Remarkable non-GB performances

Spectator · All-time great

Remarkable non-GB performances

Spectator · All-time great

I went googling to see whether any West African papers had picked up on Frances Tiafoe's reaching the top 100. Couldn't find anything, but suspect that's the vagaries of what goes on the web and into the algorithms. But I did find two long articles - one focused on Tiafoe himself and one on him and Taylor Fritz:

www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/francis-tiafoe-the-improbable-tennis-prodigy-20140519-38izn.html
nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/08/the-making-of-americas-next-great-tennis-talent.html

For those interested in what shapes players and how they transition, they're fascinating articles in their different ways. And for those of us in the UK, it appears that there is a UK connection: Frances Tiafoe, Sr, lived in the UK for five years before moving to Maryland. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Congrats to Pierre-Hugues Herbert who has set up a foundation as part of the association 'Futur Tennis Alscace' to finance younger players in the struggling years.

He's donated a large sum of money to the association, saying that they helped him as a youngster when there was no way that he could have made a bid for being a top player otherwise, and this new foundation within the association will target young players who can't even hope to break even until 22 or so and do not have the parental or federation means to fund the important years before that. His father is also involved, looking for further investors/contributors and as an advice resource for all players and parents.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Congrats to Pierre-Hugues Herbert who has set up a foundation as part of the association 'Futur Tennis Alscace' to finance younger players in the struggling years.

He's donated a large sum of money to the association, saying that they helped him as a youngster when there was no way that he could have made a bid for being a top player otherwise, and this new foundation within the association will target young players who can't even hope to break even until 22 or so and do not have the parental or federation means to fund the important years before that. His father is also involved, looking for further investors/contributors and as an advice resource for all players and parents.

Bravo PHH. Just a shame that this has to be done by private initiative and that the ITF/LTA don't do more through better prize money and financial support.

Spectator · All-time great

It's a great idea - and great that a (relatively) young player should think of it. Well done to him! He does seem a decent sort. (I do wish he hadn't joined the exodus to Switzerland, though, even if he is doing something useful with the money)

TomTraubert · Futures level

lucky 7 for peng shuai finaly finaly gets the WTA title 10 years after her first final as well as 5 other losses in finals
beat riske in tainjin today

evryone thought it to late in her career but good on peng sticking it thrugh with patients
nice girl

Spectator · All-time great

A random and senseless way of taking a break from work that may be of amusement to people on this board.

Noticing that Jack Sock was now ranked highly enough in doubles that he would (were all his points with one partner) qualify for the O2, I began to wonder what would happen if you combined singles and doubles rankings. Did so for the top 50 players - here's the 'revised' top 20. Obviously it reflects frequency with which people play doubles as well as ability. But there were various interesting things eg:

How many Spaniards are highly ranked in both disciplines, for example (hadn't noticed PCB going up the doubles rankings)
Who the ones with the fewest doubles tournaments played are (some you'd expect, but it's not necessarily as you might think: Berdych 4, Cilic 6, Nadal 7, Isner 8, Zverev 9, Pouille 11, Tomic 12, Fognini 13, PHH and Mahut 14, Sock 15)
What happens when you look at points per counting tournament (set as up to 19 for singles and 18 for doubles)

There may be quite a few errors. This was done as a break from work ... but with an acute awareness that I needed to get back to work ... so in haste. Anyway, here it is. Oh, and for what it's worth, AM is on 617 ppct in singles and 69 ppct in doubles.

(1) Jack Sock 36 ( 88 ppct/283 ppct)
(2) Nicolas Mahut 41 ( 56 ppct/558 ppct)
(3) Feliciano Lopez 42 ( 72 ppct /240 ppct)
(4) Pablo Cuevas 57 ( 89 ppct/127 ppct)
(5) Pablo Carreno Busta 64 ( 61 ppct/172 ppct)
(6) Marcel Granollers 65 (57 ppct/173 ppct)
(7) John Isner 84 ( 79 ppct /170 ppct)
[Technically, PHH doesn't fit in the schema, because he's not top 50 singles, but he would be ranked here ....]
[9] Lucas Pouille 115 (111 ppct /74 ppct)
(10) Steve Johnson 117 (87 ppct /46 ppct)
(11) Dominic Thiem 118 (171 ppct /46 ppct)
(12) Tomas Berdych 120 (174 ppct /180 ppct)
(13) Rafael Nadal 121 (231 ppct /97 ppct)
(14) Sam Querrey 131 ( 72 ppct/ 45 ppct)
(15) Marin Cilic 137 ( 152 ppct / 105 ppct)
(16) Victor Troicki 139 ( 73 ppct/45 ppct)
(17) Fabio Fognini 149 ( 47 ppct/ 62 ppct)
(18) Bernard Tomic 168 (80 ppct /44 ppct)
(19) Paolo Lorenzi 162 ( 58 ppct / 22 ppt)
(20) Sascha Zverev 180 ( 92 ppct/52 ppt)

-- Edited by Spectator on Monday 17th of October 2016 09:18:41 PM

Spectator · All-time great

Four from the past week: as Indie rightly pointed out, congratulations to Stephane Robert for entering the top 50 for the first time at 36. Congratulations to Jurgen Melzer, finalist in Moscow doubles, for being one of two active players to have three hundred wins in both singles and doubles. Congratulations to Mikael Ymer and Elias Ymer for winning their first Tour-level doubles title together (they won the Stockholm final - over Mate Pavic and Michael Venus - 6-1 6-1 ... which (a) reminds us that Colin Fleming and Scott Lipsky did much better and (b) suggests that the Ymer partnership may be fairly formidable in the long run) And congratulations to JMDP on his first title since 2013 (also Stockholm)

Spectator · All-time great

The Bryan brothers have celebrated their 1,000th match win. According to the ATP, their closest rivals are the Woodies, with 508: www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/bryans-1000-match-wins-tribute (video has a nice appearance from Ross Hutchins, as a bonus!)

