Let’s take a look at some of the interesting ATP rankings — Bagdhatis – 46 – nice comeback from oblivion and injury – Pablo Cuevas – 38 – the most under the radar top 40 player ever? Dolgopolov – 35 – rising from 80s and injuries to knee – Querrey – 51 – 28 year old has been stuck in that rankings range for a few years now – Gulbis – 117 – E train off course this year but def qualifier in Vienna in 3 and gets Isner next – Berankis – 72 – 25 yr old grinder could settle into top 75-50 range for a few years – Thiem – 19 – rising 22 yr old should hit top ten next year – Kohlschreiber – 34 – slight drop for steady, consistent 32 yr old – Kudla – 68 – lost first round to Verdasco in Stockholm 46 46 but had posted a great year – Sock – 32 – Steady incremental rise for this intriguing young American force – G Muller – 37 – I would have guessed 32 yr old is ranked around 80, nice job by the lefty vet – Vesely – 40 – 84 to 66 and probably top 35 this year for the big lefty rising force – DY – 48 – Big year for Young, could pass his career high rank of 38 – Groth – 54 – Big Aussie blaster proving he’s more than just a serve – Estrella Burgos – 64 – at 35 is the oldest man in top hundred besides Ivo, an inspiring marvel – Karlovic – 20 – 36 and still going strong – amazing player – Alexander Zverev – 83 – talented teen should slay some marquee scalps next year – Federer – 3 – passed again by Murray for #2 but it’s been a fantastic year for RF – Chung – 52 – where will this teen be in five years? top 5 seems very possible – B Becker – 87 – 34 yr old still grinding – Gabashvili – 57 – 30 yr old still looking to break into top 40 zone – Almagro – 73 – fading Spaniard making a push up after falling out of top hundred – Mahut – 69 – 33 yr old has carved out a nice career since that Isner marathon at Wimbledon – Kokkinakis – 74 – just nineteen, he should crack top 40 next year – Mannarino – 42 – French lefty getting the job done, with style – Krajicek – 96 – 25 yr old lefty with nasty serve has quietly become a top American, Bellucci – 33 – Talented Brazilian was 21 in the world five years ago – nice rebound from two bad yrs – Rublev – 179 – Russian eighteen year old has WC in Vienna, faces Kukushkin – Kozlov – 546 – ranking dropped this year, lost points from ATP Challenger in CA last year –
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Dan Markowitz · October 20, 2015 at 12:29 pm
I think its very optimistic to say Thiem will crack Top 10 next year. What big win has he had against a Top tenner this year or any year?
Scoop Malinowski · October 20, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Thiem beat Wawrinka in 3 in madrid last year – this year he’s won three titles and notched several impressive wins – two wins over Goffin, three wins over F Lo, and wins over Isner, Kyrgios, Simon, Fognini, Mannarino and Sock — Thiem is top ten bound, we can make a friendly wager on that 😉
Moskova Moskova · October 20, 2015 at 1:37 pm
thiem is the new gonzo. he does have a legit shot at top-10…however scoop’s list of recent wins are nothing to write home about…wow ! he beat sock and mannarino – give him the keys to vienna !….please 😉
Dan Markowitz · October 20, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Just like I said, beating Wawa and Izzie are impressive, but the rest of the guys on that list except for Fognini every once in a while–when he plays Nadal–is not a top player. Now Thiem might be Top 10 bound, but his turning 22 and his further venture into a slam I believe is the 4th Rd.
Moskova Moskova · October 20, 2015 at 4:00 pm
thiem takes some sick cuts at the ball….absolute ball bashing and thrashing 🙂
Harold · October 20, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Thiem is Dimitrov light. Looks great on court, results arent going to match the style and technique.
Much better temperment than his comrade Gulbis.
Once a guy goes blonde, and that nonsense becomes important( brand bs)the top of the rankings gets further away. I think Fed might have done that at some point early, Thiem aint Fed
Moskova Moskova · October 20, 2015 at 5:51 pm
Dimitrov….wat a waste of talent..
