London: The eight-player singles field for the 2015 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is set. As a result of Richard Gasquet’s semi-final loss at the Swiss Indoors Basel on Saturday, both David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori are assured of their places at the prestigious season finale, to be held at The O2 in London from 15-22 November.
Ferrer and Nishikori join three-time defending champion and 2008 titlist Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, six-time former winner Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych and Rafael Nadal.
Nishikori made history last year as the first Asian player to qualify for the season finale in singles. On his debut, the Japanese star beat Murray and Ferrer to reach the semi-finals, where he fell to Djokovic. The 25 year old pushed on this season to break into the Top 4 of the Emirates ATP Rankings in March and won three more ATP World Tour titles in Memphis (d. Anderson), Barcelona (d. Andujar) and Washington (d. Isner), while also finishing runner-up in Acapulco (l. to Ferrer).
“I am very excited to go back to London,” said Nishikori. “Being part of the best eight players in the world is a big honour and something I work very hard for every day. This tournament is one of the flagship tournaments of the year for us and I look forward to coming back.”
Ferrer will make his seventh appearance at the season finale. The 33-year-old Spaniard reached the final on his debut in 2007 in Shanghai (l. to Federer) and qualified four years in a row from 2010-’13 before serving as an alternate last year, stepping in to play the final round robin match for Milos Raonic.
"It’s an honour to be back in London and be amongst the best players in the world once again," said Ferrer. "It’s been a great season for me and I really look forward to the tournament."
Ferrer has put together one of his best seasons in 2015, capturing five ATP World Tour titles – his biggest haul since seven trophies in 2012 - in Doha (d. Berdych), Rio de Janeiro (d. Fognini), Acapulco (d. Nishikori), Kuala Lumpur (d. Lopez) and last week in Vienna (d. Johnson).
Just one place remains up for grabs in the doubles field, with Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic clinching the seventh berth on Monday. They join Bob and Mike Bryan, Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau, Jamie Murray and John Peers, Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo, Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini and Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut.
