Summer Standouts

Tennis has taken a pretty unusual front seat in the sports world over recent months, with headlines around historic runs -- and surprising disappointments -- featuring front and center, not to mention the platform it's given issues surrounding mental health and elite sport.

But while so many have focused on the high profile names, a couple players have been quietly plugging away on court and have put together some headlines of their own worth watching. They might not have ultimately walked away with the titles, but they sure have been showing us exactly what they've got week after week.

A new name you need to know 🎾

🇺🇸 Jenson Brooksby defeats Millman 6-1, 6-2 to reach his first ATP 500 semi-final!#NextGenATP | @CitiOpen pic.twitter.com/p1fhbzNlyz

— Next Gen ATP Finals (@nextgenfinals) August 6, 2021

High on that list is 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby, who wasn't on many people's radar before Newport last month, but maybe should have been. A qualifier at the U.S. Open in 2019, he ended the career of former world #4 Tomas Berdych with a first round upset before injury kept him out of play last year. He picked up right where he left off this season though, claiming a trio of Challenger titles before rocketing to the final in Rhode Island.

And he proved that run was no fluke this week in Washington. In a rematch of the Newport final against veteran Kevin Anderson, this time Brooksby came out the victor, and he followed up the win by taking out Wimbledon Cinderella Frances Tiafoe, second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, and John Millman to boot. He may have lost the semis to teen phenom Jannik Sinner, but something tells me he's going to feature prominently the rest of this year.

So, too, could 19-year-old Brandon Nakashima, one of my players to watch at the start of the year. The former UVA standout may not have made a big splash at any of the Slams yet, but he's picked up a couple Challenger titles himself and in recent weeks seems ready to graduate into the big leagues.

Still ranked in the triple digits at the time, he beat both Sam Querrey and John Isner on his way to the final in Los Cabos and a week later took out Milos Raonic before losing to Isner in the Atlanta championship match. Finally in the top hundred now, Nakashima continued his run in DC as a wildcard, opening with a win over a very talented Alexei Popyrin and then ousting sixth seed Dan Evans in the second round. He ultimately lost to Denis Kudla a match later, but not without putting up a two-plus hour fight. And if he stays this consistent, there's no telling what he'll be able to do in the coming months.

Of couse, it's not just the newbies causing a stir in Washington. Former world #8 Jack Sock has been toiling for years to get back on top of the singles game and might finally be starting to get some traction -- he won a Challenger title in Little Rock in May, made the quarters in Newport, and this week put up a hell of a fight against Rafael Nadal in the third round. And former Citi Open champ Kei Nishikori, straight off a stunning upset of Andrey Rublev at the Olympics, got right back to work in DC and made the semis.

It's not all about the men, either. Veteran Andrea Petkovic may have fallen a bit down the rankings, but she's far from giving up the goat. Through Wimbledon this year she'd been 4-10 in main draw matches and failed to qualify for three events, pushing her down to #130 in the world. But since Wimbledon, she's turned on the gas, beating second seed Yulia Putintseva on her way to the Hamburg final and reaching the semis in Belgrade. This week at the inaugural Winners Open in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, she powered through a relatively wide open draw and earlier today took out Egypt's Mayar Sherif to win her first title in over six years.

And if Petko's return to glory wasn't inspiring enough, there's the continued run of Danielle Collins, who's performance the last few weeks begs the question -- where would she be now if she hadn't been dealing with health issues all this time. The 27-year-old American, who picked up her (inexplicably) first title last month in Palermo, is now riding a nine-match win streak with her run to a second straight final in San Jose.

Seeded seventh at the Silicon Valley Classic, she's already beaten former U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, surpise French Open quarterfinalist -- and Olympic semifinalist -- Elena Rybakina, and comeback queen Ana Konjuh. For the title, she'll face off against Daria Kasatkina, who's having a strong comeback year herself, having won two titles already. And while the Russian has won the pair's previous two meetings, I wouldn't be surprised to see Collins ride her momentum to a win -- and maybe even farther than that.

