The Triple-Digit Club

In case you hadn't noticed, there was something a little different about a couple of the winners' circles at this week's tennis events -- sure Novak Djokovic pulled off a stunning comeback from match points down in the Dubai semis to claim his fifth title there, his first since 2013, and Rafael Nadal ended a similarly long drought in Acapulco, his without losing a set, but it was some players way down the rankings that made the biggest statements over the past seven days -- some even making it all the way to the winners' circles.

How far down the rankings?

Well, put it this way -- even with the points they earned during their runs, they're all still ranked outside the top hundred!

Let's start with the ladies' draw in Acapulco which, unlike the men's event, didn't attract anyone in the top twenty and only one contestant in the top fifty. That's not to say there was no talent in the field -- Venus Williams, a champion there back in 2009 and 2010, took the fifth seed -- but it certainly presented an opportunity for everyone else in the mix. And they certainly were quick to grab at it. First there was Mexico's own Renata Zarazua, who'd entered the event ranked #270 in the world, but stunned top seeded Sloane Stephens in her opener and rode through to the semis, her first final four outside the ITF circuit. For her efforts the twenty-two year old wildcard is now ranked at #187, still a hair off her best-ever ranking, but perhaps in a better position now to make a sustained climb higher.

Then there was Xiyu Wang, who I'd at least seen a little more of this year. Still, ranked at #127 before Acapulco, she had to work her way through qualifiers before making the main draw. But she kicked that campaign off with a bang, ousting second seed Yafan Wang in the first round and sixth-seeded Lin Zhu a few matches later. Coupled with a quarterfinal showing in Hua Hin -- where she beat Petra Martic -- she's now a stone's throw away from what would be a career-high double digit ranking.

But the real story in Mexico last week was Canada's Leylah Fernandez. Like many of these ladies, I hadn't heard much of her before last month -- and, again, I know, I've been a bit out of the loop the last few years. The 17-year-old has spent most of her time on the Juniors tour, making the Australian Open Girls' final in 2019 and winning the French Open crown. She first hit my radar in early February after defeating fifth-ranked Belinda Bencic in Fed Cup, but may have had her break out this past week. Another qualifier in Acapulco, she had a jam-packed week and didn't lose a set until the final, pushing an on-the-rebound Heather Watson to three sets before ultimately succumbing. Now ranked #126, she's still got a lot of work to do before she gets an open invitation to the Slams, but the way she's playing it feels like that is right around the corner.

The same might to apply to the other teen making waves last week -- this one in Santiago. Brazil's Thiago Seyboth Wild was ranked #250 before coming to Chile. The 2018 U.S. Open Boys' Champion also won a Challenger event last season in Guayaquil, but was still far off the radar this week in Chile. That didn't seem to bother the wildcard though -- he scored an upset of fifth-seeded Juan Ignacio Londero in the second round and then advanced past top seed Cristian Garin, the Cordoba and Rio champ who lost a tight first set before pulling out with injury. Seyboth Wild came up against fellow 2020 breakout Casper Ruud in the final, and unlike the other sub-100 players this week, he was able to get the better of his foe, upsetting the second seed in the over two-hour match. The win was enough to more than halve his ranking, bringing him up to #113 in the world to start this week.

It's sort of a shame that these guys didn't get an even bigger boost after their stellar performances last week. But given how early some of them are in their careers, they were starting from so far back that there was no way they could go higher than they did. The real question will be what they do from here -- whether they can take their momentum into the coming weeks and prove their results were no fluke.

They may not all succeed, but I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't hear a lot more from all of them. And one day soon, hopefully these triple-digit rankings may be but a distant memory.

Homecourt Advantage

In most sports you often give the edge to the team playing on their own territory. It's not a guaranteed success, of course, but even the 2-14 Carolina Panthers scored both their wins in Charlotte.

The same is not always true in tennis -- the last Brit to win Wimbledon, after all, was Fred Perry back in 1936 -- but at some smaller tournaments, like those that took place over the last week, we saw a couple of hometown heroes get a chance to shine, and some made a real breakthrough.

Santiago Giraldo isn't from Chile, but his Colombia is not far away. And playing in a town that bears his name, I imagine the crowds were on his side at the Movistar Open. South Americans dominated the draw in Santiago with three Argentines and a Brazilian making the quarters along with Giraldo. But the twenty-three year old from Bogota pulled off upsets over Juan Ignacio Chela and Potito Starace to make his first ever championship match.

There he met Spain's Tommy Robredo, a man who'd racked up nine titles in his career but lost their only previous meeting at the Australian Open just last month. Robredo's been in something of a slump recently, so it wasn't out of the question to see the technical upset, but after he got off to a set lead in the match I began to lose hope. Giraldo came back to even the score and even got a break lead in the decider, but when he failed to serve it out Robredo didn't look back. He converted his second match point in the tiebreak, denying the ultimate championship to the Colombian, but at least giving him hope for his next attempt.

