For Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, 2016 Will Be A Telling Year

Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe are both young Americans, a part of the future landscape of tennis, and fast-rising in the ATP World Tour Rankings.  In fact, Fritz and Tiafoe are right next to each other in these rankings, with Taylor at 175 and Frances at 176 (with only four points separating the teens).  It certainly seems as if these two have the chance to shoot up the rankings together.  The real question is, will they deliver on their promise?

Fritz got his name into the mainstream tennis media by having an amazing run in the fall, US Challenger hard court season.  He won two Challenger tournaments in a row, in Sacramento and Fairfield before making the Final of a Challenger in Champaign later in the season, coming one set from the title.  What made his titles most impressive was the manner in which he won them.  He only dropped two sets in Sacramento, to Dustin Brown and Jared Donaldson, neither a player to disregard, before winning the championship in Fairfield without dropping a set.  In fact, in Fairfield, he never lost more than four games!  That's very impressive for someone who turned 18 towards the end of October.

Tiafoe's resume this year has been less impressive, but he has shown a greater variety in his game, with successes coming on both hard courts and clay courts.  Tiafoe burst onto the scene during the US Challenger clay court season, where he reached the Quarterfinals or better in all three tournaments he played, including reaching the Final in Tallahassee.  He was a few holds away from winning that title against Facundo Arguello, a tough cookie on clay.  But, despite winning his first ATP Tour match in Winston-Salem, his results were quite disappointing for the rest of the summer, but with consistent hard work, he was able to turn his results around during the fall, US Challenger hard court season, making the Semifinals in Fairfield, before going on to make the Finals of the indoor event in Knoxville (and coming a set away from winning the title).  It seems like just a matter of time before the 17 year old wins a Challenger title.

So, while that's a glance at the past, I am more interested in the future for these two young Americans.  Will they continue to rise in the rankings, or will the good results slow as players continue to figure out how to beat these two players?

I would caution against setting expectations too high for either player.  While both players had very impressive 2015s, as Tiafoe started to learn over the summer, it isn't easy to sustain those results over a prolonged period of time.  Players do, in fact, figure out players' games and form new strategies to win, so while an initial run of good results is a good sign, keeping those results, or getting those results back during setbacks, over a long period of time is vital to prolonging a successful tennis career.

This is why I actually think Tiafoe is in a better spot than Fritz, despite not having the Challenger titles that he has (although Tiafoe did win an ATP Futures Tour title in 2015).  You have to remember that, just a few months ago, Taylor was ranked hundreds of spots lower than he is now.   I suspect that during the beginning portions of 2016, Taylor will find that a lot of the challenger players he has battled against at the tail end of 2015 will have adapted their games to bring a different challenge to Fritz than he has previously dealt with, and might not be prepared for.  And Fritz will find, as Tiafoe has during 2015, that forays onto the main tour are a completely different animal than on the challenger tour.  How Fritz deals with this in 2016 will determine the trajectory of his career.

Tiafoe has already dealt with the initial setbacks.  After that run on the US clay courts, Tiafoe learned that life wouldn't always be that easy.  He lost four of his next five matches, then he couldn't make it out of qualifying for a Challenger, and proceeded to struggle for the rest of the summer clay court and hard court season until Fairfield (sans Winston-Salem).  Frances was finding it hard to even win matches on the Challenger circuit.  But, Tiafoe didn't let the stream of losses define his season.  Starting in Fairfield, he started finding his game.  His serve was on point, his groundstrokes were finally finding the corners, and he finally seemed to have matured a bit, as shown by his apology to Eric Quigley following a series of outbursts.  That was a great step for him and bodes well for his reputation on tour.

This is not to say that I think Frances will be top 50 next year and Taylor will fall out of the top 300.  In fact, I think that Fritz will handle the challenges that will be presented perfectly fine.  I think Top 100 is very achievable for both he and Tiafoe, to be honest.  And this isn't to say that the bumps in Tiafoe's career are over, as there will be many more hurdles that Frances has to navigate.  I am merely saying that I think that Tiafoe is further down the road to being a professional tennis player than Fritz, despite being younger and not having a Challenger title to his name.

However, for both players, 2016 will be a telling year.

A Look Into USO 1st Round Matches Involving The Rising ATP Stars

The 1st Round of the US Open is full of matches involving young, rising stars on the ATP World Tour.  This post will look into Alexander Zverev, Borna Coric, Elias Ymer, Yoshihito Nishioka, and Frances Tiafoe's First Round matches and whether they will be moving onto the Second Round.

