The 2020 Tennis Spin Awards: Under the Radar Stars

Wow, can you believe it's December? In what's somehow been both the longest and fastest year in history, we can finally see the other side. But before we get there, there's a little more to say about the tennis season that was, and a few more performances to really highlight.

So let's get to the next round of the Tennis Spin Awards!

These are the players who may not have made a loud splash in 2020, but that's exactly what makes them so dangerous. While we were all distracted by the bright shiny objects stealing the spotlight, these guys and gals chipped away at their matches and quietly pulled off some pretty big wins. And if and when they're given a chance, they might pull off some surprises against the top names in the sport.

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The Women

The Winner: Elise Mertens

It's been over two years since the 25-year-old Belgian hit her career high ranking just outside the top ten and a year since she won her last title. But in a severely abbreviated season where so few of the sport's top female players made the trip from one tournament to another -- not to mention from one continent to another -- Elise Mertens managed to rack up more wins than any other player in the WTA.

After the lockdown, Mertens made the final in Prague, the semis in "Cincy", and the quarters at the U.S. Open, where she dealt a pretty one-sided defeat to Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin. She closed out the year with some decent results on the clay, too, and finished as runner-up in Linz, losing there to her doubles partner Aryna Sabalenka -- the two partnered for the title, though, in Ostrava.

Mertens may not have the big weapons of some of the strongest players out there, but she has the workhorsemanship (is that a word) that can allow her to put together a string of wins, and maybe sometime soon, come home with the big trophies.

In a year as unpredictable as 2020, these six women found a way to get on court, and win once they got there. 🙌

1. @elise_mertens
2. @SabalenkaA
3. Elena Rybakina
4. @SofiaKenin
5. @Simona_Halep
6. @GarbiMuguruza pic.twitter.com/9xRoXdvPsv

— TENNIS (@Tennis) November 30, 2020

Honorable Mention: Ekaterina Alexandrova

As I've mentioned a couple times, I'd been out of the game for a few years there and so really missed the rise of some of the sports new stars. So I was surprised to realize, given some of her results this year, that this 26-year-old Russian had been spending so much of her time on the ITF tour and at 125K events.

In fact, Ekaterina Alexandrova wrapped up her 2019 season by taking her second straight title in Limoges -- her third there overall -- and went right on to capture her first WTA trophy in Shenzhen to start this year -- she beat Garbiñe Muguruza, Elena Rybakina and Qiang Wang in the process. At the end of the year, she held tough in a first round against Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open and made the semis in Linz, barely losing there to Mertens. She's a shade off her career high ranking at #33, but something tells me she might be primed for some big wins next year.

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The Men

The Winner: Ugo Humbert

You'd be forgiven if you didn't realize the 22-year-old Frenchman captured two titles this year, the first of his career. But ranked just outside the top fifty at the start of 2020, Ugo Humbert upset four favorites, including John Isner and Denis Shapovalov, and a former Grand Slam semifinalist to take home the trophy in Auckland and bookended the season with another win in Antwerp, besting surprise U.S. Open standout Pablo Carreño Busta on the way.

His titles only scratch the surface of his accomplishments, though -- Humbert also notched wins over Fabio Fognini in Rome, Daniil Medvedev in Hamburg, and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Paris Masters. Two wins over top ten players on the year? Pretty nice stat, considering he only played four matches against the group in total.

And at a career-high ranking of #30 heading into the new year, he could be in a place to get a lot more experience against the top guys in 2021. Sure, he has a good number of points to defend right off the bat, but he could well be in seeding territory when the Australian Open does eventually begin. And while he hasn't yet had a truly deep run at a Major -- he made the fourth round at Wimbledon last year, but that's his best yet -- he seems to be ready to break through. And the sport's elite should know better than to write him off.

He is, after all, a man of many talents...

The keys to @HumbertUgo's talent 🎹🤩 pic.twitter.com/3ElYEgZnJW

— ITF (@ITFTennis) November 30, 2020

Honorable Mention: Cristian Garin

The young Chilean is setting himself up to be a pretty solid force on the clay courts. After an early exit in Melbourne, he put together a nice run during this year's Golden Swing, picking up titles in Cordoba and Rio before withdrawing in the quarters in his own Santiago. In the back half of the year, he got his feet back under him on the clay of Hamburg to make the semifinals. Yes, he is turning into a bit of a specialist, with his 67% win rate on the dirt far outpacing that on other surfaces. But we've seen others thrive under exactly those parameters -- I'm not saying he'll win the French next year, but he could certainly do some damage if we aren't paying attention.

