By Scoop Malinowski
Six ATP careers are hanging by a thread at the Monterrey Challenger in Mexico this week…
Fernando Verdasco, age 38 and ranked 150, is the top seed and will play China’s Zhe Li.
Bernard Tomic, age 29 and ranked 320, hopes to return to his best ranking of no. 17 and he will have to beat Cedrik Marcel Stebe to begin the journey from obscurity to ATP relevance.
Tommy Robredo, age 39 and ranked 363, continues to grind his way through the lower levels of pro tennis and the former world no. 5 and winner of 12 ATP singles titles will need to beat Japan’s Kaichi Uchida to see if he still has any mojo left.
Wildcard Ryan Harrison, age 29 and ranked 522, will need to beat India’s Prajnesh Gunnesawarn to begin the long road back to the top 40, the station he once inhabited.
Jason Jung, age 32 and ranked 223, will play a qualifier as he tries to work his way back to surpass his career best ranking of 114 in 2018. He has earned over $997,000 in career prize money.
Go Soeda, age 37 and ranked 275, has a long way to go to get back to the top 50 where he was ranked 47 a decade ago in 2012. Soeda has won 56 ATP main tour matches and $2.36m in prize money. Go will try to stop Viktor Durasovic from reaching the second round.
ATP · Bernard Tomic · Fernando Verdasco · Monterrey · Ryan Harrison
Cory · March 7, 2022 at 9:46 pm
Great post, scoop…
I think Verdasco still has plenty in the tank for a top 100 run, maybe top 60 if he’s successful…
Tomic, i just wonder if at some point soon he snaps and retires. I def don’t see him grinding this out much longer without some kind of success (getting to top 100 at least). With Tomic it’s always motivation of course.
Ryan Harrison also has plenty left in the tank but the ranking is just putrid… need W’s nothing less. It could take him 2 full years to grind his way back to top 100. He’s got great game but just so batshit temperamental.
We’ve mentioned Robredo before… i just wonder when he’ll hang it up. Just can’t get wins. Stuff is mostly still there but just not winning.
Scoop Malinowski · March 8, 2022 at 7:10 am
Cory, thanks, Robredo will never hang it up, this guy is obsessed for just one last hurrah and with about 45 convenient draws he still might get it ) Verdasco seems also obsessed to absolutely never surrender and get back to the luxury life of the ATP Tour and finally put it all together mentally and physically which he came close to doing a few times. Tomic has also talked about being serious now and he’s all in but let’s see if the game has passed him by or not. Harrison looked very good the last time I saw im after losing Newport qualies he was training on the hard courts practice match with Ramanathan and I thought he looked fantastic but he can’t seem to win matches anymore despite looking fantastic. Go Soeda and Jason Jung honorable mention grinders.
Scoop Malinowski · March 8, 2022 at 4:55 pm
Robredo, Go, Tomic win in first round.
Cory · March 8, 2022 at 5:07 pm
Kohlschreiber also hanging in the balance here… ATP 135 at what 38 years old?
Scoop Malinowski · March 8, 2022 at 5:56 pm
Yes, PK will be 39 in October. Playing Bolt now in IW qualies.
Scoop Malinowski · March 12, 2022 at 8:30 pm
Verdasco and Soeda make it to SFs and Verdasco finally wins final 76 in third vs Gunneswarn who beat Go Go in semi 67 76 64.