Where the Strong Survive

We may be in that short lull of the tennis season between the Grand Slams and the major Masters or Premier events, but there was still plenty of star power on the courts this weekend. And the eventual winners were the ones who proved they're (still) a cut above the rest.

By the time the final was set up in San Jose, it should have been no surprise that defending champion Milos Raonic was the odds-on favorite. The third seed at the SAP Open may have been a hair of his career-high ranking, but after taking the title in Chennai and winning a handful of matches at the Australian Open, he finally looked like he was fully recovered from that hip injury he sustained last year at Wimbledon. He had a fairly easy road to championship Sunday, losing serve just once in his first three matches and facing no one in the top thirty on the way.

There he met Denis Istomin, who'd defeated an ailing Andy Roddick in the quarters and backed it up with a three-set win over veteran Frenchman Julien Benneteau. But he was no match for the big-serving Raonic on Sunday -- though things stayed close in the first set, neither man allowed even a chance to break, after the Canadian won the tiebreak it was all Milos. Losing just one point on serve in the second, Raonic closed out the match quickly and became the first two-time champion on the ATP Tour this year. If he can stay healthy, it sure looks like he's ready to resume the momentum he had at this time twelve months ago -- and that's going to make him quite a threat to the top players in the weeks to come.

The final in Rotterdam had the potential to cause more sparks to fly. In a rematch of the epic 2009 U.S. Open championship, world #3 Roger Federer took on Juan Martin Del Potro, newly re-entered into the top ten. The champion here seven years ago, Federer has been a little touch-and-go of late. One of my favorites to win the Australian Open, he fell fairly quickly in the semis to Rafael Nadal and suffered a shocking loss to John Isner in Davis Cup. He seemed to be turning things around this week, though, down a set and a break to Nikolay Davydenko in the semis, he came back strong to make his first final of the year.

Del Potro was in the middle of re-establishing himself, too. Since wrist injury took him out of the game when he was at the top of his, the tall Argentine has had a hard time making a dent among the elite. But he scored a big win over world #7 Tomas Berdych on Saturday and could have put up quite a fight in the final today. But Federer got the better of him again, winning the first five games of the match and thoroughly dominating the opening set. Things were a little closer in the second -- Del Potro had chances on the Swiss serve, but wasn't able to convert. Despite mediocre serving and improved play by his opponent, Federer was able to secure the only break and win his first title of the year. With momentum back on his side, he should be able to make a real play to climb back to the top.

Meanwhile Victoria Azarenka is doing more than her part to show us all why she's at the top. Playing in her first tournament since winning the Australian Open and claiming the #1 ranking, she was out to break the recent streak of first-time Grand Slam champions spending the next several months battling a hangover. She dropped just a game to breakout star Mona Barthel in her Doha opener, bagelled Yanina Wickmayer in their quarterfinal first set and powered through an ankle injury to take out Aggie Radwanska in the semis.

In the final she met a finally resurgent Sam Stosur, who's struggled a bit since winning her maiden Major in New York last fall. The third seed here, she got revenge over her Melbourne vanquisher Sorana Cirstea in her opener and lost just won set on her way to the championship round. But Vika, who's had Stosur's number on all five of their previous meetings, took it to the Australian again. She won nine games in a row to establish a 6-1, 3-0 lead and never gave her opponent a break opportunity. Nearly three-quarters of her first serves found their mark and she won nearly eighty percent of the ones that did. After just over an hour, she'd claimed her third trophy of the year, extended her win streak to seventeen matches and pulled even farther ahead of the rest of the pack.

Some of this week's winners had been out of the spotlight a while, others have just recently risen to it. But the way they're each playing, they've told us they're neither to be forgotten, nor dismissed as a flash in the pan. And as the season continues, expect them all to spend a lot more time on the winner's stand.

Taking Back the Spotlight

Most of the talk this tennis season has centered around a few big stories -- Novak Djokovic reclaiming the title in Australia, Kim Clijsters returning to #1, the rise of a couple emerging talents who've found a way to prosper this year on the big stage. But amid all that hype, a few other players have chosen this past week to remind us that they're not ones to be forgotten quite yet.

