Welcome to the Monday Tennis Briefing, the place The Athletic will clarify the story behind the tales from the final week on courtroom.
This week, the European clay swing kicked off in earnest throughout the ATP and WTA excursions, with tournaments in France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Romania. The 4 finest ladies’s gamers confronted off in Stuttgart, Barcelona witnessed the return of Rafael Nadal, and we noticed a serve from zero gravity.
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Are the WTA and ATP excursions swapping their metas?
For the previous yr, there’s been some chatter a couple of ‘Massive 4’ forming in ladies’s tennis. It was a ‘Massive Three’, comprised of Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka, however then Coco Gauff received the U.S. Open and have become a critically constant presence within the enterprise finish of tournaments, together with the semi-finals of the Australian Open. She additionally climbed to No 3 within the rankings. On the identical time, the fast emergence of Carlos Alcaraz, succeeded by the slower burn of Jannik Sinner, Daniil Medvedev being Daniil Medvedev, and the elastic continuity of Novak Djokovic solid new rivalries on the ATP tour.
The previous few months have thrown a wrench into that pondering. Regardless of being and not using a Grand Slam title since final yr’s French Open, Swiatek continues to indicate each signal of being a dominant world No 1 for whereas. The opposite three haven’t delivered the form of consistency that may actually justify utilizing a reputation that has its roots within the Roger Federer/Djokovic/Nadal/Andy Murray dominance of the 2010s.
A decade on, it’s straightforward to neglect how typically these names landed within the final weekends of the largest occasions. Take into account 2012: of the 16 semi-final spots in that yr’s 4 Grand Slam tournaments, Murray, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic accounted for 12 of them. Murray, Djokovic and Federer additionally took three of the semi-final spots on the London Olympics that yr.
In Stuttgart final week, a uncommon mid-level event to draw the highest 4 ladies, it seemed like they may pull off a semi-final sweep. However then Marketa Vondrousova beat Sabalenka, and Gauff misplaced to Marta Kostyuk, with Elena Rybakina successful the event.
Subsequent up, Madrid. Possibly the quartet would be the final 4 standing this time.
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What’s behind Andrey Rublev’s eight-set stoop?
Good tennis gamers can see their kind nosedive. Proper now, it’s Rublev’s flip.
Rublev was world No 5 in the beginning of the yr. He performed to his seeding on the Australian Open, however he has been in a nasty means since he was defaulted within the ultimate video games of a semi-final match in Dubai in opposition to Alexander Bublik in February.
Rublev angrily protested a name to a line choose. One other line choose claimed the Russian had used profanity in his native language.
He didn’t.
The event officers refused to evaluate tapes earlier than they defaulted Rublev and he was stripped of his rating factors and prize cash earned.
The video went viral, and the ATP finally restored his rankings factors and the cash he had earned — however the harm had been executed. Rublev has received only one match since then, and he has misplaced to gamers ranked far decrease than he’s, together with world No 44 Alexei Popyrin and final week, world No 87 Brandon Nakashima, which noticed Rublev destroy his racket after dropping match level.
The encounters haven’t been very shut both. Rublev has apparently been wholesome, however he’s simply not taking part in very effectively, having dropped eight units out of 10 because the default in a string of 4 consecutive defeats.
These stats aren’t superior, however they aren’t precisely on a decline as steep as his match outcomes. Nonetheless, check out one thing else…
‘Dominance ratio’ is calculated by dividing the proportion of return factors received by the proportion of service factors misplaced. The final time Rublev’s dominance ratio was this low was in 2015, when his rating excessive for the yr was No 185 on this planet and his rating low was No 438.
Coco Gauff does what Coco Gauff does… for the way lengthy?
Gauff will get a ton of accolades for her grit, her competitiveness, her means to intestine out tight matches, particularly throughout three units.
The American might have all these qualities, however she will be able to additionally do math.
Gauff has performed 25 matches, successful 19 and dropping six. Of these 25 matches, eight have gone the space, and of these eight, she has misplaced 4.
That’s two losses in 17 two-set matches, and 4 losses in eight three-set matches.
What does all this imply?
Gauff got here out on the improper finish of a topsy-turvy match (Alex Grimm/Getty Photos)
Positive, her coach Brad Gilbert is the best espouser of successful ugly, however it has to incorporate the “successful” half. Gauff just about at all times reveals up, and it’s price remembering that of these two straight-set defeats, one was in opposition to Sabalenka within the Australian Open semi-final.
She may nonetheless do with being a bit extra medical. As thrilling as it’s to look at Gauff combat, as wild as it’s to look at her win matches when she is way from her finest, slim margins finally meet up with gamers. That’s what occurred in Stuttgart in opposition to Kostyuk, a participant Gauff beat in three units in Australia however who returned the favour in Germany.
