ATP Tennis/Non-India Davis Cup

[PKBasu]

Daniil Medvedev on a 20-match winning streak, during which he has won 11 matches against top-10 players (including Novak in the ATP Finals). Can he make it one more in the AO final on Sunday?

[sameerph]

Novak proves too good for Medvedev in the final for his 9th Australian open title and 18th slam title.

Rafa and Roger with 20 titles now, Novak with 18.who will Ed up with highest?

[arjun2761]

My guess is Novak. Federer is likely done. Nadal may have one more FO but chances are that Novak will win 4 or more from here on out.

[prasen9]

Given their ages, Novak.

[PKBasu]

Recency bias suggests Novak! Surely the next generation -- Thiem, Medvedev, Tsitsipas, Zverev, Kyrgios -- will make the breakthrough soon. Novak was clinical yesterday, and Medvedev frankly had no real excuses (like tough previous matches) to explain away his decimation. But one of the young lot needs to have a great run, find an easier draw in a Slam, and make it all the way. Once the spell of the Big Three is broken (i.e., with one of the next generation beating one of the Big Three in a Slam final), I think the next lot will begin coming into their own. The psychological lock of the Big Three wasn't opened by a Thiem-Zverev Slam final.

[sameerph]

Aslan Karatsev continues to rise up rapidly on ATP tour. He won ATP 500 Dubai beating South African qualfier Lloyd Harris in the final.

In the meantime Miami master is going to have one of the weakest fields in long time, no Federer, no Djokovic and no Nadal and the cut for main draw has fallen to 116.

[PKBasu]

Karatsev got a wildcard into the main draw, and went on to win the title! Fantastic! Of course that wildcard was needed mainly because his entry ranking was 114 (pre-AO), while his actual ranking (to be used, for instance, for seeding among the qualifiers) would have made him the top seed in the qualifying draw.

This is a time of change and opportunity on the ATP tour. I hope Yuki and/or Sumit are able to make it to Miami because there are great opportunities in that tournament.

[jai_in_canada]

Interesting outcomes at the Miami Open 2021 with Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Thiem MIA in Miami.
Daniil MedveDEV did not DEVour the opportunity to further DEVelop his resume.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, well, he Tsitsi-failed take advantage of the situation.
Andrei Rublev rued the missed chances to LEVitate to the 1000 LEVel.
Sascha ZveREV did not REVV up his game to cause a ZveREVolution in tennis.
Naomi did not rhyme with Miami.
Aslan's season's shine diminished a little from the hitherto 24-Karat gold .
But Jannik Sinner has turned out to be a winner.
Hubert Hurkacz has taken a huge catch.
Ashley has come ready to Barty like it’s Spring Break.
And Bianca is shining like Binaca Flouride.

[PKBasu]

Or, to put it less poetically (or humorously) than JIC, the men's tour in the absence of the Big 3 is like the women's tour in the absence of Serena: anyone in the top-30 could win a tournament randomly.

[jai_in_canada]

"Poetically" is too kind an epithet to apply to my attempts at puns, PKB. But thank you.

Your point about random winners in the absence of the Big 3 is an important one. Individual sports require dominant rivalries at the top to grow and maintain fan engagement. Roger-Rafa-Novak have done that in spades with contrasting personalities and game styles. They have transcended the sport due to their charisma, athleticism and achievements.

Will the NextGen give us a similar rivalry? Which three among Sinner, Musetti, Auger-Alliasime, Shapavalov, Medvedev, Rublev, Zverev, Tsitsipas et. al. will form the next Holy Trinity of tennis?

[PKBasu]

#31 vs #37 in an ATP Masters final!! This has got to be a first. Not sure if Sinner and Hurkacz are going to be among the long-term top-10, although they are definitely the flavour of the week in the tournament that used to be called the Fifth Slam. How utterly stupid of the Indians (Yuki and Prajnesh especially) not to have turned up. Yuki used to have a home in Florida, so it makes it even more inexplicable. He was more intent on enjoying the dining pleasures of Dubai after qualifying into the main draw there.

There is a crazy scramble among Thiem, Medvedev, Sasha Zverev and Tsitsipas to dominate the next tier. This week showed just why they aren't challenging the Big Three consistently yet: they simply aren't consistent enough to dominate the next tier (or at least nobody among that group is), so they can't yet dislodge the Big Three. The USO triumph for Thiem seems more and more a case of beating the rest when the Big Three weren't around (Djoker knocked out by a bout of bad luck).

[PKBasu]

At 19, Jannik Sinner may really be the next big thing in men's tennis -- a real competitor in the near future to the next tier (Zverev, Medvedev, Thiem, Tsitsipas). Although from Italy, Sinner's name suggests he is from South Tyrol, a region in the far north of Italy that is mainly German-speaking. (The region was fought over during the world wars). The German-speaking Italian may bridge many gaps in the tennis world.

[jai_in_canada]

Hurcacz pole vaulted over Sinner by virtue of some sublime tennis to master Miami 2021. 7-6, 6-4. First Polish player to win a Masters 1000 title. Not the lowest combined ranking finals in Masters 1000 history, but the 5th youngest combined ages of the finalists (and the youngest since 2009 Djokovic-Murray, I think). Young Jannik need not repent. He just needs to confess and atone for this one, and lift his spirits for other heavenly opportunities to come.

The Italians will have 10 players in the Top 100 come Monday. An astonishing achievement for any country, bust especially one that size. A country with less than 1% of the World's population taking up 10% of the Top 100 ranks in men's professional tennis. Their system is doing something right. Should cheer up the nation that is having one of the toughest experiences with the pandemic.

[sameerph]

French open 2021 has been postponed by 1 week-

Organizers confirm Roland Garros 2021 has been postponed by a week, main-draw action to start on 30 May

This will affect the grass season thereafter.

[PKBasu]

The cavalier attitude to the grass season continues. But perhaps some of those who lose early at the FO will get a headstart to the grass season by going on to play Stuttgart and other grass tournaments during the second week of the FO.