page_title: 2008 Tennis Masters Cup
section_title: Withdrawals
hierarchical_section_title: 2008 Tennis Masters Cup / Build-up / Withdrawals
caption_attribution_description: English: Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg after the training during the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy 2008 Deutsch: Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg nach dem Training während dem Turnier in Stadthalle 2008
context_page_description: The 2008 Tennis Masters Cup was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 34th edition of the year-end doubles championships, and part of the 2008 ATP Tour. It took place at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in Shanghai, China, from November 9 through November 16, 2008.
  Association of Tennis Professionals No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia won his first year-end championships title in the singles event, defeating ATP No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in the final 6–1, 7–5. Four-time winner, two-time defending champion Roger Federer was defeated in the round robin stage of the event for the first time in seven consecutive appearances. Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjić of Serbia won the doubles event 7–6, 6–2 over Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the final for their first year-end championships doubles title together. With the win, they clinched the year-end No. 1 spot for the first time together. Nestor successfully defended his 2007 Tennis Masters Cup title with his new partner Zimonjić, while the other defending champion, Mark Knowles, lost in the round robin, with Mahesh Bhupathi.
context_section_description: Four days after retiring from his quarterfinal against Nikolay Davydenko at the Paris Masters due to a recurring right knee injury, ATP Race-leader Rafael Nadal announced on November 3 that he would withdraw from the year-end championships, for the second time in four qualifications. Nadal had already pulled out of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup due to a left foot injury before his opening match against Gastón Gaudio, and was replaced by alternate Mariano Puerta. Nadal's withdrawal in 2008 happened as the Spaniard was scheduled to lead his country's Davis Cup team in the event's final, to be played five days after the Tennis Masters Cup in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on indoor hard courts, against an Argentinian team led by Stockholm titlist, Basel and Paris runner-up David Nalbandian, and other year-end event qualifier Juan Martín del Potro. Nadal cited the Davis Cup final necessary preparation as another reason to withdraw from the event, saying: "I want to recover and be ready for the important Davis Cup final with my country that will be played in Mar del Plata, Argentina". He eventually announced, on November 10, his withdrawal from the Davis Cup final (set to be played November 21–23), due to his knee injury.
  Nadal's withdrawal elevated the first alternate, Gilles Simon, into the draw, making him the second Frenchman of the eight-men field, alongside Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and marking the first time that two Frenchmen participated in the year-end event since the Masters Grand Prix event of 1986, in which Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte competed. Simon was ranked eighth in the ATP Race entering the Paris Masters thanks to his final in Madrid and his semifinal at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon, where he lost to eventual champion Robin Söderling, but was knocked out of the Top Eight when he lost to Andy Roddick in the third round, and Tsonga qualified by winning the title. Simon, who flew to Shanghai with countryman and friend Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on November 5, commented on Nadal's withdrawal and his first selection for the year-end event: "I was unhappy that he had to pull out. I would really have preferred to qualify directly by finishing eighth. It's not in my nature to wish that another player can't play. [...] I'm really happy to be going there and I really want to experience this."
  On the same day, Israeli Jonathan Erlich, who had been suffering from an elbow injury since September, also announced he was pulling out from the doubles field, alongside his partner Andy Ram, with whom he had won the Australian Open in January. Hoping that Erlich would be fit to play the year-end event, Ram had continued to compete with different players between September and the last ATP Tour event before the Masters Cup. During that period, he won a Davis Cup World Group Play-off match against Peru with Harel Levy, an ATP International Series Gold title in Vienna against Philipp Petzschner and Alexander Peya with Max Mirnyi, lost to Pablo Andújar and Marcel Granollers in the first round of the Madrid Masters with Mikhail Youzhny, won another title in Lyon against Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins with Michaël Llodra, and eventually lost in the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters to Arnaud Clément and Michaël Llodra, with Bruno Soares.
  Erlich and Ram's exit allowed the first alternates, Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, to join the eight-team field days after they lost a chance to qualify regularly during the Paris Masters. Fyrstenberg and Matkowski, who had boosted their chances to qualify by winning the Madrid Masters, met Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie in the semifinals of Paris, as both teams were vying for the seventh spot of the Race.  Fyrstenberg and Matkowski were then beaten in straight sets, and denied a guaranteed spot in Shanghai. Their qualification as alternates marked their second appearance at the Masters Cup after a previous run in 2006, where they lost all of their round robin matches.
caption: Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg won their first Masters title in Madrid
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