Alexander Zverev vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber
In this matchup, 18 year-old Alexander Zverev, currently ranked number 76 in the world but still had to play qualies due to his ranking at the cutoff date, takes on the established Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Philipp is ranked number 29 presently.  This match is in the Federer quarter of the bracket.  These two played in a 250 event in Munich this year, with Kohlschreiber easily winning the match 6-2, 6-4.  So, will this match be any different?  Well, Zverev's form has certainly been better than Kohlschreiber's on hard courts.  Kohlschreiber has only played one match on hard courts since Wimbledon, tepidly losing to Joao Sousa in three sets (but with game differential of -7).  Zverev, meanwhile, has made the Quarterfinals of Washington, and qualified for the Cincy Masters 1000, losing in a third set tiebreaker to Borna Coric.  And Zverev will also have a better feel for the Flushing Meadow hard courts, with three qualifying wins already under his belt.  However, I don't feel as if it will be enough.  Losing a set to Nils Langer was disturbing enough for me to feel as if Zverev has cooled down some from his previous form, and his match with Dodig was tight as well.  Although Philipp might start slow from lack of play on hard, he will prevail in the end.  Prediction: Kohlschreiber in four sets.

Borna Coric vs. Rafael Nadal
This is a classic matchup between a rising star and a hardened champion.  Rafael Nadal, currently number seven in the world, will need to be playing his best tennis in order to take out Borna Coric, the highest ranked "young gun" at number 33.  Rafa should be on high alert for this matchup not only due to Coric's ranked but also the head to head, which shows Borna leading 1-0, with a 6-2, 7-6(4) win over Nadal in Basel last year.  Although, it should be noted that Rafa was carrying an internal injury for that match involving his appendix.  Rafa and Borna have faired similarly on the North American hard courts, with Nadal boasting a 3-2 record and Coric having a 3-3 record.  For both players, the results have just been average, certainly not up to Rafa's standards.  You have to think that Rafa will be very fired-up for this match, as his loss to Coric last year was seen as embarrassing and was really the start to the questioning of Nadal's decline.  I believe Nadal will play inspired tennis in front of a rowdy New York crowd, which could very well intimidate Coric.  Prediction: Nadal in three tight sets.

Elias Ymer vs. Diego Schwartzman
The "young gun" Elias Ymer takes on grinder Diego Schwartzman in what seems to be a pretty even matchup. Ymer, ranked 131 in the world, and Schwartzman, ranked 73 in the world, have never played one another.  This is Ymer's fourth time this year qualifying for a major, which can be looked at in two ways.  Either you praise him for continuing to qualify for the major, or you wonder why he hasn't gotten direct entry into the majors yet.  It is important to note that Ymer hasn't yet won a match at a major in his career and has one main-draw win at a hard court event all year.   It should be noted that Schwartzman certainly prefers clay courts, while Ymer is an unknown at this point as to his preferred surface.  Schwartzman skipped Montreal and Cincy, but did play Winston-Salem winning two matches before bowing out to Borna Coric.  Schwartzman is a Sara Errani-type player in which his serve is not great, but his return is very good.  Ymer has recently played two hard court challengers, going 1-2 and certainly not putting his best foot forward.  He will have the experience of playing in the Flushing Meadows, however, with three qualifying wins, including a third set tiebreak win over Struff.   Ultimately, the lack of wins outside of grand slam qualifying is disturbing for Ymer.  And while Schwartzman is certainly not a world beater, he possesses a game in which he will expose the weaknesses in Ymer's game.  I don't think Elias has the serve to overpower Diego, and his return isn't good enough to take the match, although he should be just good enough to take a set.  Prediction: Schwartzman in four sets.

Yoshihito Nishioka vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu
In this matchup, the 150th ranked Nishioka faces the 81st ranked Mathieu (who had to qualify due to the time of the ranking deadline) in a battle between two qualifiers.  Nishioka has played a lot of hard court tennis since failing to qualify for Wimbledon.  Yoshihito has played in four hard court tournaments (three challengers and Washington), qualifying for Washington but losing in the First Round to Zverev in straight sets and reaching two quarters and a semi in the challenger events.  This was all before playing three straight three-setters in qualifying to the US Open.  Mathieu had great success on the clay after Wimbledon, making the Final of Kitzbuhel as a qualifier before losing in three sets to Kohlschreiber, and took this good form onto the hard courts, only losing one set in qualifying.  Mathieu is having a great run, and Nishioka has played a ton of tennis recently, which could catch up to him in the best-of-five format.  Prediction: Mathieu in three sets.

Frances Tiafoe vs. Viktor Troicki
Frances Tiafoe, a wildcard ranked number 248 in the world, battles Viktor Troicki, currently ranked number 21.  While on paper, this might seem like a mismatch, when one looks deeper, it turns out to be a tight matchup.  Tiafoe earned his wildcard by winning the prestigious junior event in Kalamazoo, showing that the best-of-five format will not trouble him, as he beat Kozlov in the Final in five sets.  Tiafoe continued with this good form at Winston-Salem, qualifying for the tournament (including impressive wins over Albot and Harrison), before winning his first-ever ATP main draw match against Duckworth and taking the established Bellucci to a third-set tiebreak after being up a break in the third set.  Triocki has been dreadful during the summer hard court season, losing all four matches he has played on hard, only managing to take a single set.  This poor run included shocking losses to Youznhy, Fish, and Jaziri, so a loss to Tiafoe is certainly not out of the question.  It's also important to remember that Tiafoe will have all of the crowd support in this match, and will certainly be buoyed on by the crowd.  Frances has certainly had his share of dramatic matches this season, and this match will be no different.  Viktor will certainly not be in the right state of mind, and the crowd will further this feeling.  This will be the upset of the tournament.  Prediction: Tiafoe in five sets.

