The 22-year-old Romanian won more titles than anyone except Serena Williams this year, charging within range of the top 10.
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Stanislas Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych open play in Group A, while Richard Gasquet and Juan Martin Del Potro kick off Group B.
The year-end championships will offer compelling entertainment from the first day forward.
The last Masters 1000 tournament of 2013 unfolded along a course more predictable than usual, but not entirely without surprises.
A range of rising stars and veteran journeymen pursued the rankings boost available at this Challenger event.
The Swiss and the Serb met five times each year between 2009 and 2012, but they have not collided at all this year.
The former top-10 player rediscovered his appetite for the game when he returned from a controversial bowl ban in Paris.
Despite a disappointing end to his season, the Frenchman can look forward with hope to 2014.
While Serena Williams entrenched herself as the clear No. 1, the hierarchy below her looks less clear.
Once a superpower of women’s tennis, Russia fields a team with no woman in the top 100 against a loaded Italian squad.
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