Running tennis thread 2024

That's a ton of points to maybe not be able to defend.

 

Absolutely. He also won Rotterdam last year, which is why he’s dropped a spot already.

Fortunately for Medvedev, Sinner (just ahead of him) isn't playing this week either, and No.2 Alcaraz lost his opening match in Rio (which cost him 300 points), so he's not losing ground this week. And No. 5 Rublev is more than 3,000 points behind him.

But yes, he needs to get back on the court and playing at a high level, or his total will sink fast.

BTW, Alcaraz has now lost three of his past five matches, and Sinner is beginning to close in on that No. 2 spot. Edit to add that his most recent loss was because of an ankle injury suffered in the first game of the match.

 

A lot of interesting goings on in tennis the past couple of days.

Several of them occurred in Dubai, where a tournament that included the world's top four female players -- Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina -- will have a final between... Jasmine Paolini and Anna Kalinskaya?

To be fair, those are two of the fastest-rising players in the women's game. Kalinskaya ended 2023 ranked No. 80 but got to the quarters in Australia and has beaten four top 10 players this year, including three in this tournament -- No. 9 Ostapenko, No. 3 Gauff and No. 1 Swiatek. She started this tournament at No. 40 and had to go through qualifiers to get into the main draw. She's now won seven matches in eight days. If she loses she'll rise to a career-high ranking of 24. If she wins, she'll soar to 16.

Paolini has quickly become one of my favorite players, mostly because I've seen her play several times -- I have the free version of the Tennis Channel, T2, and because she's not a big name, her matches often get relegated to the B-channel. She reminds me of Schwarzmann on the men's side -- undersized (5-4), scrappy, fearless. She moves well and plays the angles. I also like her because she's 28 and has been kicking around the circuit for awhile, so she's paid her dues. She opened last year ranked 59th, is currently 26th and will leave in the top 20 -- 17th if she loses, 14th if she wins. FYI, she lost to Kalinskaya in the Aussie fourth round.

On the men's side, Jakub Mensik, an 18-year-old Czech, has pushed his way into the Doha final with a stunner over No. 5 Rublev followed by a three-set win over Monfils. He'll face 17th-ranked Karen Khachanov to try to win his first career ATP title.

 

To update, Paolini lost the first set and was down a break in the second and third but came back to beat Kalinskaya, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, for her first 1000-level championship. She's now ranked 14th and will be seeded at Indian Wells.

Mensik put up a nice fight before losing to Khachanov, 7-6, 6-4. The first-set tiebreaker was an epic -- Khachanov won it 14-12. There was only one break of serve in the entire match, which came in the first game of the second set.

Big news as the men's tournament in Dubai opens -- Medvedev is back to defend his title. He's the No. 1 seed and opens against 47th-ranked Alexander Shevchenko.

 

Rough going for the women's top 10 seeds in the "mini-major" at Indian Wells. Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 are out. No. 4 Rybakina withdrew due to the dreaded gastrointestinal illness. The others -- Pegula (5), Jabeur (6), Zheng (8) and Ostapenko (10) -- lost their opening matches (second round, since the seeds get first-round byes). And other than No. 1 Swiatek and No. 7 Vondrousova, even the ones who won struggled to get through. No. 2 Sabalenka had to go to a third-set tiebreak to beat 64th-ranked Peyton Stearns, as did No. 3 Gauff in a tense win over No. 47 Clara Burel, and No. 9 Sakkari had to go three sets against No. 75 Diana Shnaider.

Gauff's serve continues to be an issue. Against Burel, she finished with 10 double faults against two aces, and she won just 33% of her second-serve points. Burel broke her serve six times.

Assuming she finishes off third-round opponent Lucia Bronzetti (Gauff is up a set and a break right now), she's on course for an intriguing fourth-round match against Naomi Osaka, who is starting to look like her old self again, polishing off her first two opponents in straight sets. Osaka faces 28th-ranked Elise Mertens later today.

 

Djoker just got beat by someone named Luca Nardi at Indian Wells, where Djokovic is a five-time champion. Nardi is a 20-year-old Italian currently ranked No. 123. His career match record coming into this tournament was 3-12.

Edit: Just looked again and saw Nardi got into the tournament as a lucky loser.

 

ATP website says Nardi is the lowest-ranked player to defeat Djokovic in an ATP 1000 or Grand Slam tournament.

 

Looks like Coco’s got her serve back. After having to go to a tiebreak to beat Bronzetti, she destroyed Elise Mertens (Osaka didn’t hold up her end) 6-0, 6-2 to get to the quarters. Gauff did have six double faults, but she got 74 percent of her first serves in and won 84 percent of those points.

Next Gauff gets No. 49 Yue Yuan. Assuming she wins that, her semifinal opponent would be No. 8 Sakkari or 22-year-old American Emma Navarro, who beat Sabalenka yesterday. She’s another one of those fast risers —she was ranked 143 at the end of 2022 and will move into the top 20 next week unless she loses in the quarters and Yuan wins the tournament.

 

Leads the WTA in wins (18) this year.

 

Navarro is 20th in the live rankings without a single tournament point total greater than 250. No 500 finals, no 1000 semifinals, no slam R16s. That's incredible. She earned it by playing well in a lot of small tournaments and the Sabalenka win is justification.

 

This is kinda fun.

 

WTF? Alcaraz-Rublev quarterfinal match suspended because of a... bee invasion?

Bee invasion! Alcaraz-Zverev Indian Wells QF suspended | ATP Tour | Tennis