A Look into Tim Smyczek's Troubles

When qualifier Tim Smyczek took a two sets to one lead over Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, his career was clearly on the upswing.  Although Rafa was certainly not the beast he has been in the past, to get two sets off of one of the all-time greats represented a culmination into everything the Tim had worked for.  

And for a little while longer, it seemed as if the Nadal battle was just a stepping stone for Smyczek as he won an ATP Challenger Tour title in Dallas, and made the Final of another Challenger event in Irving.  However, for some reason, following the win in Irving Smyczek's career stalled, and big time.  It's time to take a look into Tim Smyzcek's troubles.

Smyczek's issues didn't totally show the week after Irving, at the Masters 1000 event in Miami.  But perhaps tennis fans should have knew, after winning a tight battle against Menendez-Maceiras before bowing out to a rusty (at the time) Jo-Wilfred Tsonga that perhaps Tim's momentum was running out.  Perhaps the spring hard court season was finally starting to wear on Smyczek, and a trip to the clay at Houston would give him a boost.

I witnessed first hand Tim's 6-3, 6-3 loss to Teymuraz Gabashvili in Houston.  Although the crowd was small, it was definitely a pro-Smyzcek bunch, with fans willing Tim on to victory.  It looked, however, as if Tim wasn't embracing the crowd, almost shutting the crowd out in a way.  He was irritable throughout the entire match and had a very negative attitude.  Smyczek's level of play matched his poor attitude, as Gabashvili completely controlled the rallies and left Smyczek on the defense for nearly the entire match.  Tim's serves did not penetrate through the court and acted as the points were almost always started on Smyczek's serve in a neutral-rally position.  It seemed as if Teymuraz went out there with an aggressive mindset, while Tim was waiting for his opponent to make errors, which lead to a convincing victory for Gabashvili.

Tim went on to go a very pedestrian 2-2 in the green clay challenger events in Sarasota and Savannah, before only winning three games in Nice and losing in straight sets to Lucas Pouille and then going on to lose in straight sets to Kevin Anderson at the French Open.  I watched a good portion of his embarrassing match against James McGee at the Savannah Challenger, a 6-0, 6-3 loss.  Like against Gabashvili, Smyczek was always on the defensive and even a player like McGee could cause Smyczek major issues.

The best way to show this would be for readers to watch the match themselves (scroll down a little ways), although I think the first game essentially summarizes the entire match.  In the first game, one can see the ineffectiveness of the  Smyczek serve, and really, the problems that Tim has with maintaining control of the points.  Tim does a slightly better job in this match than in Houston in regards to wrestling control of the points with the serve, but upon gaining the upper hand in the rallies, Smyczek never utilized his position and eventually gave control back to McGee, who utilized this control to win the point.  McGee played with risk in his game, like Gabashvili did in Houston, while Smyczek played entirely too safe.

But, maybe the clay gave Tim the non-risk mindset that was ever-so present during the clay court season.  The grass could have forced him to play with a much more aggressive mindset.  But, alas, that did not occur.  For Tim Smyczek went 1-4 during the grass court season, with his only victory being a three-setter over James Ward at a 250 event in Nottingham.  However, in his other four matches on grass, he won a measly one set, including a straight set loss to Fabio Fognini at Wimbledon.  Although Fabio is certainly the better player in this instance, his defensive tendencies and mediocre performances on grass gave Tim the perfect opportunity to try to step up and take the match.  But, alas, Smyczek couldn't capitalize on this potential confidence-building opportunity.

And so, with a straight set loss to open the summer hard court season in Atlanta to Ricardas Berankis, Smyzcek currently finds himself as a heavy underdog in his match today against Alexandr Dolgopolov, where a loss could even further hurt his confidence and make a resurgence even tougher.  The key for Smyczek, in my opinion, is two-fold.  I think that Tim not only has to play more aggressive to gain better control of the points, but also that when he gets control of the points, he has to continue to play with enough aggression to keep control of the points.

Tim Smyczek can be very successful on that ATP World Tour.  He has shown in the past that he has what it takes to be a great player.  However, I believe his mindset within the points are what is currently holding him back, and I think that if he makes slight adjustments, he will rise up the ATP rankings very quickly.

Remembering Serena Williams' Close Calls At Majors This Season

With Serena Williams completing the "Serena Slam" and moving on to the US Open for the "Calendar Year Slam", it is safe to say she is having one of the greatest seasons of all time.  But, it hasn't always been easy for Serena at tennis' major championships.  There have been ten separate times this season when Williams has been either down a set point in the first set, down at least one break in the third set, or down a set (and possibly a break).  Let's take a look back at Serena's greatest escapes at majors this season.


