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Secondary players:
Trying to get excited about the yearend's lesser contenders

Plus: WTA needs to change yearend race rules;
thoughts on Borg v. Fed; Inside Tennis expansions

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

Joao Lagos Sports

Tommy Robredo has a shot at a Madrid slot.

In America, the end of sporting regular seasons often comes down to coverage of potential wild card teams (baseball and football) or clubs that grab the eight and final spots in their conferences (basketball and hockey). Due to the relative newness of the baseball wild card and the fact that only eight teams make the playoffs (one wild card in each league plus three division winners each), there have been occasions when red-hot wild-card teams have gone all the way and won the World Series (Florida twice, and Anaheim and Boston once each). Only four wild card teams have won the Super Bowl in the past 26 years. In basketball, eighth seeds rarely go beyond a round (for the first time in NBA history, an eighth seed upset a first seed last year when the Golden State Warriors took down the Dallas Mavericks, but then they ended up losing to the Utah Jazz in the next round). The lowest seed to win the NBA Championships was the '02 LA Lakers at No. 3.

The focus on tennis' final weeks is much the same: Who will grab the last spots for the yearend championships (YEC) in Shanghai and Madrid? Daniela Hantuchova and Maria Sharapova took the last two spots for Madrid (Venus Williams pulled out and Hantuchova had a strong end to the year, winning Linz).

This week in Paris a slew of men are trying to qualify for the final two spots in Shanghai and, as of a Tuesday with No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez falling to dark horse contender Mikhail Youzhny, the two Tommys – Robredo and Haas – like their hopes a little more, and James Blake, Tomas Berdych and Andy Murray have taken heart, too.

But regardless of who qualifies, do any of those men have a serious shot in Shanghai against Mssrs. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic?

Maybe Murray, because he's fresh and likely would have already qualified had he not spent months off the tour due to a wrist injury, but you can't convince me that any other guy does. So what's to get excited about this week? A Robredo-Youzhny semi for the seventh Shanghai spot on one end of the draw, or a Blake v. Murray quarter to face Federer in the semis and the loser snaring the eighth spot? Not too bad, but for general sporting fans, there isn't a lot to grab on to.

Tennis fans are closely following the races because outside of the sickening gambling revelations, that's all they have to focus on this week, but I can guarantee that once Madrid starts next week and when Shanghai kicks off in two weeks, their attention will be on who can actually win the event, not who snuck in at the last minute.

Speaking of which, while Hantuchova's march into the YEC was admirable, she has little chance of reaching the final four. Neither does Sharapova, whose shoulder is not yet 100 percent and which could easily break down after a match or two. Not being a lover of practice and off-court training, Maria badly wants to be out there competing, but she's taking a sizeable risk by playing and could end up paying for it in January.

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Secondary players: Trying to get excited about the yearend's lesser contenders

Secondary players:
Trying to get excited about the yearend's lesser contenders