Last week, in Basel, Djokovic called a trainer out early in the second set in his semifinal match against Nishikori.  He asked for his shoulder to be attended to.  With this turn of events, Nishikori found himself in more rallies.  Even so, Djokovic had his chances to take the second set and the match.  However, Nishikori hung in there, won the second set tiebreak, and Djokovic then played quickly to let Nishikori have the 6-0 third set.

At that point, Djokovic seemed hurt enough that he might have to skip Paris.  Due to various incentives, skipping Paris meant he would lose 1.6 million dollars in bonus money.  At the US Open, Djokovic suffered from this injury too, but the every other day play for Djokovic seemed to allow him medical attention that it didn’t flare up until the finals, and even then, it was more his back than his shoulder that bothered him.

Djokovic did make it onto court where he had a pretty straight-forward over Ivan Dodig.  The first set was pretty even until near the end when Dodig was broken to give Djokovic a 64 first set.  The second set was a comfortable 63 win.  Djokovic didn’t seem the worse for wear.

Earlier in the day, David Ferrer had a workmanlike win over Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, 64 64.  Mahut upset Ferrero in the previous round by attacking off the ground and coming to net.

Tipsarevic won easily over Bogomolov, who had complained that he didn’t want to play against Bellucci, but won anyway.  Score was 61 60.

Andy Murray started off well against Jeremy Chardy taking the first set 62.  However, Chardy played aggressive and kept the second set closer.  He was down a break early, but that was enough for Murray to win the second set, 64.  Murray will face Andy Roddick in the next round.

Roger Federer, who likes to play his matches quickly, did so again against Frenchman, Adrian Mannarino.  He won comfortable, 62 63.  He’s still playing nice solid tennis, as well as he has since he had his streak last year.   The question is how Federer will fare against the best.  He’s shown he can mow down ordinary players.

Djokovic will face his countryman, Viktor Troicki, in the next round.  Troicki beat Sergiy Stakhovsky, 64, 64.  Troicki should be a good test of Djokovic’s form.

Andreas Seppi dashed the hopes of Nicolas Almagro who is 9th in the race to London.  Almagro has often struggled on the faster surfaces despite seemingly having a game that’s reasonably well suited for faster surfaces.  Seppi won 63 75. Seppi next plays Tsonga.  At this point, Almagro and del Potro (who withdrew from Paris) can not qualify for London, nor can Soderling who has been out pretty much since Wimbledon.  Tipsarevic, Simon, and Monfils still have a shot at making it.

Dolgopolov won his match against German, Kohlschreiber, 63 76.  Isner handled Kunistyn, 64 64.

Three more matches are left.  Fish is currently playing Mayer early in the first set.  Monfils will play Lopez in the late match.  Simon plays Monaco after the Monfils match.

They should play half the quarterfinals tomorrow, the rest on Friday, and semis on Saturday, finals on Sunday.