Australian Open

vs. Vera Zvonareva (R2): Broken in two of her first four service game in the match, Serena Williams struggling greatly on serve during the first set of her Second Round encounter with Vera Zvonareva, a former world number 2 in the world.  However, even as she took the break lead against Serena, it was more due to Williams playing poorly than Zvonareva conjuring even near what she once was.  Vera eventually took a 5-3 lead in the match and had three set points on Serena's serve, all of which were missed opportunities.  She then, in the 5-4 game, got to 30-0 on her own serve, but lost four straight points to not only lose the game, but in hindsight, the match.  For Zvonareva didn't win a single game from 5-3 up (losing 7-5, 6-0).  However, for quite some time in the first set, Vera Zvonareva had Serena Williams in deep trouble.

vs. Elina Svitolina (R3): This was a match no one saw coming.  Broken in three of her first four service games, Serena Williams was lifeless in a 6-4 opening set to young riser Elina Svitolina.  Svitolina was even up 0-30 on Serena's serve in the first game of the second set, but at that point, something clicked and Serena made the turnaround that the world would know much better in the coming months.  Williams only dropped serve one additional time in the rest of match, losing only two games total, and beat Elina Svitolina 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 to get to the Australian Open Round of 16.

vs. Garbine Muguruza (R4; apologies for the lack of accents): This match was Serena's toughest match of the tournament, and considering how she won only four games in her previous match with Muguruza, the stakes for this match were even higher.  While the first four games of the match went on-serve, Serena was broken in the fifth game of the match and was subsequently broken in the seventh game of the match, as well.  The glaring stat in the first set for Serena was that she was 0/6 on break chance opportunities in the first set, while Muguruza was 2/3.  She had more chances, but just couldn't break Muguruza's hard, body serves.  What did this all mean?  Serena lost yet another set to Garbine 6-2.  And while Williams' game rose in the second set, she still couldn't break away from Muguruza until the eighth game of the set, where Serena broke to 15 and held her next service game to win the set.  In the third set, with Muguruza up 1-0, Serena had to save six break points in order to hold.  And from there, Williams imposed her game, taking five of the last games of the match to win the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

French Open

vs. Anna-Lena Friedsam (R2): In a "here we go again" match for Serena fans, Williams struggled again in an early round of the French Open.  She held in only 50% of her service games, being broken three times to lose the first to Anna-Lena in what was looking like it could be the shock of the tournament.  But, like any match when Serena is losing, Williams' game was lackluster and not close to how she played to win the Australian Open and Miami earlier in the season.  Friedsam even had two break points in the first game of the second set, but couldn't convert.  Even then, Serena just couldn't seem to break Anna-Lena's spirit.  The second set was on serve even at 4-3 in the second set, with Friedsam to serve.  That's when Serena pounced, winning a tough break of serve and serving out the set to 30.  The third set was all but inevitable, with Serena breaking in the first game of the set.  And when Anna-Lena did not convert her two break points in the second game of the set, the match was essentially over.  Down 3-5, Friedsam was broken once more to lose the match 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

vs. Viktoria Azarenka (R3): This match was the closest-call of the tournament, not only because of how the scoreline looked at one point, but because of how Serena was playing.  This was a match where Serena was playing pretty well, but yet still was a couple games away from losing.  Azarenka served the ball beautifully in the first set, only being broken once, and going 2/2 in break point opportunities to take the first set 6-3 against Serena.  Playing well would not be good enough for Williams, she would need to raise her level even higher.  And for much of the second set, that just didn't happen.  Serena was broken in the third game of the second set, and Vika even got the scoreline up to 6-3, 4-2, needing just two holds to win the match.  However, a break to 30 got the match back on serve, and Serena broke again in Vika's next service game to win the second set 6-4.  But, Azarenka did not waver, breaking Williams in the first game of the third set and holding to love to go up 2-0.  From 2-0 on, Serena raised her game to an un-playable level, only losing four points in her final three return games, and coupled with a rise in the level of her service games, won six straight games (beating Azarenka 3-6, 6-4, 6-2).

vs. Sloane Stephens (R4): This match was another very close-call for Serena, as she was one game away from losing it.  Williams was lifeless in the first set, not even coming close to breaking Stephens, and dropping three of her first four service games.  The first set of this match was the worst Serena played all tournament, and it seemed for a little while as if Williams was a bit disinterested in the match.  And when Stephens held to take a 6-1. 5-4 lead, there were questions in my mind as to whether Serena would be able to hold in that tenth game.  Williams came through, however, holding a tense game to 30, and then only losing two points in her next two games to take the second set 7-5.  And when Serena saved two break points down 0-1 in the third set, the end seemed near for Sloane.  Stephens was broken a couple service games later, and then once more to end the match.  The final score: Williams wins 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

