A week ago, Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep -- 20 and 23, respectively -- cracked the elite code and found themselves playing for the first time in the WTA year-end event.
After another spirited day at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, the ATP World Tour also has a pair of first-time year-enders. Milos Raonic, 23, and Kei Nishikori, 24, qualified Friday for the Nov. 9-16 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, filling the last two spots in the elite eight-man field.
The Saturday semifinal lineup, which can be seen on ESPN3, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET, features Novak Djokovic versus Nishikori and Tomas Berdych versus Raonic.
On Friday, Raonic beat Roger Federer 7-6 (5), 7-5, while Nishikori handled David Ferrer 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a dramatic match that ended past 12:30 a.m. local time.
Earlier, Berdych qualified for the Barclays for the fifth consecutive time with a 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kevin Anderson.
With the last three London slots still available when matches began in Paris, the four quarterfinals played out in an awkward way. Berdych locked down his spot in the first match, on the basis of reaching the semifinals.
But Raonic, even with the win over Federer in the second -- which he called the biggest victory of his life -- wasn't guaranteed a trip to London until the evening's final match, Nishikori versus Ferrer, was contested.
Strange as it was, the 23rd meeting between Djokovic and Andy Murray -- the only one on the card featuring two Grand Slam singles champions -- was almost an afterthought since it had no impact on qualifying.
For those of you purists scoring at home, Djokovic defeated Murray 7-5, 6-2.
For Raonic, it was an odd sensation.
"It would have to be up there definitely at this stage of my career sort of the level I have gotten myself to, that's for sure," he said after his first win in seven tries against Federer. "And considering all the circumstances around it, I think this was the biggest win for me."
It was also the Canadian's first career win over any among the threesome of Federer, Djokovic or Rafael Nadal.
"Yeah," Raonic said, "it's all very good. But knowing -- sort of everything that's on the line this week. There is a lot of sort of humility to it, because there is a lot more I've got to keep going about and finding a way to win."
Raonic served huge against Federer, firing 21 aces and suffering only one double fault. He won 40 of 47 first-service points (85 percent) and was an even more impressive (relatively speaking) 15-for-23 on second serves (65 percent). Ultimately, Raonic converted one of his two break-point opportunities, the only one for either player in the entire match.
Raonic said he'd be watching the Nishikori-Ferrer match, but not before fulfilling certain, uh, needs.
"I'm not going to delay my dinner to watch some tennis tonight," Raonic said. "When I have a chance, I will be in my room and I'll be watching."
Raonic, assuming he was still awake, saw a classic. Nishikori was down 5-2 in the second-set tiebreaker and at one point in the third set lost eight consecutive points. Yet he wore down the relentless 32-year-old Spaniard in a match that clocked 2 hours, 43 minutes. He'll be the first Asian-born player to compete in the ATP championship.
How close are these guys? Nishikori led their head-to-head coming in by a slender 4-3 margin. And even though he won both of this year's matches -- at Masters events in Miami and Madrid -- they each went three sets, and featured a total of three tiebreakers.
With a win, Ferrer could have forced a Super Saturday showdown that saw three players vying for the last two spots in London on the regular season's penultimate day.
Berdych, meanwhile, struggled initially, losing a first-set tiebreaker to Anderson before rallying to beat him for the 12th time in as many career matches. Berdych actually out-aced the big-serving South African 16-12.
"No matter how many times you make [the year-end championship], it's probably never going to [be a] routine thing," Berdych said. "It's always just proof of having a great season, and especially in this era of tennis when you have the guys like [Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Murray], and then so basically you kind of fight for only four spots, I would say.
"So it's not easy. Really, what I really like especially this year, it's that I made it like myself. That I don't have to wait for anybody to lose or win. That's definitely the best feeling."