David Ferrer

Spain captain Emilio Sanchez Vicario is not worried about the prospect of facing a hostile Argentine crowd in the Davis Cup final this weekend..

"We know the public here understand tennis, it's a sport which is well followed," Sanchez Vicario told reporters in the resort of Mar del Plata where the final will be played from Nov. 21-23.

"It's normal for them to support the home players and to want them to win. I hope it will all be within the sporting parameters in which tennis is played. We are more worried about the players."

David Ferrer

Tommy Robredo and Dmitry Tursunov advanced Sunday to the second round of the Paris Masters, where three spots in the season-ending Masters Cup are up for grabs.

Andy Roddick, Juan Martin del Potro and Gilles Simon hope to earn enough points to hold their rankings in the top eight and reach the prestigious year-end championship in Shanghai.

But David Ferrer is just behind Simon, with James Blake, Stanislas Wawrinka and Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all hoping a good showing at the Bercy indoor arena will help them qualify.

In the end, it was much ado about nothing.

Here we all were (or many of us were, anyway) thinking Roger Federer might shut it down for the rest of the season after he skipped last week's Stockholm Open and said he didn't know when he would be back. However, it was a quick hiatus, and Federer decided to show up at this week's Madrid Masters.

He has a tough draw.

World No. 5 David Ferrer and this year’s Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will compete at the SA Open to be played in Johannesburg at Montecasino from February 2-8, 2009. Next season’s event will represent the first time a full Tour tournament has been played in South Africa since 1995.

Top seed David Ferrer began the defence of his Japan Open title with a 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over American Jesse Levine on Wednesday.

Chasing a berth at the season-ending ATP Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, the Spanish world number five recovered from a poor second set to finish off the second round encounter in clinical fashion.

"I don't care about Shanghai now," shrugged Ferrer, who suffered an embarrassing opening match exit in Beijing last week.

 Top seed David Ferrer began the defence of his title at the $969,000 Japan Open with a 6-4 4-6 6-1 victory over American Jesse Levine on Wednesday.

The Spanish world number five, chasing a berth at the season-ending ATP Tennis Masters Cup, recovered from a poor second set with a clinical finish in Tokyo.

Ferrer secured the first set when he chased down a Levine drop shot and whipped a forehand cross-court winner past his 101st-ranked opponent.

Dudi Sela is not going to sneak up on anyone this week at the Japan Open.

The unseeded Israeli opened the $869,000 hardcourt event on Tuesday with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Germany’s Bjorn Phau in one of 12 first-round matches slated.

Sela made headlines last week at the China Open, where he reached his first career final before falling to eighth-ranked Andy Roddick.