vs. Timea Bacsinzky (SF; to be referred to solely as Timea in this post): Fighting a terrible illness, Williams had a very tough time with Timea in this scintillating semifinal matchup.  After a few holds to start the match, Williams was broken to 40 in a tense game to go down 3-2.  And while Serena would get another chance to break down 4-5 in the first set, she could not convert and Timea took the opening set by a score of 6-4.  With how sick Serena looked, there were questions in my mind, at least, as to whether or not she would continue.  And when Williams was broken in a long deuce game to go down 3-2 in the second set, the end seemed all but inevitable.  However, perhaps being so far down and sick allowed Serena to really hit out and not worry about the pressure of winning a grand slam anymore, as Williams did not lose another game in the match.  Serena won 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

vs. Lucie Safarova (F): A still-sick Serena Williams played a tense Final against Lucie Safarova.  Williams broke Safarova quickly to take a 3-1 lead and did not give the break back for the rest of the set, winning it 6-3.  And when Serena got the double break lead in the second set to lead 4-1, her 20th grand slam was seemingly in hand.  But, nerves got the best of Williams for the moment and Safarova broke twice (and was not broken) to take a 5-4 lead in the second set.  Even when Serena broke Lucie's serve once more to take a 6-5 lead in the second set, she could not grab the opportunity and lost the second set in a tiebreak, 7-6(2).  And when Safarova broke Serena's serve in the first game of the third set and easily hold the game after, it seemed for a moment as if Lucie would be the one holding the trophy a little while later.  However, Williams would not be denied, breaking the Safarova serve in every return game for the rest of the match (going 3/4 on break points) and not facing a break point herself to win the match 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-2 and capture her 21st major championship.

Wimbledon

vs. Heather Watson (3R): Like the Safarova match at the French Open, this match seemed to be in hand for Williams until things got interesting in the second and third sets.  In the first set, Serena only lost three points on serve and broke Watson two times to take a very easy, straight-forward set 6-2.  And for the first two games of the second set, she had no serving problems either, only losing a couple points in the two games she served.  However, she couldn't break Watson and was promptly broken herself in her third service game of the set to 40.  And while she broke Watson right back, Serena never looked comfortable on the court, allowing the raucous crowd to get to her head.  She struggled to serve in her next service game, and a couple games after that, was broken to 30.  This gave Watson a 5-4 lead, which she made good on, winning the set in a tense final game.  Watson used that momentum to take a 3-0 lead in the second sets, which put her three games up on Serena.  However, upon blowing two game points in the fourth game of the set to give Serena one break back, the ending seemed inevitable for Watson.  She eventually went down 4-3, and the crowd seemed dejected.  However, out of nowhere, Serena lost her next game on serve to love, and Heather even got within two points of the match on two different occasions (both 40-40), but could not hold on to her serve, as Serena broke in one of the tensest games I have ever witnessed as a tennis fan/blogger.  From there, Serena would not be denied as she closed out the match with a hold and a break.  Serena Williams wins, 6-2, 4-6,  7-5.

vs. Viktoria Azarenka (QF): If Serena Williams thought she was in the clear after the win against Watson, she would be mistaken, as Viktoria Azarenka had other plans.  In the first set, the margins were super thin, as Azarenka was playing some of the best tennis of her life to break Serena in the fourth game of the set and then manage to hold on to that break lead for the entirety of the set and win 6-3.  Serena Williams was playing good tennis, but good wouldn't be enough to take down a fired-up Vika.  So, Serena had to dig deep for the rest of the match, because even as she raised her level, Azarenka's level refused to dip.  On serve in game five of the second set, Vika had a break point at 30-40, but just couldn't manage to break, as Williams barely escaped.  And that game certainly was on Vika's mind for a little while longer, as she couldn't manage a hold for the rest of the set and lost it 6-2.  And after being broken for a 2-0 lead in the third set, it seemed as if Azarenka's run at Wimbledon was basically over.  But, Vika still fought.  Viktoria Azarenka was not broken for the rest of the match, and despite incredible serving from Williams still had a break point down 3-5 in the final set.  She couldn't convert it, however, and after a couple more incredible serves by Serena, the match was over.  Serena won it 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.


Serena Williams has had an unbelievable season.  She is more than doubling up the point total of number two in the world, Maria Sharapova, and playing at a level of tennis previously unheard of so late in her career.  But, there were many times this season where the "Serena Slam" (and chance for the "Calendar Year Slam") could have easily been stopped, and this post shows just how deep Serena Williams had to dig to accomplish all that she has this season.

Appreciating Bjorn Fratangelo

It isn't easy on the ATP Challenger Tour.  The lack of prize money causes players on the Challenger Tour to struggle having enough money for food, let alone the travel costs that have players in far-flung locations across the world for little reward.  Therefore, when a player starts to make a breakthrough and busts out of the tennis purgatory that is the Challenger Tour, it can be all the more rewarding, for both the player and his fans.

