Tsonga moves into ATP Finals contention

A victory in Vienna moved Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to a No. 7 world ranking and to seventh in the race for one of eight invitations to the ATP World Tour Finals. Tsonga took a tough 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4 decision from Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday's final of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna to inch up in the rankings from No. 8. While the move in the rankings is a plus -- Tsonga is now within one spot of his career best -- this time of year it is more important to get into position for the Tour Finals. Five of the eight spots have been grabbed by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer and David Ferrer, leaving three for the taking before the tournament begins Nov. 20. There are just three tournaments before the finals and two -- the Valencia Open in Spain and the Basel Indoors in Switzerland -- are this week. The other is the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris next week. The field in Basel features five Top 10 players and three others, including Tsonga, are at Valencia. Tomas Berdych sits in sixth in the finals standings with 2,940 points with Tsonga seventh at 2,890 and Mardy Fish in eighth with 2,875. Nicolas Almagro (2,370) and Janko Tipsarevic (2,305) are next on the list. Berdych, Fish and Tipsarevic are playing in Basel and Almagro is at Valencia. The world Top 10, in order, are Djokovic, Nadal, Murray, Federer, Ferrer, Robin Soderling, Berdych, Tsonga, Fish and Gael Monfils.