Of course we can't ignore the great runs from Alexandr Dolgopolov and Milos Raonic, both of whom have followed up well on their performances in Melbourne. The Ukrainian didn't drop a set on the way to his first career final, but eventually dropped to veteran Nicolas Almagro in Costa Do Sauipe, while the transplanted Canadian continued to impress on his way to the championship match in San Jose.

Tonight he'll face defending titleist Fernando Verdasco, who claims the top seed, but hasn't had the most success in recent months. He went winless during his post-U.S. Open Asia circuit and took only two matches when he returned to Europe. Though he made the fourth round at the Australian, it was not without drama, as he found himself down two sets to love against Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.

But he's been near flawless at the SAP Open this year, surviving fourteen aces by big-serving Ivo Karlovic on Thursday and dismantling Denis Istomin in the quarters. Last night against former #4 Juan Martin Del Potro, he could have been tested -- maybe he was, dropping serve for the first and only time this week -- but he fired off one forehand after another to even his head-to-head against the big man. His experience on championship court may be enough for him tonight against Raonic -- the third serving specialist Verdasco will face this tournament -- but even if it isn't, he should take some comfort in knowing he's at least turned the tide back in his favor.

Daniela Hantuchova had also been having a pretty tough year, winning only one match at Fed Cup, but her struggles have persisted even longer than that -- she played her first final in three years last March in Monterrey, but hadn't won a title since Linz in 2007, not the kind of record you want to have as a top tier player.

But when she came to Pattaya City as the fourth seed, something must have switched in her. Against super-strong veteran Kimiko Date Krumm in the second round, she reversed a three-match losing streak and only dropped another two games to make the semis. That's where she had her biggest threat, world #3 and two-time defending champion Vera Zvonareva had won four of their past five meetings and was arguably playing the best tennis of her career. But Hantuchova, who has often shown signs of brilliance, finally proved it wasn't all an act. She stuck with her opponent through long rallies, found every angle, utilized beautiful drop shots and only lost serve once to make her eleventh career final after over two hours of play. After that ordeal, you might have thought the Slovak would be worn out, but she made relatively easy work of Sara Errani on Sunday, winning almost two-thirds of the points to claim the title.

Nineteen-year-old Petra Kvitova hasn't exactly been having a bad year -- she claimed a title in Brisbane, beat hometown favorite Sam Stosur on the way to the Melbourne quarters and went two-for-two in earning her Czech mates a first round Fed Cup win. Her efforts have earned her a career high #18 ranking, but her presence in Paris was nevertheless overshadowed by that of red-hot Kim Clijsters.

Kvitova didn't have the easiest road to her second final of the year. She faced match points against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the second round and survived a tense third-set tiebreak against Yanina Wickmayer in the quarters. But she struck first against Clijsters, breaking the world #1 in the opening game. She gave it right back, but strong serving -- ten aces to Kim's one -- aggressiveness on her return games, and some smart play in the clutch won her a third top-ten victory in the past twelve months.



So while most of us are preoccupied with the headlines, we shouldn't discount the performances all these guys and gals have given us over the past week or more. Hopefully they'll keep the momentum going -- we all know how the supporting cast so often steals the show, and the sport would be a lot less fun without them.

Deferred Compensation

It's a funny thing about tennis rankings -- like Wall Street bonuses, they don't always reflect how well a player is doing at a particular moment in time.

Those familiar with the system know players accumulate points at every tournament they enter on a fifty-two week rolling basis, earning more at larger events and the deeper they go into draws. Since the athletes retain credit for wins up to a year -- and are held accountable for long-ago losses -- they arguably get a sort of grace/waiting period before being paid for their most recent results.

That means a severe underdog can beat a heavy favorite at a given tournament, but if she happened to advance farther last time, even if via a much easier draw, she could lose ground despite improved play. Furthermore, as we've seen so often recently, a player can climb the ranks by entering events week after week, building himself insurance if he should be beaten early at the Majors.

