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Roger, Rafa, Novak and Andy have earned a more than $19-million (all currency U.S.) combined in official prize money in 2009. The four – Federer ($6.38-million), Nadal ($5.18-million), Djokovic ($3.82-million) and Murray ($3.61-million) – have also salted away big-time multiples of those figures in endorsement income.

With all that money and each of them worn down at the end of another withering season, it would be easy for the big boys of tennis to be mailing it in during the final two weeks of the regular season before the ATP World Tour Finals begin in London in two weeks.

But, au contraire, there have given some gutsy efforts last week in Basel and Valencia, and this week at the BNP Paribas Masters event in Paris.

In Basel, Djokovic had a gruelling 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Stanislas Wawrinka before following up the next day with a 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2 victory over Radek Stepanek, rallying from triple-match point down when he served at 4-5, love-40 in the second set.

This week, it has been Nadal performing the minor miracles. Like Djokovic, he came back from a triple-match-point deficit when Nicolas Almagro served at 5-4, 40-love in the second set (and then two additional match points) before finally overcoming his fellow Spaniard 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5 on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday he outduelled Tommy Robredo, prevailing 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 after being three points from defeat when his Davis Cup teammate served for the match at 5-4 in the final set.

Those are the kind of matches that a player does not win without heart and commitment. Djokovic and Nadal showed raw determination playing in front of the enthusiastic spectators in Basel and in Paris – with everyone getting more than their money’s worth.

As for Murray, he won the tournament in Valencia despite not having played in six weeks after a wrist injury and having an upper leg problem that visibly bothered him. This week, again in some discomfort with the leg, he outlasted James Blake 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(4) on Wednesday in a high-quality match that ended at 1:45 a.m. before finally running out of gas the following afternoon and losing 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Stepanek.

As for Federer, he reached the final in Basel before losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to Djokovic. After six weeks off and his first extended stretch at home with his wife and infant twin daughters, he probably played about as well as could have been expected.

He was seriously off his game during a loss to Julien Benneteau in his opening round in Paris on Wednesday, but even at that the Frenchman had to play the match of his life in the late going to finally win 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

Djokovic, Nadal, Murray and Federer deserve kudos for competing as hard as humanly possible at the end of a long, exhausting year.

At a time when the men’s tennis is embroiled in some controversy resulting from the revelations in Andre Agassi’s new book ‘Open,’ you could hardly ask for better displays from these four solid citizens of the sport.

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Daniel Nestor is poised to become the first Canadian tennis player to reach $1-million in annual official prize money. Nestor has currently earned $944,388, surpassing the record $840,536 he earned in 2008.

Already in the semi-finals of this week’s BNP Paribas Masters in Paris, Nestor will be about $11,000 away from $1-million if he makes the final. Should he and partner Nenad Zimonjic win the title, he will pass the $1-million mark by more than $50,000.