ATP ATP 2023

[Drummond]

Time to set this one up. ATP tour gets in full swing this week with 3 250 tournaments being held in Dallas, Montpellier and Cordoba.

Dallas:



It’s a reasonably strong field with Fritz headlining, also featuring Tiafoe and Shapovalov. Jordan Thompson faces Denis Kudla. Receiving a WC, Jack Sock continues his road back but given he lost first round at a challenger in Cleveland last week, it seems he’s still a long way off. Curious to see if JJ Wolf can back up his 4R AO showing.

Montpellier:



Indoor hard, probably suits Rune if Paris masters was anything to go by. Not a stacked draw but it does feature the young Norwegian and Jannik Sinner, so that alone grabs my attention. I keep quietly hoping Ruusuvuori can turn things around but he doesn’t seem able to. Maybe this week. John Millman is up tonight in qualifying as the 2nd seed.

Cordoba:



First ATP tour clay event for the year. Can’t say I’ve got too much interest in this one given the hectic week around the globe. Top seed is world #28 Diego Schwartzmanz. All 8 seeds are from either Argentina or Spain, says is all! Nice to have clay back though.

 

[danstar]

Fairly quiet week this week for ATP tour, cant wait for the Sunshine Double to be honest. Just seeing Kyrgios in the US is worthy of calling a popcorn match

 

[Gigantic]

Rinky Hijikata wins the Burnie Challenger. Now ranked #119.

 

[yaco55]

Kyrgios will need to get his visa approved to enter America who are strict on previous convictions - In saying that, I have no idea how this case ever made it to court.

 

[Drummond]

Sock beat Ivashka in a 3 hour encounter. Ivashka had 13 break point chances in the third set and could only manage to take 1. At 4-4 he had 5 chances to break but threw them all away, several were high quality and on second serves. Was pretty appalling stuff to be honest. Big win for Sock given his struggles but on that display he’s going to get destroyed by Fritz.

Other mentionable points were Gasquet losing to a guy half his age, as 18 year old WC Arthur Fils won 7-5, 7-5. In Cordoba, clay court tennis is back with a 3:26 marathon between eventual winner Miralles and Baena.

 

[Drummond]

Watching Fils vs Gasquet as I want to see what this youngster has. Strong serve (hitting 200kph), dominating when he lands his first serve, and a big forehand which he hits aggressively. Good technique on the two-handed BH, stands up tall on impact. Moves well and covers the court impressively. One to watch I think.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Fairly quiet week this week for ATP tour, cant wait for the Sunshine Double to be honest. Just seeing Kyrgios in the US is worthy of calling a popcorn match

Shame Djokovic is still too much of a risk to the American society to compete in that, have to wait until May until he's no longer a safety hazard.

 

[BobbyMorri]

Oh Bublik. Never change

 

[Drummond]

Oh Bublik. Never change

That’s insane haha! Mind blowing implosion! Up 4-2 serving and serves 3 DF’s, then opens up the deciding TB with a further 3 DF’s.

In Dallas, Shapovalov lost, he’s really got to figure out what he’s doing, and fast. Tiafoe won easily and now faces Wolf, should be good.

In Montpellier, Sinner got a walkover and is through to the QF without hitting a ball lol. Arthur Fils won again, this time beating veteran Bautista Agut. Two really big wins. And Humbert took a very nasty tumble in second set TB after taking the first. He went on to “play” 3 more points but retired. Really don’t like the guy as a player but seems like a nice guy and you hate seeing injuries. Hope he’s okay.

 

[Gigantic]

Fils is flying up the rankings. Should be within a sniff of the top 104 soon.

 

[Drummond]

Watching Fritz, game over. Wu advances to the final, his first. Commentators talking him up a lot, and rightfully so, game looks good. Served huge when he needed to. As for Fritz, poor start to the year. Lacking spark.

 

[Drummond]

A few upsets overnight. Rune lost to Cressy in three tight sets but Rune didn’t generate a single break point. I mean you’re not going to get many against the giant serving American but still, you’d expect him to get a few. Been an average start to the year for Rune.

Sinner finally put an end to the run of Fils, but not before a struggle. Sinner was serving at 4*-5 15-40 in the first set, and the second SP was a lengthy rally that Fils was right in and had chances but Sinner didn’t miss. Fils, not unexpectedly, faded in the second. It reminded me a bit of when Alcaraz first met Zverev in 2021 at Acapulco, showed what he’s capable of before the consistency of the established player (despite still being young) proved too much.

The draws for the three tournaments this week are out which I’ll post shortly. Alcaraz is back, Rotterdam is stacked, and I’ve always got fond memories of Delray Beach.

 

[Gigantic]

Wow. Wu wins in Dallas.

Isner with 44 aces and 4 match points.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Poor Long John.

 

[Drummond]

Dallas final was pretty incredible. Isner had a glorious chance in the second set on MP but was very tentative on a second serve and then fluffed a FH into the net. Wu was clutch though, saving 3 further match points in the third set TB. He has a pretty effortless game, good mover, nice touch. I did a bit of research on him because I thought it was relatively late to be making an impact, not that he’s old by any stretch. Missed a long time due to injuries, so now that he’s fit he’s shooting up the rankings. Hopefully it wasn’t a fluke run and doesn’t stagnate because he’s got a nice game. Finally, this was causing me some confusion as I heard this was only the second addition of the tournament. Yet I seemed to remember it many times in the past. I was thinking of the Memphis Open, now that was a fun tournament. I didn’t really get into the Dallas Open, Montpellier blows it out of the water.

