South Africa’s Wesley Moodie is chasing a place in the ATP World Tour Finals for the second year in a row — but with a new partner in 6ft 8in Belgium big hitter Dick Norman instead of his regular Davis Cup team-mate, Jeff Coetzee.
And with four of the eight positions already settled for the year-end finals in London, the seventh-positioned South Africa-Belgium duo will be seeking much-needed points in the current Masters tournament in Shanghai.
Seeded fifth in Shanghai and consequently receiving a bye into the second round, Moodie and Norman open their programme against the formidable Spanish pairing of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.
Already qualified for the doubles at the ATP Finals, which have been switched from Shanghai to London this year, are points leaders Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan and the estranged Indian doubles specialists Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes with Mark Knowles and Lukas Dlouhy respectively.
Although Moodie terminated his partnership with Coetzee on the ATP circuit under controversial circumstances in March, the pair were re-united for the recent World Group Davis Cup play-off against India — and gained South Africa’s only victory in the 4-1 defeat at Ellis Park.
Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Jean Martin del Potro are assured of five of the eight singles positions in the tournament. — Sapa