The South Africa Open in Johannesburg saw more than a few of its own stars pull off upsets. Wildcard Rik de Voest made the quarters while Izak Van Der Merwe won his first Tour level matches on his way to the semis. But it was fourth-seeded Kevin Anderson who ultimately made the biggest impression. I've often wondered why the strong server hasn't made more of a dent in the pros -- currently ranked at #59, he's hovered in the low double-digits for about a year. He gave Sam Querrey a run for the money in Los Angeles last summer and took revenge on him two weeks later in Toronto. Yet he hadn't really broken through main draws.

That is, until this week. The six-foot-eight former star at the University of Illinois rattled off fifty-three aces on his way to his second career final where he met Somdev Devvarman. After losing the first set to his college rival, Anderson rebounded to win the next two in about an hour more. The title was the first won by a South African since Wesley Moodie took Tokyo in 2005 and should push Kevin to a career-high ranking. Having now improved to a 8-3 record on the year, it could be his turn to crack into the top tiers of the sport.

A little further north in Croatia, many of the locals were stopped right out of the gate. Still the top two seeds reflected how strong the country has been in recent months -- two-time defending champ Marin Cilic and world #16 Ivan Ljubicic lead the pack, but were both defeated in the quarters. Instead compatriot Ivan Dodig, who broke into the top hundred at the end of last year, came out firing. The only man to take a set from Australian Open champ Novak Djokovic in Melbourne beat one seed after another in the city where he lives.

For his efforts, Dodig earned the right to meet world #61 Michael Berrer in his first Tour final. They'd never played each other before, but with five more years in the pros and a couple big wins of his own under his belt, the German was probably still the favorite. But Ivan was unstoppable from the start. At just six-feet tall, he was the shorter of the two, but fired off sixteen aces and won more than eighty percent of his first serves. He denied Berrer seven break chances and eventually won the match in straight sets, taking just over ninety minutes to capture his maiden trophy.



Of course the hometown edge benefits some more than others, but with these guys making a real statement on their own turf, there's really no telling what they'll be able to do in other stadiums.

And now that they have that added bit of confidence, I'm betting we'll see a lot more of all of them.

Making a Statement

A couple weeks ago when wrapping up the 2009 tennis season for the men, I made a few predictions as to what the top ten would look like by the end of the year. Now I know we're still a good ways from 2011, but some of the shifts so far look pretty ominous -- and more than a few players are making their runs for the top.

I've already mentioned how saddened I am by Rafael Nadal's recent stumblings, but the fate of others looks a little better. Marin Cilic holds on to his spot in the top ten thanks to his win in Zagreb last week. Only three tournaments into the year and he's already defended two titles and made the semis at a Major. Not bad for a twenty-one year old no one really knows -- yet. Cilic didn't face the toughest draw in his home country, with his biggest competition coming from world #32 Jurgen Melzer, but there can still be a lot of pressure on a kid to repeat not once, but twice in a row. In any case, he looks primed to work well into the sport's elite throughout the year.

In the southern hemisphere a couple of men were doing their part to include their names in the same bunch.

Spain's Feliciano Lopez has been around a while -- the twenty-eight year old turned pro in 1997 and peaked at #20 in the world five years ago. After that, though, he's struggled a bit, bouncing around the rankings and being unable to capture his sophomore title -- until this week, he'd only won a single trophy in Vienna in 2004.

But in Johannesburg he was back in form. Lopez seemed comforted by the one set he'd been able to take from Andy Roddick in the third round of Melbourne and sailed through players like Rajeev Ram and top-seeded Gael Monfils. By the time he took on Stephane Robert in the finals, he barely broke a sweat. In just over an hour he'd secured his second career title, and a six-point jump in the rankings to #33.

Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci hadn't been title-free for quite so long -- he'd won his maiden trophy last year in Gstaad. Even still, with some early exits from the other tournaments he'd played in 2010, winning number two might not have seemed within reach.

But the twenty-two year old withstood two three-setters in his opening rounds and powered through the twice-defending champion, Fernando Gonzalez, in the semis, overcoming a one-set deficit. He even was able to rally from being bagelled in the second set of the finals by Juan Monaco to pull out the win, and with it he brings home his best-ever ranking -- #28 in the world.

So sure, the statements made over the last week by various players were quite a bit different: Cilic wants the world to know he's a force to be reckoned with, while Lopez is trying to make sure we don't forget about him. Bellucci, meanwhile, might become the next next big thing. In any case, I'm sticking by my calls for the year-end top-ten.

But I'm sure some of these guys will do what they can to prove me wrong!