ATP Tennis/Non-India Davis Cup

[Sin Hombre]

And won the Miami masters in relatively straightforward fashion, up to #2 on the elo rankings fwiw.

[PKBasu]

The next Nadal is here, and he may be better at 18 than Rafa was...
SF in Indian Wells (losing narrowly to Nadal) and title at Miami (formerly Key Biscayne), long considered the Fifth Slam, is an impressive way to top off the pre-clay hardcourt season for Carlos Alcaraz Garfia.

Djokovic apparently has been exempted from vaccinations by the FO, so he is making his comeback at Monte Carlo. It'll be interesting to see how he matches up against the phenom of the moment.

[prasen9]

I just returned from France. I am fully vaccinated. But, unvaccinated people are being allowed to enter if they have a negative test. On Mar 14 they ended the requirement for having been vaccinated before entering stadia. Even having to use masks in the university became optional when I was there. I think the only time I was checked was when I was trying to board a train. So, like everyone else, Djokovic can enter and play in France as of now and does not need exemptions, I think. But, things may change rapidly if there is another surge. My point is that he should be allowed if other people are allowed using the same rules and not if not. His December test was obviously fake as pointed out by an investigative piece by a German newspaper. There were discrepancies with the QR code and the ID which seemed like it was adjusted later, etc. And, he was mingling with interviewers the day after he supposedly tested positive. That is pretty slimeball-y.

[PKBasu]

The next Nadal is here, and he may be better at 18 than Rafa was...
SF in Indian Wells (losing narrowly to Nadal) and title at Miami (formerly Key Biscayne), long considered the Fifth Slam, is an impressive way to top off the pre-clay hardcourt season for Carlos Alcaraz Garfia.

Djokovic apparently has been exempted from vaccinations by the FO, so he is making his comeback at Monte Carlo. It'll be interesting to see how he matches up against the phenom of the moment.

Carlos Alcaraz Garfia has won the Barcelona title (beating Tsitsipas in the QF), to add to his titles at the Miami Masters (hard) and Rio (clay; he beat Berretini -- reversing the result from their AO encounter -- and then Fognini and Schwartzman in the next 2 rounds, SF and F). I would say that the youngster is the odds-on favourite for the French Open, but only needs to pace himself a bit -- not play too many tournaments in the intervening weeks before the FO starts on 22 May.

Of course, both Nadal and Djokovic will be at Roland Garros, so Carlos will have to be ready to overcome those huge psychological hurdles to the title.

[prasen9]

So the next Nadal is here? The young-oldies (22-28 year olds) will emerge or will the next-next-gen take over? The pareto-curve for rank-age in the top-250 is as follows:

#1 Djokovic 35
#2 Medvedev 26
#3 Zverev 25
#5 Tsitsipas 24
#7 Caspar Ruud 23
#9 Alcaraz 19
#198 Nardi 18

Alcaraz pretty much wiped out the rest of the top-200!

[PKBasu]

The "young-oldies" have produced two Slam titlists -- Thiem and Medvedev. Thiem should have won the French rather than the US Open, but probably surprised himself by winning the USO in 2020, with Medvedev succeeding him the following year.

They, and other young oldies like Tsitsipas and Zverev will be around to challenge Alcaraz, just as Federer stood in Nadal's way, and there were others like Wawrinka, Roddick, Cilic and later Murray and Djokovic who made it less than an easy run for Nadal.

[prasen9]

I see Nadal, Fed, and Djokovic (in no particular order) as being about the same, however much we argue about who is better than whom. I get a feeling that T., M., T., and Z. are not perhaps in that class. I think Alcaraz may be special. But, I have gotten too high on someone and then for injury, mental, etc. reasons they did not achieve "that" greatness despite winning a few slam tournaments here and there.

[rajitghosh]

https://www.tennis.com/news/visual-stor ... s-and-clay

Something more on the Fed-Rafa rivalry and 2 dream match ups

[PKBasu]

Carlos Alcaraz-Garfia beats Rafa on the clay at Madrid (in the QF -- too early in the draw for them to meet!!) to set up a semifinal clash against the world #1 Novak Djokovic. They are really making him earn that title...

[Sin Hombre]

Alcaraz beat Djokovic to reach the finals.

No doubts in my prediction from earlier that he is going to dominate the Medvedev, Zverev, Tsitsipas generation quickly.

I would still put Rafa (with more practice on clay) and Novak above him at the remaining GS this year.