Bjorn Fratangelo is making that breakthrough as we speak.  Currently ranked number 123 in the world, just one spot away from tying his career best at number 122 in the world.  He is currently in the Quaterfinals of Binghampton, which is his tenth Quarterfinals appearance for 2015, a year in which he has already won a Challenger, and has finally announced himself to be a possible ATP World Tour mainstay in the years to come.  It's time to start appreciating players like Bjorn Fratangelo.

Although he is just 22 years of age, Bjorn Fratangelo has been around professional tennis for quite some time.  He was playing qualifying matches for ATP Futures events as early as in 2009, but never quite made any traction in Futures events through the 2009 and 2010 seasons.  Bjorn never even made the Quarterfinals of a Futures even during this time frame, and had a main draw win only once.  This might have disappointed some, caused some players to perhaps say that tennis wasn't the right path to pursue, but Fratangelo marched on.  Hard work would pay off, but just not at the moment.

2011 was where Bjorn started to make traction in the professional tennis ranks.  In April of 2011, Fratangelo won multiple main-draw matches at a Futures event for the first time, and did even better in the following Futures event that he played.  A tournament after making his first Futures quarterfinal, Bjorn Fratangelo made his first Futures Final, losing to Brian Baker, but proving that he can play tennis at a professional level.  And while the rest of the year saw Bjorn make only one Futures quarterfinal, the foundation of his career had been laid.

2012 and into2013 were the years in which Bjorn solidified himself on the ATP Futures Tour.  2012 saw Bjorn make 7 Futures Quarterfinals, a Futures semifinal, and  yet another Futures final, this time losing to Tennys Sandgren.  This Final appearance was arguably a better tournament for Bjorn than his previous Final, though, as he didn't drop a set until the his Final match.  If 2012 was a Futures Tour rise, then 2013 was a peak.  He made at least the Futures Tour Quarterfinals in all but two tournaments, made the Final of two tournaments,and finally won his first three ATP Futures Tour events. But, because 2013 was the pinnacle of Fratangelo's Futures Tour career, this also meant that he would be embarking on a scary journey: qualifying for Challenger events.

Upon summiting the ATP Futures Tour, any male professional tennis player has a decision to make.  Futures event winners can only get a maximum of 35 points, whereas ATP Challenger Tour winners get a minimum of 80 points, more than double that of the biggest Futures tournaments.  In addition, Challenger winners can receive 125 points at the biggest events, over triple than the largest point totals that a Futures tournament can provide.  The problem is, if a player doesn't succeed at Challengers, where the quality of players is much higher than those at the Futures level, then the decision to play on the Challenger Tour can be a disastrous one.  For instance, a First Round loser (let alone losing in qualies) gets the player 0 points and only 440 Euros, still barely enough to live on.

So, during much of the 2013 year, and throughout 2014, Bjorn was trying to balance this dilemma.  After having his great successes at Futures tournaments for most of the 2013 season, upon losing in Futures event in Holland,  Fratangelo played exclusively on the ATP Challenger Tour for the remainder of 2013 (besides US Open qualifying) and through much of the beginning of the 2014 year (playing one Futures event and also in ATP Houston qualies).  However, Bjorn did not have much success at this time in Challenger Tour events.  During this time span, Bjorn made two Challenger Round of 16s, and one Challenger Semfinal, neither which occurred in 2014 (he didn't win a Challenger match until late in the season).

When Fratangelo lost yet another main draw match at the 2014 Tallahassee Challenger, meaning that he still hadn't won a Challenger match since 2013, Bjorn made the mature decision to go back to the ATP Futures Tour.  Fratangelo was a model of how to handle his career.  He made every every effort to try to take the next step to the Challenger ranks, but upon repeated poor results, which was crippling to both his financial situation and his ranking, he put his pride aside and made the correct decision to go back to the Challengers, try to get his ranking up, and leave the Futures again as an even better player.

And after winning his fourth Futures title of the season, Bjorn jumped up to the Challenger Tour again, this time with much better results.  Fratangelo made the Quarterfinals in two of the four challengers he finished the year with, and continued his success into 2015 with repeated good results, and even a win at the Launceston Challenger, beating Hyeon Chung in the Final.  Considering Chung is currently number 78 in the world, this was a huge win for him.  Frantangelo has recently made his second ever Challenger Final, losing to Elias Ymer, and his currently in the Quarterfinals of the Binghampton Challenger with a real shot to win the entire tournament.

One could even see Fratangelo's rapid maturation today.  Earlier this season, Fratangelo played Frances Tiafoe, a fast-rising player (personally one of my favorites), but also a player who is distracting to play against, as he is very demonstrative on court and can easily distract opponents with his tomfoolery.  And Bjorn clearly let Tiafoe's antics get to him earlier in this, losing meekly in straight sets.

Today, however, Fratangelo would not be denied.  After losing the first set to Tiafoe, Bjorn dug his heels in and grinded out a very tense three-set win.  Even upon losing his break lead in the third set, Fratangelo tuned Tiafoe out and focused in, breaking Frances soon thereafter and holding a tight service game to win the match.  This time, Bjorn Fratangelo did not crack.  This time, Bjorn Fratangelo rose to the challenge.