A huge accomplishment. And, from all of us who love doubles, one to be truly celebrated, as without their drawing power and advocacy, doubles might not be in nearly so healthy a state.

JonH · All-time great

Just noticed in women's doubles that Beth Mattek-sands stands to go to top ranking if she and partner win the Singapore final. Fingers crossed, good personality and good to have her at number one if she gets there!

JonH · All-time great

Spectator wrote:
A random and senseless way of taking a break from work that may be of amusement to people on this board.

Noticing that Jack Sock was now ranked highly enough in doubles that he would (were all his points with one partner) qualify for the O2, I began to wonder what would happen if you combined singles and doubles rankings. Did so for the top 50 players - here's the 'revised' top 20. Obviously it reflects frequency with which people play doubles as well as ability. But there were various interesting things eg:
How many Spaniards are highly ranked in both disciplines, for example (hadn't noticed PCB going up the doubles rankings)
Who the ones with the fewest doubles tournaments played are (some you'd expect, but it's not necessarily as you might think: Berdych 4, Cilic 6, Nadal 7, Isner 8, Zverev 9, Pouille 11, Tomic 12, Fognini 13, PHH and Mahut 14, Sock 15)
What happens when you look at points per counting tournament (set as up to 19 for singles and 18 for doubles)

There may be quite a few errors. This was done as a break from work ... but with an acute awareness that I needed to get back to work ... so in haste. Anyway, here it is. Oh, and for what it's worth, AM is on 617 ppct in singles and 69 ppct in doubles.

(1) Jack Sock 36 ( 88 ppct/283 ppct)
(2) Nicolas Mahut 41 ( 56 ppct/558 ppct)
(3) Feliciano Lopez 42 ( 72 ppct /240 ppct)
(4) Pablo Cuevas 57 ( 89 ppct/127 ppct)
(5) Pablo Carreno Busta 64 ( 61 ppct/172 ppct)
(6) Marcel Granollers 65 (57 ppct/173 ppct)
(7) John Isner 84 ( 79 ppct /170 ppct)
[Technically, PHH doesn't fit in the schema, because he's not top 50 singles, but he would be ranked here ....]
[9] Lucas Pouille 115 (111 ppct /74 ppct)
(10) Steve Johnson 117 (87 ppct /46 ppct)
(11) Dominic Thiem 118 (171 ppct /46 ppct)
(12) Tomas Berdych 120 (174 ppct /180 ppct)
(13) Rafael Nadal 121 (231 ppct /97 ppct)
(14) Sam Querrey 131 ( 72 ppct/ 45 ppct)
(15) Marin Cilic 137 ( 152 ppct / 105 ppct)
(16) Victor Troicki 139 ( 73 ppct/45 ppct)
(17) Fabio Fognini 149 ( 47 ppct/ 62 ppct)
(18) Bernard Tomic 168 (80 ppct /44 ppct)
(19) Paolo Lorenzi 162 ( 58 ppct / 22 ppt)
(20) Sascha Zverev 180 ( 92 ppct/52 ppt)

-- Edited by Spectator on Monday 17th of October 2016 09:18:41 PM

hey Spectator, thanks for this. really interesting - when I was younger ie 30 plus years ago I used to compile just this list, I wish I had the records. it interested me that Spain, France and USA account for half the top twenty on here, shows where real tennis depth is across the world.

When I was younger I took it a stage further and played an imaginary singles and doubles masters event from the top 8. I split the 8 into two groups of four and had them play singles against each other and then doubles with each other partner versus the other two, so 6 matches. top 2 in each group proceeded to a final 4 played on the same basis. based on your list Sock, Curves, Carreno Busta and PHH would form one group, Mahut, López, Granollers and Inner the other.

Shame we couldn't see that in real life!

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Just a quick shout out for Ireland's Pete Bothwell who has never made it beyond the QFs before in a Futures and has only scored 3 ranking points all year. This week he has come through qualies in Almeria and gone on to reach the final. Pete is another product of Soto Tennis.

Good luck in the Final.

indiana · Tennis legend

OK "remarkable" is much overstating it, but of interest I see recent progress from Izzy Wallace, originally from Inverness before representing Australia then GB then Australia again.

The week before last's Spain 25K+H SF has taken her up to a CH 563 in the new rankings. And in this last week she has won a Spain 10K without dropping a set and not a lot of games, evidently her first singles title, which should have her pretty close to the top 500 on Monday week. And still just 20.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Just a quick thanks to Spectator for the great links to the Fritz v Tiafoe transition and rivalry, remarkable stories both. It just reaffirms my belief that kids should play a wide variety of sports until they are in secondary school.

Starting any earlier is a form of indoctrination with the parent living vicariously through their child. Tiafoe story is heart warming and inspiring but I also have a certain admiration for Fritz and I would love to successful careers for them both sustained by a fierce rivalry over the next decade.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, really interesting articles, thanks Spectator.

I don't see how they confirm your belief that kids should play a wide variety of sports though (although I think they should too).

Tiafoe grew up at a tennis club and was obsessed with tennis, doing and thinking nothing else 24/7 and playing 'anyone with a pulse'

And Fritz was hard-core coached by his father (and mother at first) every hour God sent - the only mention of other sports is when his father even put on 'pretend' football (and tennis) sessions for his friends (all about age 6) to get young Fritz back to tennis.