competition at the US Open where he was defeated in the third round (lost to Robredo). Tsonga won his first career title in a rematch of the Australian Open final in the International Series event of Bangkok (def. Djokovic), and earned his Tennis Masters Cup qualification with his second career title (his first Masters Series shield) at the Paris Masters (def. Nalbandian). After Nadal's withdrawal on November 3, the ninth player of the ATP Race, Gilles Simon of France, was elevated to the playing field, for his first career qualification. Gilles Simon, one of fifteen Frenchmen of the ATP Top 100 at the beginning of the year, did not perform well in Grand Slam events, losing in the third round of the Australian Open (lost to Nadal), the first round of the French Open (lost to Štěpánek), the third round of Wimbledon (lost to Gasquet), and the third round of the US Open (lost to del Potro). His ninth place at the race resulted from three titles in Casablanca (def. Benneteau), Indianapolis (def. Tursunov), and Bucharest (def. Moyá), a semifinals run at the Canada Masters, and a final at the Madrid Masters (lost to Murray). Doubles The first two teams to qualify for the year-end doubles tournament were selected on July 9. They were World No. 1 duo Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan from the United States, and then-ATP Race-leaders Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjić of Serbia. The Bryan brothers qualified for their sixth straight Tennis Masters Cup appearance (withdrew in 2007), while Nestor qualified for the tenth time, the first with another partner than Mark Knowles, and Zimonjić qualified for the third time. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan started their 2008 season with an unsuccessful defense of their 2007 Australian Open title, where they were upset in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open (lost to Bhupathi/Knowles). The Bryans matched their 2007 French Open performance with a quarterfinal appearance in Paris (lost to Cuevas/Horna), but were again upset before the final in Wimbledon (lost to Björkman/Ullyett), leaving the tournament without ever dropping serve. When they qualified, the Bryan brothers had already reached eight finals, losing five – in Sydney (lost to Gasquet/Tsonga), Delray Beach (lost to Mirnyi/Murray), San Jose (lost to Lipsky/Martin), Las Vegas (lost to Benneteau/Llodra), and Hamburg (lost to Nestor/Zimonjić) – and winning the other three in Miami (def. Bhupathi/Knowles), Barcelona (def. Fyrstenberg/Matkowski), and Rome (def.