It’s a microcosm of the coin flip that her three-setters have turn into.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas and Casper Ruud peak — however on the proper time?
Tsitsipas and Ruud are two of the perfect clay courtroom gamers on this planet. Ruud has made the finals of the final two French Opens. Tsitsipas made the one earlier than that. Sadly, their opponents in these finals, Nadal and Djokovic, have received a mixed 46 Grand Slam titles, 17 of them at Roland Garros.
Nonetheless, Tsitispas and Ruud have earned the proper to construct their clay seasons to peak on the French Open, as a result of each needs to be alive deep within the event and, relying on how the draw breaks, they may have a shot at successful it too.
Ruud took management of this ultimate after a meek efficiency final week (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photos)
The way in which issues are going, they won’t have any gas left of their tanks.
For a second consecutive week, Ruud and Tsitispas met within the finals of a event, this time in Barcelona, the place Ruud avenged his loss to the Greek in Monte Carlo. It was Ruud’s third occasion of the clay-court season and Tsitispas’s second, with Madrid and Rome — each competitions slightly below the extent of a Grand Slam — taking over the following 4 weeks of the calendar earlier than Roland Garros begins. That’s lots of tennis, even for gamers of their mid-twenties, reminiscent of Ruud and Tsitispas.
Sure, that is the time of yr when clay-court standouts attempt to pile up rankings factors and prize cash, however is it an excessive amount of? Djokovic actually thinks so, a minimum of for him. A grasp of conserving vitality and peaking on the greatest occasions, Djokovic performed Monte Carlo, dropping to Ruud within the semis, however he took final week off and has pulled out of Madrid too. He’ll doubtless play Rome, then head to Paris — gas reserves on excessive.
Kick it, actual good
It’s a fact universally acknowledged — a minimum of by readers of beloved British youngsters’s creator Michael Rosen — that in case you can’t go over it or below it, you’ve bought to undergo it.
Brazil’s uncooked however rising star Joao Fonseca doesn’t acknowledge this fact.
How excessive does this go?! 😳
Joao Fonseca’s kick serve bounces OVER Sonego 🚀#TiriacOpen pic.twitter.com/t7X7OOI3CC
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 16, 2024
Really helpful studying:
🏆 The winners of the week
🎾 ATP:
🏆 Casper Ruud def. Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5, 6-3 to win the Banc Sabadell Open (500) in Barcelona. It’s Ruud’s first ATP title above 250 degree.
🏆 Jan-Lennard Struff def. Taylor Fritz 7-5, 6-3 to win the BMW Open (250) in Munich. It’s Struff’s first ATP title.
🏆 Marton Fucsovics def. Mariano Navone 6-4, 7-5 to win the Tiriac Open (250) in Bucharest. It’s Fucsovics’ second ATP title.
🎾 WTA:
🏆 Elena Rybakina def. Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-3 to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (500) in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s Rybakina’s third title of 2024.
🏆 Sloane Stephens def. Magda Linette 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 to win the Capfinances Rouen Metropole Open (250) in Rouen, France. It’s Stephens’ first title since 2022.
🏆 Suzan Lamens def. Clara Tauson 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to win the Oeiras Women Open (125) in Oeiras, Portugal. In a wild ultimate, Tauson was 0-5 down within the second set earlier than successful seven video games in a row however Lamens then recovered from 4-1 down within the third by successful 5 straight video games for the title.
📈📉 On the rise / Down the road
📈 Marta Kostyuk strikes up six locations from No 27 to No 21.
📈 Marton Fucsovics strikes up 29 locations from No 82 to No 53.
📈 Magda Linette strikes up 12 locations from No 60 to No 48.
📉 Carlos Alcaraz stays at No 3, however is dropping 1,000 factors, wiping out his hole to Daniil Medvedev at No 4.
📉 Karolina Pliskova drops six locations out of the highest 50, from No 47 to No 53.
📉 Dan Evans drops 20 locations from No 49 to No 69.
📅 Developing
🎾 ATP:
📍Madrid, Mutua Madrid Open (1000) April 24 — Could 5 ft. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz (..?) Rafael Nadal (..?).
📺 UK: Sky Sports activities; US: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
📍Savannah, Savannah Challenger (75) ft. JJ Wolf, Bernard Tomic
🎾 WTA:
📍Madrid, Mutua Madrid Open (1000) April 24 — Could 5 ft. Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff.
📺 UK: Sky Sports activities; US: Tennis Channel 💻 Tennis TV
Inform us what you seen this week within the feedback because the excursions proceed.
(High images: Alex Grimm/Eric Alonso/Robert Prange/Getty Photos)