This coming week is the ATP 500 events in Beijing and Tokyo and with the withdrawal of Djokovic from Beijing, there will be a new winner than the past four years. In the last 7 years, only one other player than Djokovic won the title(Berdych) but he will play Tokyo.

You can view the draw for Beijing here and for Tokyo here. For Beijing, I think the winner will come from Murray, Nadal, Thiem, Raonic, and Pouille. For Tokyo, I think the winner will be among the top four seeds Nishikori, Monfils, Berdych, and Cilic.

Murray only has Thiem in is half while the bottom half should be interesting with Nadal, Raonic, and Pouille battling out for a place in the final. Nadal and Pouille are in the same quarter which means the possibility of a US Open fourth round repeat.

Today’s ATP finals:

Khachanov d. Ramos
6-7 7-6 6-3, in 2:39

Berdych d. Gasquet
7-6 6-7 6-3, in 2:39

— Jeff Sackmann (@tennisabstract) October 2, 2016

Thiem and Zverev are drawn to meet in the first round which will be interesting too. They have already played each other four times(all on clay) and Thiem leads 3-0.

In Tokyo, I like Nishikori’s chances after the withdrawal of Stan(last year’s winner) because he is playing at home and has already won the title twice. But, of course, Cilic can be very dangerous and so can Monfils and Berdych.

It’s nice to have two of the big four back this week as well as Pouille who is an exciting prospect for the future. Hopefully, we will see some good matches that keep us busy until Shanghai next week!