Yes, up to and including this week ( Andy's 40th ) and he will have one further week before Rafa or Fed take over again. And it's not going to be anyone else anytime soon.
The wiki site actually gives their cumulative weeks as of now ( ties in with Born2WinTennis's list from November when Andy registered 1 )
Federer 302 Djokovic 223 Nadal 141 Murray 40
Andy will take it to 707. Rafa or Fed to 708 and onwards. When will it all end ??
Could have a prediction competition. When and ended by who?
-- Edited by indiana on Friday 11th of August 2017 03:19:56 PM
Right now I would say Sascha Zverev is the most likely to break the monopoly, his progress has been incredible over the last 18 months and frankly none of the other next gen stars are close, even Thiem.
Right now I would say Sascha Zverev is the most likely to break the monopoly, his progress has been incredible over the last 18 months and frankly none of the other next gen stars are close, even Thiem.
In terms of his tennis, Sascha is a golden child and has been my favourite for the last couple of years. Have never really taken to Thiem although he's achieved some excellent results and ranking.
Got a growing soft spot for young Shapo, though......
Guardian reporting that Stan has been ruled out for the rest of season, joining Novak on the sides now. It probably means a) that Andy cant feasibly fall below 3rd in the rankings (remember at Wimbledon both Novak and Stan could have reached top spot!) b) the Tour Finals will be depleted now although we may see some new names come to the fore - at the moment Cilic is also injured and Andy's position in unclear - 9th and 10th spots are filled by Berdych (ok not a new name) and Dimitrov with Goffin in 11th...
Proving to be a very interesting season.
Now Nishikori has pulled out for the rest of the season. They are going down like flies at the moment.
I agree men's tennis is becoming a bit of a joke. Nadal will be number 1 by default this year with Fed at number 2. A fit Stan, Novak and Andy I doubt this would be the case.
Surprised Murray seems to have now announced he is playing US Open that's a change to the original plan I believe. I wonder if the severely weakened field is the deciding factor, even an 80 per cent fit Murray is a stick on for minimum QF spot I'd say.
Surprised Murray seems to have now announced he is playing US Open that's a change to the original plan I believe. I wonder if the severely weakened field is the deciding factor, even an 80 per cent fit Murray is a stick on for minimum QF spot I'd say.
I doubt very much the strength of the field had anything to do with it and I certainly hope it didn't. He is either fit or he isn't and if he's not 100% fit he shouldn't play.
Essentially agree Bob without getting into how rarely any player is absolutely 100% fit.
Some of the very best may be missing, which could actually help latter progress if Andy plays himself in and is fit enough to reach the QFs but there remain plenty good enough players that an 80% fit ( and rusty ) Andy would for me certainly be far from a stick on for reaching the QFs at all. So if he plays I trust he is a fair bit fitter than that.
There are going to be at least 3 top 16 players missing the US Open main draw more slightly further down so if Andy plays he ll make the quarters Is be certain of that. If it's 50/50 I'm sure the missing players may tip it.
Still think he ll pull out anyway as I said last week without saying anything more.
Looking at the runs of Challenger players like Sugita and Donaldson should be a sign for the likes of Kyle and other challenger level guys that this Slam is a great chance to go deep.
If just 3 of the top players ( Djokovic, Wawrinka and Nishikori ) are out of the US Open then the 13 to 16 seeds that Andy would be bracketed against for the L16 would still be WRs 16 to 19. Even say another couple out from the top 16 and the 13 to 16 seeds would be WRs 18 to 21.
Not likely to be a walk in the park apart from what other nasties could appear earlier and just not worth it if a fair way off full fitness. Much nearer full fitness, and I have seen no public info on his progress, then the odds change although Andy's general form for most of the year would still not lead me to such unbounded optimism re his QF chances, let alone the more he would seek.
-- Edited by indiana on Friday 18th of August 2017 10:14:48 PM
Perhaps a bit unexpectedly Andy is in situ for the US Open and thus has a theoretical chance of an early return to WR 1 at least temporarily.
Very much just the three WR 1 contendors with the men. Net positions at the start of the US Open, deducting last year's US Open points with official Monday ranking positions in brackets:
There are going to be at least 3 top 16 players missing the US Open main draw more slightly further down so if Andy plays he ll make the quarters Is be certain of that. If it's 50/50 I'm sure the missing players may tip it.
Still think he ll pull out anyway as I said last week without saying anything more.
Looking at the runs of Challenger players like Sugita and Donaldson should be a sign for the likes of Kyle and other challenger level guys that this Slam is a great chance to go deep.
Hiya Indiana pal (I did tell you)
Just about everyone connected with Andy including Lendl I believe told him to withdraw. As I said the growing list of withdrawals was the reason he contemplated playing despite everyone telling him otherwise.
-- Edited by Jaggy1876 on Saturday 26th of August 2017 08:20:40 PM