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Be sure to come back for more Tennis Spin Awards. Up next: the players who put together some of the best win streaks on tour this year -- and, surprise! None of them are named Novak Djokovic!

And to see all of the winners this year and in years past, click here.

The Emerging Opportunities

Things sure got interesting on the men's tour last week -- we may have been down Nole, Rafa, and an in-recovery Roger, but there was plenty of top talent on the courts with a chance to show us what they've got. But for some reason, many of these guys weren't able to capitalize on draws that were decidedly in their favor, and instead we saw some surprising names not only claim the titles, but also make big runs to the finals.

I'll start in Marseille, where we arguably saw the least unexpected results as second seed and defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas was able to make a return to glory after a bit of a rough start to the year. But that's not to say everything went according to plan. Alexander Bublik got upsets not only over Benoit Paire but also an often-volatile Denis Shapovalov. And Gilles Simon pulled off a stunning win over Daniil Medvedev, who late last year was pretty close to unstoppable.

With all that going on, it's worth giving a little props to Tsitsipas's accomplishment. As I mentioned, the world #6 has had some hiccups this year -- after winning the year-end championship in 2019, he lost two out of his three matches at the ATP Cup, was upset by an on-the-mend Milos Raonic in Melbourne, and only won one match in Rotterdam. And while he didn't face any big threats this past week, he also didn't drop a set, scooting past young Felix Auger-Aliassime in under ninety minutes. The win earned him a fifth career title and may have helped get his season, which started off with so much promise, back on track.

Things were a little more topsy-turvy in Delray Beach, where only three seeds made it out of the first round, and that set the stage for some real stand-out performances -- encouragingly, many from Americans. Among them: Brandon Nakashima, a wildcard who notched wins over Jiri Vesely and Cameron Norrie on his way to the quarters, Soonwoo Kwon, who followed up an upset of Milos Raonic in New York last week with another run to the final eight, and maybe most impressively, Jack Sock, who broke down in tears after winning his first singles match since 2018.

But with all that action, we got the biggest Cinderella story out of 24-year old Yoshihito Nishioka, who battled through four three-set matches during the week, garnering wins over John Millman and Ugo Humbert in the process. He was ultimately felled by fourth seed Reilly Opelka in the final -- the American rebounded after a heart-breaking loss in the Melbourne first round and an early ouster last week, when he was trying to defend his New York title, and won not one but two matches on Sunday -- but his run cut 15 spots from his ranking, allowing him to make his debut in the ATP top fifty. And with a game that looks kind of reminiscent of that other young man from Japan, there are high hopes that he's going even higher.

But with all that going on, the biggest surprises last week no doubt came on the rain-addled courts of Rio. Multiple delays led to a lot of catch-up play, which inevitably contributed to some of the less-than-expected results, but others happened even without the excuse of the weather. It started with a win by sixteen-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, the youngest man to win a tour-level match since 2013 -- an admittedly weird stat, considering how often we seem to set "youngest ever" records on the ladies' circuit -- he drew an upset of Albert Ramos-Viñolas in the first round and rocketed up 92 ranking spots with the win. And then there was Atilla Balazs, a very lucky loser who defeated Pablo Cuevas in his opener and kept going until the semis.

But the standout in Brazil had to be Gianluca Mager, a 25-year-old Italian who had a 2-3 career record before last week. After qualifying for the main draw, he ran in the quarters into Dominic Thiem -- arguably the second best clay court player in active duty, with his sights set this week on taking over Roger Federer as #3 in the world -- and got a set and a break lead on him before play was called. He might have ceded that advantage when the match resumed Saturday, but instead held strong and scored by far the biggest win of his career. Like his final opponent Cristian Garin, he had to finish up his semi and contest the championship on Sunday, a feat that finally proved too much for him, but his showing all week certainly put him on the map as we head into the spring season.

Of course the real test for all these guys will come in the weeks ahead -- there are, after all, a slew of top ten players in action this week in Dubai and Acapulco. But if they can harness whatever magic they found over the last few days, there's no reason to expect we won't be seeing a lot more of them in the winner's circle down the road.