarterfinal on Friday. He took a medical timeout with Taylor Fritz leading 5-2 in the first set and stopped at 6-2, 2-0, three days before the Rolex Paris Masters, the last Masters 1000 of the season and the biggest points left before the Nitto ATP Finals.
A day earlier in Vienna, Flavio Cobolli stopped after 40 minutes of his second-round match against Matteo Berrettini, trailing 5-2 in the first set. Both men hold places in the Race to Turin that they have not yet secured, and both are seeded in the Paris draw released on Friday evening.
The one contender who settled his place this week did it in straight sets. Daniil Medvedev broke qualifier Adrian Mannarino early, broke again at 3-3 in the second set and closed with a third break to win their Vienna quarterfinal 6-2, 6-3 on Friday. The result took him past the qualifying mark for the seventh time. He missed the event in 2025 after qualifying every year from 2019 to 2024, and he plays Carlos Alcaraz in Saturday’s semifinal.
Who is in. Medvedev joins Alexander Zverev, Alcaraz and Ben Shelton. Jannik Sinner also has the points to qualify but has ended his season, so the ninth place in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin is the last one that leads to the field. Four places are open.
Who holds them. After Friday’s quarterfinals the live standings had Cobolli sixth on 3,690 points, Fils seventh on 3,525, Frances Tiafoe eighth on 3,380 and Rafael Jodar ninth on 3,209. Fils is 316 points clear of Jodar. Behind them were Alex de Minaur on 2,980, Novak Djokovic on 2,890 after his Basel loss to Jan-Lennard Struff, Fritz on 2,885 and Tommy Paul on 2,775.
De Minaur and Fritz are the two chasers still playing this week. De Minaur beat Berrettini 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Friday and plays Zverev in the Vienna semifinals. Fritz, 12th, meets Valentin Vacherot in Basel and can rise to 10th by winning the title. Cobolli, Fils, Tiafoe and Jodar are all out of this week’s events, and Paris is their next chance to add points.
The Paris draw. The top eight seeds have first-round byes, so Cobolli, Fils, Tiafoe and de Minaur do not play until the second round. Cobolli, seeded fifth, opens against a qualifier or wild card Arthur Gea. Fils, sixth, opens against wild card Kyrian Jacquet or a qualifier. Tiafoe, seventh, meets Quentin Halys or Arthur Fery, and de Minaur, eighth, meets Andrey Rublev or Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
Jodar, seeded ninth, has no bye and plays Alejandro Tabilo in the first round. Djokovic, 10th, plays Vacherot, and Fritz, 11th, plays a qualifier. Under the ATP rulebook, a seed who receives a bye and then loses his first match is treated as a first-round loser and receives first-round points, 10 at a 56-draw Masters 1000.
Why Paris matters. A Masters 1000 title is worth 1,000 points, and Paris ends on 8 November. The Stockholm Open, an ATP 250 from 8 to 14 November, is the last event on the calendar before the eight-man field plays in Turin from 15 to 22 November. Withdrawing from a Masters 1000 main draw also carries an automatic zero in the ranking, which is one reason a player with a fitness question tends to start the tournament rather than pull out in advance. How the field is completed if a qualifier cannot play is in ATP Finals alternates explained, and the format and prize money are in our ATP Finals guide.
What’s next. Paris qualifying is played on Saturday and Sunday, and the main draw starts on Monday, 2 November. Dates, points and past champions are in our Rolex Paris Masters guide, and Zverev arrives as the incoming world No. 1.