It's players like Bjorn Fratangelo that are to be appreciated.  Hard-working, mature, and ready to take on any player in his way, Fratangelo has worked his butt off to get from struggling at Futures events to thriving at Challenger tournaments.

Bjorn Fratangelo is on his way to the ATP World Tour.

Bucharest Gives Sorana Cirstea a Chance to Revitalize Her Career

*Note: The blog, after undergoing a small suspension due to the writing of my novella, "Homeless and Silent", which you can find on amazon here, is back.  The novella very affordable, 99 cents without Kindle Unlimited and free with Kindle Unlimited.  It's written in an unconventional style and uses stream-of-consciousness elements.  Enjoy!

It seems like just yesterday Sorana Cirstea was on top of the tennis world.  The tournament was WTA Toronto, one of the biggest tournaments on tour outside of the Grand Slams, an event in which almost all of the top players regularly enter.  After Cirstea's breakout tournament win in Tashkent over Sabine Lisicki in 2008 and French Open quarterfinal run in 2009, Toronto provided Cirstea the perfect opportunity to bring her game back to the level it was at a few years back, if not soar higher.  Toronto was the time when Sorana's middling career could take off once more.

The 2013 WTA Toronto was the tournament of Sorana Cirstea's life.  Cirstea made the Final of the tournament, and while she lost to Serena Williams, it was an unbelievable run from a largely unheralded player.  The players that Cirstea beat made the feat all the more impressive.  Sorana beat Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, and Li Na all in succesion.  This included beating Jankovic and Li Na in straight sets.  Considering that all of these players have, at least, made a major Final, it was almost inconceivable that Sorana Cirstea could pull this off.  But, she did, and in August of that year, shortly after the Toronto run, she reached her career high ranking, number 21 in the world.  The bad news for Sorana?  It was all downhill from there.

Cirstea couldn't maintain the momentum she sustained in Toronto.  She rounded out the 2013 season without making even the Quarterfinals of another event and went on a four-match losing streak to end the season, only winning one set in that span.  In fact, Sorana only won three matches from the time she won her semifinal in Toronto until the end of the year.  For a player with so much hope and promise, thoroughly deserved given the caliber of players she beat in Canada, this was very disappointing.

And it didn't get much better for Cirstea in 2014.  She started off the year on a three-match losing streak (seven-match losing streak overall), meaning that she didn't even get a win (or even a set)until after the Australian Open.  There were only two occasions in 2014 when Sorana could even put together two wins in a row (excluding Fed Cup), and the French Open was the last time all year that this occurred.  WTA Montreal (the tournament switches between Toronto and Montreal every year) was a full-blown disaster for Cirstea as she lost in the First Round, and a ton of the points from her 2013 run fell off, meaning that her ranking went down the tubes.  Cirstea ended 2014, like 2013 on a four-match losing streak.

2015 for Sorana has been poor, as well.  She hasn't had a main-draw win in a WTA Tour-level event all season and has lost in qualifying for both the French Open and Wimbledon.  Cirstea actually started this year on a six-match losing streak, which means she was on a ten-match overall losing streak including 2014.  And while she finally won two matches in a row in her quarterfinal run in her previous tournament, Contrexeville, Cirstea desperately needs points.  Sorana Cirstea is currently ranked number 161 in the world.

So, what does this all have to do with WTA Bucharest this week?  Well, Bucharest is a Romanian tournament and Cirstea, being Romanian, received a wild card into the main draw, meaning that she didn't even have to remotely consider the possiblity of playing qualifying matches to get into her home-country tournament.  Having the wild card gives Cirstea a nice platform to attempt to at least partially regain her 2013 Toronto form and get valuable points.  At number 161 in the world, Cirstea is stuck playing qualifying matches at the majors, so a run in a tournament like Bucharest, which is a WTA-level event but not a high profile one, can allow Sorana to perhaps win a few matches and get her ranking closer to 100, which is around the place she needs to be to avoid slam qualies.

Her First Round opponent in Bucharest, Sesil Karatantcheva, is also very beatable.  Sesil is currently on a three-match losing streak, and with the crowd thoroughly behind Sorana, oddsmakers only have Sorana as a slight underdog in the match.  And while it isn't a cakewalk draw, Sorana can avoid the top two seeds until the Semifinals if she keeps winning.  Perhaps Cirstea's home-country tournament could be yet another turning point in Sorana's career.  It is important to note that, at 25, Cirstea has a lot of time to turn her career around, and a couple wins at a tournament like this could be exactly what she needs.

Sorana Cirstea has proven to the world before that she has what it takes to play with some of the best players in the world.  It takes serious guts to come from a set down to a player of Sabine Lisicki's caliber and have the mental strength to take a third set tiebreak to win a WTA Title.  It's also true that to make the Quarterfinals of a major, you have to have serious talent and mental fortitude.  And tennis fans won't ever forget Cirstea's unbelievable run to the WTA Toronto Final.