Perhaps that irony is best represented in the ascent of Sam Querrey, currently a career high #17 in the world despite having won only one match since the U.S. Open -- and losing to players like Santiago Giraldo and Lucasz Kubot. This week in San Jose, the American boasted a #3 seed, but still couldn't get out the gates and fell in straight sets to Lukas Lacko, ranked out of the top hundred.

What's propping him up? Titles in Belgrade, Queen's Club and Los Angeles over the spring and summer have a few more months of shelf-life, but the five hundred points he earned fifty-one weeks ago in Memphis are about ready to walk out the door unless he ups his game fast. Otherwise, it sure looks like Sam is about to reap the pain of some sloppy recent play.

Vera Zvonareva is in a slightly different, but steadier, boat. Arguably coming off the best year of her career, making final appearances at her first two Slams, she actually doesn't have the hardware to back it up. The only trophy she won in 2010 was in Pattaya City, a smaller tournament in Thailand where she's defending this week, and if she doesn't make good on her top seeding she'll have no titles to show for all the progress she's made. But though her ranking may come into jeopardy later in the year, I feel she's got the potential for a strong spring and summer, and could come out swinging even harder when its time to defend her points.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it looks like Kim Clijsters' patience and six months of hard work is about to be rewarded. The winner in New York, Doha and Melbourne has been inching her way back toward the #1 position -- a spot she last held before she ever won a Major trophy. But now she's one win away from reclaiming the spot from Caroline Wozniacki, and if she makes the semifinals in Paris this week we'll see current dominance finally reflected in the rankings.

At the end of the day, everything probably works out -- stale points eventually drop off and fresh ones get added on, allowing standings to represent where the strength in the sport is, and both the ATP and WTA championships use a calendar year race to determine their qualifiers. But maybe it's time to re-evaluate the system, give more weight to recent results, so that rankings are more reflective of the current environment.

After all, wouldn't we all be better served if only true merit was rewarded?

Back on Track

It wasn't the most exciting final on record -- at less than an hour and not quite two full sets, Robin Soderling was the eventual winner in what was a pretty tough draw in Rotterdam, winning his fifth career title at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament.

The third seed hadn't had the best year to date, and with first round exits at both Chennai and the Australian Open, I was beginning to think Soderling had hit his peak last year. But this week, surprisingly, he faced his biggest challenge in the opening round, when Florent Serra took the first set of their match, and that's saying a lot when the field included brand new world #2 Novak Djokovic and red-hot Nikolay Davydenko. After a fairly routine semifinal against the latter on Saturday, last year's French Open runner-up found himself facing a resurgent Mikhail Youzhny for the title.

The Russian had proven himself to be quite the giant-killer this week. He dispatched fourth-seed Gael Monfils in the quarters and spent a grueling two hours on court with Djokovic in the semis before reaching his fifth final in twelve months. But a nagging back injury forced him to retire while down a set and a break on Sunday. Unable to serve well at all, Youzhny retired after just over fifty minutes of play.



It was Soderling's first championship on a hard court, an important breakthrough for a man now solidly within the top ten, and as he heads to Marseille next week, it certainly reminds his opponents of the force he brings.

In Paris, too, Elena Dementieva sought to prove she is still a champion. Australian Open results notwithstanding, Elena nicely proved why she's largely considered the best player without a Grand Slam title, coming back from a set down against Lucie Safarova to claim her second title of the year. With a 10-1 record in 2010 now, she's riding the same wave of momentum that she began last year with, when she was on her way to a career-high #3 ranking.



Later today Andy Roddick will do his part to show that he too is back on track for a successful year. The champion in Brisbane has been plagued by hip and knee injuries and pulled out of Davis Cup action in order not to endanger his fitness further. This week he made it through a rough semifinal against compatriot Sam Querrey in San Jose, one in which he didn't have one break opportunity on his opponent's serve, for a chance to battle Fernando Verdasco for his fourth SAP Open title. He hasn't lost to the Spaniard since 2005, but a win tonight would clearly have broader implications for his chances to make an impact this year. I'm giving him the slight edge, but I have a feeling this could be a battle!