Speaking of Montpellier, what a tournament, got to be one of the best 250’s on the calendar. It holds over 7k and it was full for the final. Sinner beat Cressy in straight sets and after he took the first set TB, a win in 2 felt inevitable. Sinner did a good job of returning the Cressy serve and making life difficult. 7 titles at the age of 21 is impressive.

Cordoba final saw Baez beat Coria in 3. Saw a few points, didn’t invest much time into this tournament. From the very little I saw it looked to be playing pretty quickly for a clay court.

As for this week, 3 tournaments.

Rotterdam:



Tsitsipas, Rublev, Medvedev, FAA, Rune, Zverev, it’s loaded. Sinner isn’t even seeded and will face Tsitsipas 2R! I would’ve said he might be fatigued but he only played 3 matches in Montpellier so should be fine. ADM faces Rublev first up, but seriously there’s hardly a 1R match I wouldn’t pay to watch. Will be good!

Argentina:



Alcaraz makes his first appearance of 2023, enough to make this tournament a must watch. He could face Cordoba champion Baez in the QF to see where he’s at. Cam Norrie is the second seed, got to say it seems weird he’d play this one. I’m tipping Musetti to take the title even though he’s just as likely to lose at his first hurdle.

Delray Beach:



I’ve always had a soft spot for this tournament, I think because it was one of the first non Australian, non GS tournaments I followed. Just has a fun, relaxed feel with a beautiful sunny environment. A lot of the guys from Dallas are over at this one, so Fritz, Shapovalov and Paul will try again. Ben Shelton is also here, so there’s a bit of intrigue for this.

 

[BobbyMorri]

It's spot the interruption game.

 

[Drummond]

I’m completely off the Ruusuvuori bandwagon now, what a mental midget. Serving at 5-4, 30-15, he makes three consecutive errors. Then come comical stuff serving at 5-6. The guy doesn’t have it. Tsitsipas was barely surviving, playing really ordinary, on the ropes, and he’s let back in because a mental midget can’t finish off the set. Imagine if that was for the match!

Results went as expected in Rotterdam. Nice to see Thiem get a win in Buenos Aires, but in very surprising results both Cordoba finalists lost. Alcaraz is up today, Sinner, Rune, Rublev open their tournaments as does Shapovalov at Delray Beach. The surprise in that one was Shelton going down, post GS blues.

 

[yaco55]

I’m completely off the Ruusuvuori bandwagon now, what a mental midget. Serving at 5-4, 30-15, he makes three consecutive errors. Then come comical stuff serving at 5-6. The guy doesn’t have it. Tsitsipas was barely surviving, playing really ordinary, on the ropes, and he’s let back in because a mental midget can’t finish off the set. Imagine if that was for the match!

Results went as expected in Rotterdam. Nice to see Thiem get a win in Buenos Aires, but in very surprising results both Cordoba finalists lost. Alcaraz is up today, Sinner, Rune, Rublev open their tournaments as does Shapovalov at Delray Beach. The surprise in that one was Shelton going down, post GS blues.

It's never a surprise when non top 10 players win or a runner up at the tournament then crash out first round at the next tournamemt - The figures are ridiculous.

 

[BobbyMorri]

Alex De Minaur beat Rublev. Not a great result for Rublev.

Read a stat that the guy who beat Shelton was higher ranked than anyone Shelton played at the AO. Shelton is still young and very raw.

 

[BobbyMorri]

It's never a surprise when non top 10 players win or a runner up at the tournament then crash out first round at the next tournamemt - The figures are ridiculous.

I had a look at that(at Sebastian Baez match) . Both players had played roughly the same amount of matches leading up to it as Lajovic had to go through qualies.

Guess it is a little bit of tanking with mental exhaustion.

 

[Gigantic]

Story of the week goes to Matija Pecotic

Matija Pecotic's Incredible Story Is Straight From A Movie Script | ATP Tour | Tennis

Matija Pecotic is enjoying a dream ATP Tour main draw debut in Delray Beach. Learn about the 33-year-old director of capital markets for a real estate investment company who was a star at Princeton and attended Harvard Business School.

www.atptour.com

Lost today to Giron, but not too shabby on an effort.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

Alex De Minaur beat Rublev. Not a great result for Rublev.

Read a stat that the guy who beat Shelton was higher ranked than anyone Shelton played at the AO. Shelton is still young and very raw.

I did not expect that result indoors.

 

[FreoRicci]

Kubler's ranking goes up to new career high of 76. Would love to see him crack the top 50. Be incredible.
Popyrin earns another win and moved up to 85.

 

[Drummond]

Alex De Minaur beat Rublev. Not a great result for Rublev.

Read a stat that the guy who beat Shelton was higher ranked than anyone Shelton played at the AO. Shelton is still young and very raw.

That’s a great stat, very interesting. No doubt Shelton has talent but that run at AO was on the back of a very soft draw and everything clicking. Going to take some time for him to replicate that.

Rune played a fun match last night, and big result for ADM. Disappointing to see Zverev lose, not that he’s overly fond of Rotterdam, but he’s so far off his best still. Baby steps.

I had planned to watch Alcaraz but I ain’t going to get time now.

 

[AdelaideGT]

Funny that Rinky said he wasn't a doubles player (and he was being truthful) while he & Kubler did so well at AO.

Overnight - playing with some US journeyman - they beat one of the better teams on tour - Murray/Venus.

DeMin keeping the wins going in Rotterdam too.