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.

A Little Rusty

It should come as no surprise that, after five months without organized tennis events, players needed to shake off a little dust in their first tournament back. 

We saw plenty of evidence of that in Palermo, where the withdrawal of the top two seeds even before the event started was followed by early, first round exits from second seed and 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova as well as world #20 Maria Sakkari.

But that rust made room for a couple players well off the radar to really make their marks on the clay of Italy -- one even scored the championship.

Among the standouts for me last week was 24-year-old Jasmine Paolini, who made her debut in the top hundred early this year on the back of some solid performances on the ITF circuit in late 2019 -- she made the quarters in Guangzhou, where she lost to Sofia Kenin, the semis in Shenzhen, and the final in Tokyo. She had won only one qualifying match in 2020 before the lockdown, but stunned former top-tenner Daria Kasatkina in the first round in Palermo. Back on court this week in Prague, I'm excited to see what else she can do.

Then there was nineteen-year-old wildcard Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who, no big deal, is studying to be a lawyer in her spare time. But she's been making a mark for herself on the tennis court too (sorry, couldn't help myself), picking up ITF titles in Trieste, Asunción, and Colina last year. She made her maiden Grand Slam main draw in Melbourne to start this season, losing to Angelique Kerber in the first round, but upped her game in Palermo. She opened with a straight-set win over veteran Polona Hercog and then took out sixth seeded Donna Vekic before falling to eventual finalist Anett Kontaveit in the quarters. By the way, with compatriot Martina Trevisan she scored the doubles runner-up trophy too.

Of course, it wasn't all fresh new faces breaking through on the clay of Sicily. Sara Errani, a former French Open finalist currently ranked in the low hundreds, struggled before and since a doping ban -- she tested positive for a breast cancer drug that may have found its way into a family meal -- took her out of the game for nearly a year. In 2019, outside an ITF trophy in Rome and a quarterfinal showing in Bogotá, she really had only a handful of main draw wins, and she fell in the first round trying to qualify for the Australian Open this year. But last week, the two-time titleist in Palermo, showed why she's got the most clay court wins of any active player on tour with solid wins over Sorana Cirstea and Kristyna Pliskova on her way to the quarters. 

Who'd she lose to? None other than the ultimate champion Fiona Ferro, whose name I first heard when she entered Feliciano Lopez's virtual Mutua Madrid Open. But of course, she's done a lot more than that -- she beat Alizé Cornet and Sam Stosur last year to claim her first career title in Lausanne and made the third round at the U.S. Open with wins over Daria Gavrilova and Kristina Mladenovic, only losing to eventual quarterfinalist Qiang Wang, who you might remember beat Serena Williams this year in Melbourne. Ferro was a little quiet in the first few months of the year, but reported played a bunch of exhibition matches heading into Palermo, which apparently served her well. After defeating this year's Shenzhen champion Ekaterina Alexandrova and Errani, she outlasted a hard-hitting Camila Giorgi and rolled over fourth seeded Anett Kontaveit to capture her second crown -- and the first awarded since the lockdown.

It's encouraging that the event in Palermo -- after an arguably inauspicious start from withdrawals to an unnamed player testing positive for coronavirus -- went off without any more of a hitch and bodes well for play over the next few weeks and months. It's even more encouraging to see some of this new talent spring up and really show us what they've got. 

We'll get a quick look at whether Ferro can keep up her momentum, too -- she along with Paolini and several other Palermo entrants will be right back in action this week in Prague. What that means for their prospects at the ever-encroaching U.S. Open, well that remains to be seen. But if they can keep up their games even when the top players have shaken off the cobwebs, it's a good sign for the sport.

The Best of 2020 -- Some Surprising Shout Outs

Hi everyone! Welcome to the second edition of my #SociallyDistanced "Best of 2020" list -- the players who've caught my eye in the few weeks of the tennis season we've had so far.

After all, with Wimbledon officially cancelled this year -- for the first time since World War II -- and tennis now on hold until at least mid-July, there's not a ton of live action to speak of. So why not look back on what's already happened this season. And there have been some highlights.

So coming in at #4 on my list are a man and woman who you might not expect to see in these countdowns, but they've both pulled off some solid wins this year and show promise to rise even higher whenever we get back on court. They may not have established themselves as consistent threats just yet, but hopefully that day is not too far in the future.