But it sure is great to see everyone playing at their best again -- it may be early, but if these results are any indication of what's to come, it's shaping up to be a pretty good year!

The Hard-Hitting Heartthrobs

In the spirit of Valentine's Day -- or something like it -- I've dediced to dedicate today's post to my American boys.

The U.S. men had a spotty showing in Australia. While Andy Roddick made it to the semifinals and the Bryan brothers took home the doubles title, other supposed standouts found it more difficult to advance. The second best American, my dear James Blake, made it to the fourth round before being ousted in straight sets, and upstart Sam Querrey, who'd made it to the finals in Auckland just the week before, was stopped short in the first round by Philipp Kohlschreiber.

This week in San Jose, though, the top U.S. players were on their home turf, ready to show their stuff. In a draw of thirty-two players, ten were American-born and they claimed five of the eight seeds. Roddick was hoping to win his fourth title at the SAP Open and Blake was looking to take his first championship in over a year. The two put in a strong showing early and, by the weekend, they along with Mardy Fish -- who defeated former champ Lleyton Hewitt in the first round -- had earned three of the semifinal spots.



It's been a while since U.S. men were at the top of their game. The last time an American has won a Grand Slam was in 2003 when Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero at Flushing Meadows. Compare that to the 1990s when Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and -- believe it or not -- Jim Courier combined to take an amazing twenty-one major titles.

I've mentioned before that there are some promising youngsters in our arsenal that could, in a few years, be the country's best hope. But in the meantime, it's on the likes of Roddick, Blake, Fish and even Querrey that our best hopes lie. And with a few good results in San Jose, they might be able to make a case for themselves, and the state of American tennis.

'Til then, Happy Heart Day!

Making His Comeback

Andy Roddick started out the year with a bang.

In February he won the SAP Open in San Jose, fitting as the company has sponsored Roddick for years. Then he beat both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic on his way to the title in Dubai.

But after that things slowed down a bit.

He lost his spot as the top-ranked player in the U.S. to my favorite James Blake, he suffered an upset in the second round at Wimbledon to the tattooed Janko Tipsarevic, and skipped out on the Olympics only to be humbled at the hands of Juan Martin Del Potro in the finals at the Coutrywide Classic in Los Angeles.



But this week Andy was set to argue that he should not be forgotten as one of the major forces in men's tennis. He went back to Beijing, one month after the Olympics ended, to take his shot at the China Open. And after four matches he found himself holding the championship trophy over his head.

China may not be the pantheon of tennis, but the tournament has attracted some top-notch players over the years. Last year's champ, Fernando Gonzalez, took the silver medal at the Olympics and the year before Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis won the title when he was ranked a career-high #8.

Roddick didn't have the toughest of draws to get to the finals in Beijing -- his best-known opponent was Juan Carlos Ferrero who has dropped percipitously in the rankings in 2008, from #15 in January to #48 now. For the title Andy took on #92, Dudi Sela of Israel, who actually had a much more impressive road -- he consecutively beat the top seed David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Rainer Schuettler for the right to play for the title.

To be fair, Andy never fell out of the top ten, so to designate this a "comeback" may not be entirely appropriate. But my hope is that the win gives him some of the confidence he needs to fight through what's left of the season. With the title Roddick's ATP Race ranking rises to #6, ahead of Ferrer and putting him in contention to vie for the year-end championships in Shanghai. We all know that a little bit of momentum can be all you need to pull out another victory!

Incidentally in another part of Asia, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated top-seeded Djokovic at the finals in Bangkok for the first title of his career. Tsonga, who sat out for three months this year recovering from knee surgery, avenged his January loss to Nole in the Australian Open finals and certainly improved his own chances to compete for the Tennis Master Cup as well.



Congratulations to all!

And to all of you, serve well and play hard!