Gael Monfils could have ripped it off, the tennis year 2019, at least as far as the entrance threshold for the ATP Finals in the London O2 Arena is concerned. There since 2009, the last major individual title of the year played, the best eight professionals of the annual standings ran. Monfils would have counted against them in a win against Denis Shapovalov, alone: The Canadian had no respect with the local hero in Paris-Bercy, sat down after not even an hour of play time with 6: 2 and 6: 2.

Matteo Berrettini will be happy about that. He is now in London for the first time, with a total score that historically represents a new brand: since the annual finals in the British capital, there has not been a player who needed just 2,670 points to qualify.

In 2018 Thiem would have been eighth

For example, Karen Khachanov did not score 2,835 points last year to qualify - John Isner was eighth to 3,155. However: If Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro had not canceled their participation, Dominic Thiem would have slipped into the field as the eighth player. And he had 3,895 points in his account.

2014 was a particularly tough one: Milos Raonic made the qualification with 4,400 points, while behind him Marin Cilic, David Ferrer and Grigor Dimitrov also played much better than Berrettini in 2019. Of course this does not speak against the Italian has set a real highlight with the semi-final at the US Open. But rather for the balance that prevails on the ATP tour.