The French may not have a player in the top ten on the ATP Tour these days - so that is one up for the British - but four of their number are inside the first 20, three of whom have reached a career-high ranking this year. Richard Gasquet is having a bit of a wobble, but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Gaël Monfils are infused with the kind of confidence that makes them fascinating box office.

Tsonga's year opened with a flourish, his remarkably engaging run to the Australian Open final inspiring thoughts that he would be a title contender all year long until he hurt his right knee in the middle of the clay-court season and missed three months.

Simon, a slight figure amid the mountainous legions, has won three titles this year and Monfils has risen from No42 to No18 in the world since teaming up with Roger Rasheed, the Australian former coach of Lleyton Hewitt, two months ago. Monfils reached the last 16 of the Mutua Madrileña Masters yesterday, dousing the fire of Fernando González, of Chile, 6-3, 6-4, the second time in a week that the pair had met bringing the second straight-sets win for the 22-year-old, whose clarity of focus and sparkling serving arm delighted his new mentor. Rasheed said that he had told Monfils to regard the service box as a palace of varieties, that there was more than a single target at which to aim, that there are many forms of delivery and that he should use them all. González was never able to figure the youngster out.

Short of winning either here or in the final Masters tournament of the year in Paris the week after next, Monfils, who reached the French Open semi-finals this year, has left his flourish too late to qualify for the eight-man season finale in Shanghai, but his prospects for 2009 are vivid.

As the season winds down, so the number of retirements grows. Simone Bolelli gave up against Andy Murray on Tuesday and Jarkko Nieminen, of Finland, pulled up yesterday in the second set against Juan Martín Del Potro, of Argentina. Most disappointing of all, Victor Hanescu, the Romanian, was forced to call a halt to proceedings when he was giving Novak Djokovic, the world No3 who defeated Tsonga in the final at Melbourne, a real test.

Twice within two points of a startling victory in the second-set tie-break, Hanescu had started the third set well, but he tweaked a groin muscle and decided that playing on was not worth the risk. He was bitterly disappointed - a view not shared by the tournament organisers.