The Men: Tommy Paul

Age: 22
Current Ranking: #57
Title(s): None yet

I've said it before, but I'd been a little absent from the game for a few years before this season started -- great time to get back in, right? So I had never heard of Tommy Paul before this season. Since winning the French Open Juniors title in 2015, the American had spent the vast majority of his career on the Challengers Tour and trying to qualify for ATP events. He had to prove himself to start 2020 too, but made it to the semis as a qualifier in Adelaide with wins over Pablo Cuevas and Albert Ramos.

His more impressive wins, though, came after that -- he outlasted Grigor Dimitrov in a nail-biting second round at the Austalian Open and stunned Alexander Zverev a few weeks later in Acapulco -- the first top ten win on his resume. Now he's at a career high ranking, and while he still lags many of his fellow Americans, he seems to be on the rise. And I'd love to see him make a big run on the other side.

The Women: Ekaterina Alexandrova

Age: 25
Current Ranking: #27
Title(s): Shenzhen

The Russian is a little further along in her development than Paul, getting seeded at a Slam for the first time at this year's Australian Open. She was riding a pretty impressive win streak into that event too, winning a 125K tournament in Limoges to end the 2019 season and claiming her maiden WTA trophy in Shenzhen to start this year. For that win, she'd claimed victories over eventual Melbourne runner-up Garbiñ Muguruza and a red-hot Elena Rybakina. Alexandrova had some nice results after that too -- a win over Donna Vekic (and a walkover by Petra Kvitova) got her to the semis in St. Petersburg and earned her a career high ranking at #25 back in February.

She's a little older than most of the players on my list, but she still seems to have a lot of potential that she's just coming into now. And hopefully we'll get to see it come to fruition soon.

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There's still more to come in by "Best of 2020" list, so check in soon. But in the meantime, check out who else made the cut here!

And here's today's #TennisAtHome moment:

View this post on Instagram

Competition never stops 💪🏼😂 #tennisathome🎾🏠 Такмичење није престало 😂

A post shared by Novak Djokovic (@djokernole) on Mar 31, 2020 at 1:41pm PDT

Fed Cup Follies

Fed Cup is -- and Davis Cup used to be, though I'm not so familiar with the new format and don't really have enough evidence to say the statement does or does not stand anymore -- always a little strange. With each round often taking place right after the Majors, it often surprises me how many of the sport's top player show up for their countries after a grueling fortnight (though, in many cases, the athletes probably played much less at the Slams than they'd hoped). And maybe it's just because of that timeline that we see such interesting and unexpected results at these events, and this year was no different.

Some of the ties were runaways -- Germany blanked Brazil, winning all three of their singles and their only doubles rubber, and Elise Mertens lived up to her potential to help Belgium advance over Kazakhstan -- but even then there were surprises. Belinda Bencic was stunned by world #185 Leylah Fernandez, but Jil Teichmann was able to pull out the big guns for Switzerland and pull them out against a Bianca Andreescu-less Canada (the defending U.S. Open champ was slated to play doubles, but didn't have to take the court). And two-time Slam winner Naomi Osaka committed fifty errors against upstart Sara Sorribes Tormo, while veteran and soon-to-be-retiree Carla Suarez Navarro was surgical in her two wins, lifting Spain above Japan, 3-1.

But the more interesting results came in the closer ties. Russia was surprisingly challenged by Romania, who was playing without Simona Halep -- while early 2020 standout Ekaterina Alexandrova managed wins in her singles matches, world #38 Veronika Kudermetova was upset in both of her rubbers. Russia eked out the win in doubles in order to advance. The Netherlands, on the other hand, wasn't able to capitalize on the success of their top star -- while world #8 Kiki Bertens was able to win on her own, beating a recently struggling Aryna Sabalenka on day two, the Belorussian doubles specialist was able to rally with partner Aliaksandra Sasnovich to clinch the decider.

Of course, though, all eyes were on the U.S., which brought some serious firepower to their tie: newly-minted Melbourne champion Sofia Kenin, perennial heavyweight Serena Williams, rising star Alison Riske, and everyone's favorite teen Coco Gauff. They were the clear favorites against Latvia and got off to a strong start on Friday with Kenin easing past former world #11 Anastasija Sevastova and Serena eking out a two-tiebreak victory over 2017 French Open champ Jelena Ostapenko (who, by the way hasn't won a single main draw match at Roland Garros outside that breakout year). But things turned around sharply Saturday as both Americans lost their reverse matches, Williams getting stunned by Sevastova in three sets for her first ever Fed Cup singles defeat. But as is so often the case, Kenin had to get right back to work for her third match in two days, teaming up with her Australian Open doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands to decide the win.