Scoop Malinowski · October 20, 2015 at 6:54 pm
Fritz is still seventeen – winning ATP challengers is quite good – Gulbis played a challenger this year and lost first round – Fritz has two wins over Dustin Brown who has two wins over Rafa — I believe Brown is a perfect 2-0 on Rafa — you guys are too tough to please )
Scoop Malinowski · October 20, 2015 at 6:58 pm
Thiem’s progression – 2012 (405) — 2013 (121) — 2014 (39) — and 2015 (19 at present) — you can see where Thiem is going —-
Scoop Malinowski · October 20, 2015 at 7:42 pm
Dimitrov is not a waste of talent – he’s the unfortunate victim of the most ruthlessly competitive era in tennis history – the fact that he’s majorless is a credit to the elite champions who rule the game – not a discredit to Dimitrov at all —
Dan Markowitz · October 20, 2015 at 8:40 pm
Thiem lost to Jerzy boy in Vienna. QBall should go back to playing challengers. He’s good at challengers. I think once Qball’s fiance dumped him, he’s never been able to recover. The guy’s going on dating shows and he has a coach who he met in Las Vegas who never coached at the ATP level.
Rob · October 20, 2015 at 10:58 pm
Thoughts on Pospisil? So much talent but his head floats away. Can he crack top 30? 20?
Michael · October 21, 2015 at 3:09 am
@dan “QBall should go back to playing challengers. He’s good at challengers.”
Lol. Why I come back here. .
Scoop, this was a very good post. Some of those rankings really surprised me and who really thinks about anyone above ranking maybe 30 or so except their coach and mother.
And +1 on this comment “Once a guy goes blonde, and that nonsense becomes important( brand bs)the top of the rankings gets further away. I think Fed might have done that at some point early, Thiem aint Fed”
It’s upsetting that I haven’t found anything to really disagree with re this post or the comments.
Pospisil, I think a nice guy having briefly met him at USO.
Scoop Malinowski · October 21, 2015 at 8:41 am
I first saw Pospisil at US Open about five years ago extend Lopez to five sets and said this guy is a top 30 player – to which the Canadian journo nearby in the media section gave the ‘you’re nuts’ smirk for my saying such a silly comment – well Pop did indeed reach a career high rank of 25 last year – he has a good basic game, big guy, solid weapons, finaled in DC last summer, Wimby doubles with Sock title, some Davis Cup success, big serve but not super huge, good solid on-the-verge-of-being-elite player – seems his movement is the reason he can’t go higher, he’s not exactly Kevin Anderson or monfils for a 6-4 guy with his movement but his game is obviously very good –
Moskova Moskova · October 21, 2015 at 9:49 am
dimi’s such a tool….nice guy but all hat and no cattle…very overrated as is pospisil.
@ scoop – yes it’s tough times with the great 4 around but if someone’s really great – they’ll make a dent (like wawa, delpo)….capice !!
Scoop Malinowski · October 21, 2015 at 1:52 pm
Sampras and Agassi destroyed the dreams of a lot of great players and denied many of becoming major champions – Dimitrov is a victim of this as were Pioline Toddmartin Rusedski Philippoussis etc — Dimitrov is still a great player, with a major or without a major —
Bryan · October 21, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Alexander Zverev – 83 – talented teen should slay some marquee scalps next year
Agree. I’m on the Zverev bandwagon. Great talent, lots of upside. Ymer the 17 year old he beat at Stockholm yesterday is another one to watch. Brilliant drop shots followed by passing shots as Zverev ran inside.
Moskova Moskova · October 21, 2015 at 3:44 pm
down goes isner….by gulby !….another talent wastoid…
@ scoop – what’s your defense / excuse for gubly ?….too much money ??!! puhaha 😉
Moskova Moskova · October 21, 2015 at 4:09 pm
holy mackeral….down goes harry….by mmoh ?
not really a surprise but scoop, what’s your defense for harry ?
Harold · October 21, 2015 at 4:43 pm
Excuses?
On this board a good practice set win and you are the next favorite to win 10 slams
Andrew Miller · October 21, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Agree with Harold. I’m a pretty big contributor to the hype, unfortunately (see my predictions for Brad Klahn). I do like the current players’ improvement, even if collectively it means U.S. players won 2 atp tournament titles total in 2015.
