Your shoulder hurts after a long year and probably needs further rest to let it fully recover ahead of the World Tour Finals, yet one match here in Paris can earn you $1.6m.

This has been playing on Novak Djokovic's mind ever since the world number one lost to Kei Nishikori in Basel last week.

I'm talking about the ATP "bonus pool", the incentive scheme to make sure all the top players compete in the mandatory Masters 1000 tournaments.

Djokovic is clearly nowhere near full fitness. The shoulder problem which has bugged him since the American hard court summer still persists and forced him to lose a final set 6-0 to Nishikori, yet there is enormous financial pressure for him to appear in the French capital.

He may have won more than $10m in prize money this season but the dangling bonus-pool cheque is almost impossible to ignore.

