Well, I'm pleased I didn't make the effort to stay up and watch.

I've also noticed Dan has a busy first three  months of the season. I see the logic:  Have a busy schedule on his favoured surfaces, and only play Masters Series events on the dirt.  His early departure  from Melbourne means his next competitive match is two weeks away in Montpellier.  Four events without a break, this will be quite tough but do-able. The only long flight is Marseille to Dubai, the other tournament is Rotterdam.  Unless he goes really deep in Dubai, he will have a full two weeks off before he plays in Indian Wells.  Tournament choice is quite a personal thing, he should do what ever he feels good abouut.

I wonder if Dan will -play any doublees this year?  I'm sure his focus will be singles, but if he does fancy some dubs, Indian Wells and Miami with their two week format would be very suitable. 

Interesting stat

2 of the top 10 ranked ATP players NOT to have won a singles title are Brits - various table below, the one I refer to is on the bottom level .

Link in case table doesnt copy well 

http://tennisabstract.com/reports/ATP_BestWhoHavent.html 




...a Grand Slam appearance ...a Masters 1000 appearance ...an ATP appearance
104 Emil Ruusuvuori FIN 1999-04-02 84 Gregoire Barrere FRA 1994-02-16 104 Emil Ruusuvuori FIN 1999-04-02
112 Attila Balazs HUN 1988-09-27 89 Dominik Koepfer GER 1994-04-29 143 Juan Pablo Varillas Patino Samudio PER 1995-10-06
117 Gianluca Mager ITA 1994-12-01 93 Yasutaka Uchiyama JPN 1992-08-05 162 Andrew Harris AUS 1994-03-07
119 Federico Coria ARG 1992-03-09 97 Kamil Majchrzak POL 1996-01-13 166 Danilo Petrovic SRB 1992-01-24
134 Steven Diez CAN 1991-03-17 98 Egor Gerasimov BLR 1992-11-11 181 Jeffrey John Wolf USA 1998-12-21
137 Zhizhen Zhang CHN 1996-10-16 99 Dennis Novak AUT 1993-08-28 184 Dmitry Popko KAZ 1996-10-24
143 Juan Pablo Varillas Patino Samudio PER 1995-10-06 104 Emil Ruusuvuori FIN 1999-04-02 187 Joao Lucas Magalhaes Hueb De Menezes BRA 1996-12-17
148 Emilio Gomez ECU 1991-11-28 105 Andrej Martin SVK 1989-09-20 189 Maxime Cressy FRA 1997-05-08
150 Lorenzo Giustino ITA 1991-09-10 112 Attila Balazs HUN 1988-09-27 192 Andrea Collarini ARG 1992-01-31
156 Nikola Milojevic SRB 1995-06-19 115 Christopher Oconnell AUS 1994-06-03 193 Botic Van De Zandschulp NED 1995-10-04

...a Grand Slam match win ...a Masters 1000 match win ...an ATP match win
80 Tommy Paul USA 1997-05-17 43 Ugo Humbert FRA 1998-06-26 104 Emil Ruusuvuori FIN 1999-04-02
82 Jannik Sinner ITA 2001-08-16 72 Lloyd George Muirhead Harris RSA 1997-02-24 115 Christopher Oconnell AUS 1994-06-03
87 Soon Woo Kwon KOR 1997-12-02 74 Stefano Travaglia ITA 1991-12-18 131 Sumit Nagal IND 1997-08-16
88 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina ESP 1999-06-05 84 Gregoire Barrere FRA 1994-02-16 143 Juan Pablo Varillas Patino Samudio PER 1995-10-06
93 Yasutaka Uchiyama JPN 1992-08-05 86 Thiago Monteiro BRA 1994-05-31 150 Lorenzo Giustino ITA 1991-09-10
103 Brayden Schnur CAN 1995-07-04 87 Soon Woo Kwon KOR 1997-12-02 158 Kimmer Coppejans BEL 1994-02-07
104 Emil Ruusuvuori FIN 1999-04-02 88 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina ESP 1999-06-05 162 Andrew Harris AUS 1994-03-07
107 Marcos Giron USA 1993-07-24 89 Dominik Koepfer GER 1994-04-29 166 Danilo Petrovic SRB 1992-01-24
112 Attila Balazs HUN 1988-09-27 93 Yasutaka Uchiyama JPN 1992-08-05 168 Pedro Martinez Portero ESP 1997-04-26
113 Norbert Gombos SVK 1990-08-13 95 Salvatore Caruso ITA 1992-12-15 172 Roberto Marcora ITA 1989-08-30

...an ATP title ...an ATP final ...an ATP semifinal
22 Felix Auger Aliassime CAN 2000-08-08 37 Jan Lennard Struff GER 1990-04-25 73 Hugo Dellien BOL 1993-06-16
32 Daniel Evans GBR 1990-05-23 73 Hugo Dellien BOL 1993-06-16 74 Stefano Travaglia ITA 1991-12-18
37 Jan Lennard Struff GER 1990-04-25 74 Stefano Travaglia ITA 1991-12-18 78 Mikael Ymer SWE 1998-09-09
41 Filip Krajinovic SRB 1992-02-27 78 Mikael Ymer SWE 1998-09-09 84 Gregoire Barrere FRA 1994-02-16
47 John Millman AUS 1989-06-14 80 Tommy Paul USA 1997-05-17 87 Soon Woo Kwon KOR 1997-12-02
48 Casper Ruud NOR 1998-12-22 82 Jannik Sinner ITA 2001-08-16 89 Dominik Koepfer GER 1994-04-29
54 Miomir Kecmanovic SRB 1999-08-31 84 Gregoire Barrere FRA 1994-02-16 93 Yasutaka Uchiyama JPN 1992-08-05
55 Aljaz Bedene SLO 1989-07-18 86 Thiago Monteiro BRA 1994-05-31 94 James Duckworth AUS 1992-01-21
56 Alexander Bublik KAZ 1997-06-17 87 Soon Woo Kwon KOR 1997-12-02 96 Alexei Popyrin AUS 1999-08-05
62 Cameron Norrie

Bob in Spain wrote:

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Fed survives a huge scare. Had it been a normal TB in the final set he would be out. But he was saved by the fact it was an MTB to 10.

From 8-4 down in the 5th set MTB, Fed won 6 points in a row to win 10-8. Gutted for Millman.

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 I do think that with all the slams doing their own thing in 5th sets now, it would be good to see some sort of consistency. I would actually be quite happy if they all moved to a MTB in 5th set like the Aussies; wouldnt be much of a change for the US to do that; Wimbledon obv has the 12-12 tiebreak thing which I am not sure I see  that much benefit in, cant recall what the French are planning to do?

Fantastic win for nick k over khachanov,  wow. Nadal next, that could be a treat. 

flamingowings wrote:

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Last 16:
[1] Nadal vs. [23] Kyrgios
[10] Monfils vs. [5] Thiem
[4] Medvedev vs. [15] Wawrinka
[7] Zverev vs. [17] Rublev
[12] Fognini vs. Sandgren
[3] Federer vs. Fucsovics
[32] Raonic vs. Cilic
[2] Djokovic vs. [14] Schwartzman

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 In terms of geographic representation, it's Europe 12, Rest of the World, 4, but with a very good spread between countries:

Russia 2

Switzerland 2

USA 1

Argentina 1

Canada 1

Australia 1

France 1

Germany 1

Italy 1

Austria 1

Hungary 1

Croatia 1

Serbia 1

Spain 1

The top half looks rather more interesting than the bottom half.

After his great escape the draw has fallen nicely for Fed.