Weeks 12 & 13 - ATP Masters 1000 - Miami Open, FL (hard)

indiana · Tennis legend

Weeks 12 & 13 - ATP Masters 1000 - Miami Open, FL (hard)

JonH · All-time great

Interesting last 8 for sure, and at this stage of the season it is also instructive to see which players have performed consistently well in the big events to date - ie the AO, IW and Miami.

In terms of reaching the latter stages, ie last 16 of AO and last 8 of the two Masters events, we have:

6 players have reached the latter stages twice:

Carreno-Busta (last 16 AO and in QF at Miami and still in the event)
Anderson (last 8 at IW and Miami, still in Miami)

Raonic (last 4 at IW and last 8 at Miami, still in)
Coric (as per Raonic, last 4 at IW and last 8 at Miami, still in)

Del Potro (IW winner and last 8 at Miami, still in)

Federer (winner at AO and RU at IW)

And one player has made the latter stages of all 3 events:

Chung ( semis AO, last 8 IW, last 8 Miami and still in).

With 6 of these guys still in, it does look like those players are proving to be the best in form of the ytd, it will be interesting to see who goes further in Miami and prevails and also if they can keep that going, partic with Federer missing in the clay season. Of the above, one would expect Del Potro and Carreno Busta to perform best on clay and maybe make a real stamp on the season.

What of course is interesting as well is how the big names are largely missing from this list of consistent performers - Nadal, Djokovic and Murray of course, but Cilic, Dimitrov and Zverev haven't played to their rankings all year apart from maybe for one event (eg Cilic at AO), but not one of them is turning up consistently.

-- Edited by JonH on Wednesday 28th of March 2018 10:21:58 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Certainly a young ones second quarter. It is made up of 4 of the top 7 ranked under 23s. A fifth, Chung, is through as well. Only Rublev and Khachanov of the 7 are missing. Plus Tiafoe, the 10th ranked U23, has still to play his L32 match. So it could be 6 of the top 10 U23s in the L16.

Good to see these all progressing here. Might have been good to be more spread but be interesting to see how it unfolds.
( Kyle incidentally turned 23 in January, but if he was still under 23 he would be 4th ranked behind Zverev, Kyrgios and Chung )

Rublev and Khachanov though are having a good doubles week together. They have beaten the 3rd seeds and Australian Open winners, Marach & Pavic, to advance to the SF.

indiana · Tennis legend

Isner dispatches Chung 6-1 6-4 in their QF match, only conceding 8/45 (18%) points on serve.

In live rankings, Isner is into the top 10 ahead of Pouille, though Carreno Busta or indeed Raonic could still overtake him.

flamingowings · All-time great

Isner...not a favourite of mine.

Delpotro still on for the sunshine double.

indiana · Tennis legend

Somehow or other in spite of their relatively early exit Jamie & Bruno will remain the race #4 pair post Miami, although pairs are queuing up behind them.

The final will be the Bryans ( who were already one of the 3 pairs ahead of them ) vs Khachanov & Rublev ( zilch points as a pair before Miami and with combined ages just beating a single Bryan ).

In the individual rankings Jamie and Bruno will remain WR 14 and 15 respectively.

indiana · Tennis legend

SFs :

(16) Carreno Busta vs (4) A Zverev
(5) Del Potro vs (14) Isner

In the women's SFs 4 were outside the top 30 in the race coming into Miami and at least more than doubled their race points by reaching the SFs. The same now is true of 3 of the men's semi finalists, Del Potro at #2 being very much the exception.

So some very decent overall ranked players but not players that had generally previously shown their hand this year.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

These are some of the boys you expect to see near the top of the new world order, although again with the degree of maturity we see in the top of the men's game, Isner and Del Porto's time in the sun will be relatively short.

indiana · Tennis legend

An interesting tournament and some of the younger players have done pretty well. But that is the Miami order, and ultimately not that new or at least not that young, and I doubt that many would really expect Isner and Carreno Busta to be at the forefront of a new order, certainly not Isner. But anyway that is what Miami has served up, at this time with its courts and conditions, we will await the coming events to see what they bring.

The order for now changes rather a lot, there is not much order rather than initially old Fed continuing to rule and not so young JMDP coming back large on the scene, and as said 3 of those 4 semi finalists hadn't managed much this year prior to Miami. Still of course relatively early in the year but there is a general state of flux rather than any real signs of a new world order. It might for a time largely have Del Potro and Zverev consistently at the sharp end of the big tournaments. It very well might not.

JonH · All-time great

Isner makes the final, good performance this week. Big surprise this week!

JonH · All-time great

...he's lost 3 previous masters finals to Federer, Nadal and Murray...

the addict · Tennis legend

If he continues to play like that, he'll walk the final