It’s that time of the year again when the attention of the tennis world begins to focus on who will qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Only this year’s best eight singles players and doubles teams will qualify to compete for one of the greatest prizes in our sport. London’s iconic O2 arena will again play host to the world’s biggest indoor tennis event from November 13-20.

Players earn their place at the season finale by finishing in the Top 8 of the Emirates ATP Race To London on November 6, when the ATP World Tour regular season concludes after the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. The Race is a calendar-year points race that starts at the beginning of each season in the first week of January. The players who win titles in Brisbane, Chennai and Doha typically will share the Race lead after the first week of the season.

Throughout the season a player adds his best eligible results from up to 18 tournaments to his Race points tally. Winning a prestigious ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title earns the champion 1000 points. Titles at ATP World Tour 500 and 250 level tournaments return 500 points and 250 points respectively. Players who don’t win the title still earn points based on how far they advance in the draw.

The Race differs from the Emirates ATP Rankings, the historical world rankings.  A player’s ranking is determined by his best 18 tournament results over the preceding 52 weeks. A high ranking is needed to get into the world’s best tournaments and rankings also determine if a player is seeded. Novak Djokovic is known as the World No. 1 because he sits atop the rankings. Milos Raonic is known as a Top 10 player because he is No. 7 in the rankings.

More often than not, a player’s Race standing is different to his ranking. For example, Gael Monfils is sixth in the Race but eighth in the Rankings because he has enjoyed relatively more success in 2016 than over the longer time period of the past 52 weeks. Rafael Nadal is eighth in the Race but fourth in the Rankings because his strong post-US Open results from 2015 only count towards his 52-week ranking and not his 2016 Race standing.

In the latter part of the season, a player’s focus turns to his position in the Race because it becomes an accurate predictor of what the player’s year-end ranking will be. And, of course, the Race determines who makes it to London.

Djokovic, Andy Murray and newly minted US Open champion Stan Wawrinka are the three players who have already booked their spots at The O2. Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori are highly likely to return to London as both already have more points than the 4,035 points earned by Nishikori last year to clinch the final spot.

In sixth and seventh places respectively in the Race, French showman Monfils and 23-year-old Austrian Dominic Thiem both have a strong chance to make their debuts at the season finale. Thiem is just five points clear of Rafa Nadal, but 675 points clear of ninth-placed Czech Tomas Berdych, who missed the US Open due to appendicitis, and 805 points ahead of 10^th-placed Marin Cilic, a recent winner of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati.

Thiem boosted his London hopes with a fourth-round showing at the US Open, where he said reaching the season finale was a strong goal. “It would be an unbelievable bonus to an incredible season that I’m having,” he said. “One or two years ago, the [Barclays ATP World Tour] Finals seemed so far away. I didn’t know how to amass that many points in one year and now I’m really in the race to it… If I make it, I would be unbelievably happy… I watch it every year and it’s a great tournament.”

Can Berdych, Cilic, David Goffin or possibly even Nick Kyrgios and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga make a late bid to break into the Top 8 in the final seven weeks of the season? With 13 tournaments – including two Masters 1000 and four 500s –  there are enough points on offer. But each tournament will take on extra significance for the chasing pack as they try to catch the leaders.

In doubles, four teams have booked their spots. No. 2 team Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares qualified en route to winning their second major of the year at the US Open and look set to battle Race leaders Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut for year-end No. 1 honours. The Bryan brothers will be back chasing a fifth title and Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez also qualified in New York. Defending champions and 2015 year-end No. 1 team Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau are in ninth position, just 30 points behind Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

Editor’s notes: Strictly speaking, the Race begins in mid November of the preceding season (the week after the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris). Results at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals are excluded, but players competing in late-season ATP Challenger Tour events earn points that count towards the next season’s Emirates ATP Race To London.

Officially, only the Top 7 in the Race are guaranteed places at the season finale. The eighth place is reserved for a Grand Slam champion positioned between 8^th and 20^th in the Race. Wawrinka, who mathematically is not yet guaranteed to finish in the Top 7 in this year’s Race, qualified for London by winning the US Open. That made him a current-year Grand Slam champion who mathematically cannot fall outside the Top 20 in the Race. If all Grand Slam champions of the current year are positioned in the Top 8 of the Race after Paris, then the Top 8 players in the Race qualify.

The ATP Challenger Tour event in Genova, Italy, was a success on the court with world-class matches and a full Centre Court throughout the week. But its impact will be felt off the court well beyond Sunday’s final, potentially helping tens of thousands of people throughout the country.

Tournaments organizers in Genova made the decision to donate all proceeds from the Challenger to earthquake victims in Italy. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy on 24 August, causing immense damage to the region.

Plenty of money will be donated to help the victims since 19,500 people attended the Challenger throughout the week, leaving the stadium at full capacity for both day and evening session. Former Top 15 player Jerzy Janowicz cemented his comeback from injury by defeating top seed Nicolas Almagro in the final. 

If you’re going to have a hitting partner, there isn’t a much better option than Roger Federer.

Rising ATP Challenger Tour player Zhizhen Zhang got to hit with the tennis legend earlier this year during the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Monte-Carlo, and has tried to use that experience to further his game. The 19 year old also has former World No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic on his side as an agent, helping him to navigate the rigours of men’s tennis.

“It was huge for me because I’m such a big fan of Roger. It lasted 90 minutes and I was so nervous before the hitting session. He encouraged me to keep improving and it was such a great experience,” said Zhang. “I love working with Ivan [Ljubicic] as well. He’s helping me be more smart on the court and become a real professional tennis player.”

Competing at this week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Nanchang, China, Zhang also recorded his first main draw win at a Challenger this year by defeating Blake Mott of Australia in a three-set opening round. After competing regularly in Challengers, he’s developed friendships with many players on tour who were pleased with his win.

“For players competing in Nanchang, I know Fajing Sun and Yecong He, especially Sun. We’ve been friends since we were 10 years old,”  said Zhang. “I’m also quite close to Daniil Medvedev, but his [Emirates ATP] Ranking is mucn higher than mine, so I need to keep pushing myself to catch him.”

Zhang made headlines last year by coming through qualifying and winning his opening round at the Shenzhen Open. He also scored a Top 100 win the following week over Ricardas Berankis at the China Open.

Just as he was reaching a new level in his tennis, Zhang fractured a bone in his foot during a training session at the end of last year. After two months of rest didn’t help, he underwent surgery at the beginning of this season.

The rising Chinese star admitted he hasn’t played his best tennis for most of this year due to not being able to properly train. But now that he’s fully healthy, he’s ready to regain the form he showed at this time last year and continue making a push towards the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings.

“Ivan and the Shanghai tennis team are always optimistic for me. They think it’s normal for a young player like me to come across this problem, but I don’t want to disappoint them or myself,” said Zhang. “I’m starting to play better, but the main thing is to not put too much pressure on myself during this upcoming Chinese season.”

He may have taken down the world’s best in Novak Djokovic to win the US Open, but did Stan Wawrinka have what it takes to beat Jimmy Fallon at a game of Wii Tennis in New York on Monday?

The Swiss was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after capturing his third Grand Slam championship at Flushing Meadows on Sunday evening. It was part of a wider media tour through New York City, which saw Wawrinka also visit ‘Live With Kelly’, Charlie Rose and Yahoo! Sports.