Scoop Malinowski · October 21, 2015 at 7:37 pm
Harold, name one player who won a good practice set that was then projected to win ten majors — come on, that’s inaccurate –
Moskova Moskova · October 21, 2015 at 10:45 pm
@ Harold….I couldn’t have said it better 🙂
C’mon tennis-prose regulars ! No beer goggles allowed….our current US crop/vets (isner, querry, dy, harry, sock, Johnson haven’t done squat) – so why would you project the next generation to be more than challenger jouneyboys ?
Moskova Moskova · October 21, 2015 at 10:47 pm
Scoop, I think youhzny was known as the best practice match player of all time ! Puhaha 🙂
Dan Markowitz · October 22, 2015 at 7:58 am
Scoop, majors? Dimitrov? He’s not contending for majors, he’s lucky to win 2 rounds in a slam. Right now, he’s underperformed greatly, at least because he once reached the deep rounds in a slam.
Scoop Malinowski · October 22, 2015 at 8:45 am
Dimitrov has admitted it himself, he’s had a bad year, it’s okay, lots of great players have had bad years – Agassi – Spadea – Fed – Rios – Safin – Gulbis – Hewitt – Nadal – etc — let’s see what happens next year –
Andrew Miller · October 22, 2015 at 10:44 am
Squat? I don’t think the current roster of top 50 U.S. pros have done squat.
As of May 2014 there was ONE U.S. player in the top 60.
As of October 2015, there are FIVE in the top 51 players and Kudla at #68, around where the 2nd best U.S. player was in May 2014.
As of the French Open 2014, three U.S. players made it to the third round for only the 2nd time since 2004, showing that (hmmm) today’s U.S. players can grind out clay matches. Furthermore, none of them was named Brian Baker, who probably should have been the U.S. #1 or #2 (behind Fish) in the post Roddick era if his health had cooperated.
Baker might have even been #1 or #2 in the U.S. DURING the Roddick era if his health had been there for him. Losing him was the equivalent of losing Ferrer for Spain.
They’ve had the best U.S. open in recent memory for U.S. players since Fish withdrew from his Federer match in 2012. And they’ve kept the U.S. in the world group for Davis Cup.
And to Courier and Pat McEnroe’s credit, when they said the cavalry’s coming in May 2014 they weren’t joking. Courier said the most important aspect was that there was a group just like he had – or even in Roddick’s time just like Roddick had, with Blake, Ginepri, Fish, the Bryans also on tour.
It’s like the armada.
Moskova Moskova · October 22, 2015 at 10:56 am
andrew, all of them are great (good enough to be on tour) however i personally measure true greatness with big results (GS or atleast a masters 1000)…otherwise all else seems very squatty..
Scoop Malinowski · October 22, 2015 at 7:17 pm
Tiafoe loses in straights to Rola, at Vegas Challenger, smashes racquet five times –
Moskova Moskova · October 23, 2015 at 11:18 am
holy macaroni ! sock and gulby on a tear !! (prlly will get knocked out next round).
if one of them can go all the way this week – they have a chance to end on a high note for 2015 and use it as a spring-board for 2016.
sock can replicate roddick’s results….why not ?….but will he ?
Scoop Malinowski · October 23, 2015 at 12:26 pm
Wow – Gulbis taking down two huge servers Ivo and Isner on an indoor court in the same week – I think the only other player to have done that was Jurgen Melzer in memphis a few years ago — good to see Gulbis confident again – well done by Sock also –
Dan Markowitz · October 24, 2015 at 6:36 am
Sock played well and I’m sure Ernie did too, but let’s remember this is hard indoor courts where both of these guys should excel. They’re both slap-shot players with big serves. If they had done this in Asia, it’d be much more impressive and surprising.
Simon, for one, played pretty awful against Sock. He must’ve missed at least a half dozen drop shots Sock hit him. I don’t think Simon is much of a doubles player and his hands around the net in this match displayed why.
Andrew Miller · October 24, 2015 at 7:46 am
Johnson vs Gulbis. Johnson finally beats Kevin Anderson, who he’s played several times in quarters of ATP tournaments. It’s Monfils V Ferrer in the other Vienna semifinal.
Now Johnson winning this would be huge. He’d have to get by Gulbis and hopefully play Monfils, given that Ferrer would be going for his fifth title of the year, which is obscene.