Andy will touch down in Paris on Sunday all set to play the last Masters Series event of the year at the Palais Omnisports, Paris Bercy. Being the last big event of the year before the Masters Cup in Houston, the Paris tournament is heavily weighted in importance by players hoping to guarantee their place amongst the elite eight.

Now this particular worry does not concern Andy as he has already booked his place in Houston, but he hasn’t, as yet, determined his year end ranking. Both he and Lleyton Hewitt are gunning for the number two spot in the Entry System, a ranking that would see them in the opposite half of the draw to Roger Federer at the Australian Open.

Despite Federer’s withdrawal in Paris, there is still plenty of talent residing in the main singles draw, all hoping for a year end trip to Texas. As the number one seed, Andy has been awarded a first round bye, putting him through to the second round where he will face either Thomas Johansson or Sargis Sargsian.

Thomas Johansson is best known for his Grand Slam victory at the Australian Open over Marat Safin in 2002. However since then, he has struggled through injury (missing all of 2003) and recently lost to Andy in Bangkok. Andy also recorded a win over the Swede at Wimbledon three years ago in a slightly closer encounter. Despite this, Johansson has reached the Stokholm final this weekend and is clearly hitting form at the right time.

Andy’s record against Sargsian is not quite as comfortable as he lost their most recent meeting at the French Open last year. However with the surface being considerably different and favoring Andy’s powerful game, Andy hopes to blast his way to the next round.

Should Andy progress to round three he is seeded to meet one of Chile’s Olympic heroes, and fellow SFX client, Fernando Gonzalez. What an exciting prospect that would be. It is difficult to find two harder hitting players in the men’s game. These two always have close, competitive encounters and have played on several important stages. If you get a seat for this match, try not to blink or you may miss one of those blistering forehands that will be aplenty on the Bercy main court.

Andy has not played competitively the last two weeks, but he’s back and raring to go. With Gonzalez, Nalbandian, Henman and Agassi all in Andy’s half of the draw, the sparks should be flying and we should be in for an exciting ride!