Do the results this weekend give a broader picture of the state of these players' games? Maybe. Kenin's played a lot of ball this year, so it makes sense she might be a little exhausted. On the other hand, I'm a little surprised to see Serena's less-than-dominating performance and Osaka's messy match. As for the players who stood out -- Alexandrova's solid results certainly suggest her ranking is only climbing from here, while Bertens can certainly use her wins to shore up her season. We'll get a better idea of where everyone stands in the next few weeks, of course. And hopefully, by the time they're back on court for their countries in a couple month's time, hopefully they'll come out swinging.

On a Roll

It's always tricky trying to manage player schedules ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year. After a couple weeks off tour, you want to get a little bit of match play under your belt, but also be careful not to tire yourself out ahead of the big game. Some players manage it better than others, but it's not uncommon to see those stars who take on full schedules flame out early at the Australian Open. This year, though, we're getting a glimpse of a couple stars who are proving to have real staying power.

It's not all good news, of course. France's Ugo Humbert had a solid run in Auckland with wins over Denis Shapovalov and John Isner on his way to the title, but couldn't quite keep his run going against hometown favorite John Millman in his first round. On the other hand are the players you'd expect nothing but the best from -- Novak Djokovic, who went 6-0 at the ATP Cup, had a big of a bobble against Jan-Lennard Struff in the third set but made it through largely unscathed, and Serena Williams, fresh off her first title in three years in Brisbane, dispatched young talent Anastasia Potapova in under an hour. But it's some of the other performances that have really caught my attention.

Take for example Shenzhen champion Ekaterina Alexandrova. The twenty-five year old Russian took out three seeds on her way to that title, her first in the top tier, and climbed to her career-high ranking of #26 in the world. She's seeded at a Major for the first time in her career and opened against a tough Jil Teichmann on Monday. It was a tight match, taking three sets and over two hours, but for her efforts she'll get to meet Czech qualifier Barbora Krejcikova, ranked out of the top hundred. Alexandrova's won the pair's only previous meeting, almost three years ago, in another close match, but she's certainly upped her game since. Last year's finalist Petra Kvitova likely awaits her a round later, though, so it only gets tougher from here. But there are opportunities where the rising star can take advantage.

But maybe more interesting is Elena Rybakina, who actually lost in the Shenzhen final but rebounded quickly to claim her second career trophy last weekend in Hobart. She'd already played ten matches this year before even stepping foot in Melbourne Park, and though her seeding doesn't reflect it, is actually now ranked higher than the woman who defeated her in China. So far she's followed through with her early successes -- withstanding Monday's rain delay to take out an on-the-rise Bernarda Pera on Tuesday. We'll get a glimpse of how truly resilient she is, as she won't get a day off before coming up against qualifier Greet Minnen tomorrow. But perhaps her non-stop schedule so far got her ready for exactly that task.

On the men's side, you have to hand it to twenty-two year old Andrey Rublev, who started his year in Doha and flew all the way over to Adelaide without dropping a beat. In the first two weeks of the year, he's doubled his trophy count to four and, while he hasn't had to face a top twenty player in either run, brought his ranking up to #16, though like with Rybakina, his performance last week came too late to improve his seeding in Melbourne. He had a little bit of a hiccup against wildcard Christopher O'Connell in his first round, dropping a bagel in the second set, but rebounded to keep his record perfect on the year. Of course the bigger challenges are still to come, but the Russian was gifted a pretty winnable section of the draw -- his biggest immediate threat is a struggling Alexander Zverev -- and he has a chance to cement himself as a real force this year.

At the other end of the spectrum -- at least on the age front -- is thirty-one year old Roberto Bautista Agut, who as I've said was the surprise standout at the ATP Cup this year, marking a perfect record at the round robin-style event. He didn't go up against the very top players -- he avoided, for example, matches against Novak Djokovic and even David Goffin -- but it was enough to bump his ranking up to #9 in time for the Open. He rolled past fellow veteran Feliciano Lopez in his opening match and will face American wildcard Michael Mmoh next. And while he may be the oldest in this group, he may be the one with enough experience to keep his 2020 unbeaten streak going the longest.

Second round play kicks off in a few hours, with a couple first rounds still to be completed. But we've got a lot of players looking to really make a splash at this year's Australian Open. And if they can prove themselves here, there's no telling what more they'll be able to do for the rest of the season.