WTA Bucharest could be the tournament that revitalizes the talents and mental strengths that once made Sorana such a formidable player.  Playing in front of her home-country fans, the strain of having to potentially qualify gone from her mind, with a very winnable First Round match in front of her, it wouldn't be very surprising to see Sorana rise to the challenge once more.

It wouldn't be shocking to see a small WTA tournament in Bucharest, Romania revitalize Sorana Cirstea's career.

Heather Waston and the Lack of a Champion's Mindset

Heather Watson started off the 2015 season with a bang.  In Hobart, in the Brit's first tournament of the year, she stormed through the field to win her second WTA title.  During this run, she did not drop a set and beat accomplished players like Sloane Stephens and Roberta Vinci before beating Madison Brengle, a fast riser on the WTA Tour, in straight sets to win it.  After losing six of her last seven matches in 2014, this was just the start Watson needed to catapult her up the rankings.  In fact, Watson got up to the best ranking of her career, number 38 in the world.  So, what happened?

A champion, when they win a smaller tournament like Hobart, uses that run to propel them to greater heights in better tournaments.  Look at Timea Bacsinszky, for example.  Upon winning her first title in a very long time early this year in Acapulco, she went on to win the following tournament in Monterrey, make the Quarterfinals of Indian Wells, and just recently, make the Semifinals of the French Open and come within three holds-of-serve from the Final.  Timea took the momentum and experience of winning this smaller tournament and used it to fuel her to greater things in her career.  And although Timea's rise was extremely rapid, Watson could have certainly followed a similar (if less dramatic) path.  Instead, Heather Watson shrunk.

Following the win in Hobart, Watson only got four games in a loss to Tstetvana Pironkova in a match in which Watson lost the second set 6-0.  Perhaps you could chalk that up to a "champion's hangover".  However, her straight set loss to Kateryna Kozlova, a player currently ranked number 150 in the WTA rankings, was a bit more shocking.  Watson did have a run to the Round of 16 at Indian Wells, but, that could be because she was playing the unsteady Julia Goerges and Camila Giorgi before facing the slumping Aga Radwanska more than anything else.  Watson's form got very poor following her time in southern California.

A First Round win in Miami was then followed by four losses in a row, two of them being to Polona Hercog and Mariana Duque-Marino.  Now, no disrespect to those two ladies, but they are players that Watson has to be beating, especially after showing her form in Hobart.  After all, Hercog is ranked number 81 in the world and Duque-Marino is ranked number 99 in the world.  Those are players that Watson, if she truly had a champion's mindset, would be straight-setting, rather than losing to.  Instead of using the momentum and form that she had following her win in Hobart, Watson totally dumped that form and let herself slip a bit.

Following that four match losing streak, Heather's form has not improved much.  After her loss to Duque-Marino in Madrid, she then lost in her second match at Rome to Carla Suarez-Navarro in straight sets and then had another loss in the Second Round of the French Open, this time to Sloane Stephens.  Perhaps the grass would revitalize her form?  That doesn't seem like the case, as Watson lost in straight sets to Aleksandra Krunic, a player ranked only number 82 in the world.

Now, the easy response to all of this would be, perhaps Heather Watson only likes hard courts.  After all, that is the surface where she won both of her titles on the WTA Tour.  However, I do not believe this is the case.  While Watson did go 2-5 on the clay, following her title in Hobart, she only went 5-5 on hard courts.   In addition, during 2014, Watson only went 4-12 in WTA-level, main draw matches on the hard courts. In any case, when you had a tough season like 2014, a tournament win is vital for revitalizing your career, but unfortunately for Heather, it didn't seem to do much.  It was the same ole' Heather following Hobart.

But, you might be asking, "What about after Watson's first tournament win?  Did she show a champion's mindset there?"  The answer is NO.  At her last tournament in 2012, Watson won Osaka, only losing two sets in five matches and having the very impressive mental resolve of winning a third set tiebreak to beat Kai-Chen Chang in the Final.  One would think that a big win like this would make Watson even more hungry for better results in the following season, and she would do everything in her power that offseason to make 2013 the best that it could be.

But, for Watson, 2013 was quite poor.  She never won more than two WTA-level matches in a row and only advanced past the Round of 16 once at a smaller event in Memphis in which she only had to win two matches to the make the Quarterfinals.  Even back in 2012 and 2013, one sees that Watson doesn't truly have the mindset of a champion.  Mediocrity, with the occasional good tournament here and there, is perfectly fine with her, it doesn't matter whether it's 2012 or 2015.

In addition, let's take a further look into how Watson does when she played someone who is currently ranked below her current ranking of 65 (a big drop from earlier this year) following Hobart.  This happened nine times following Hobart, and Watson is a terrible 3-6 in these matches.  Yes, Heather Watson, after Hobart, has lost 2/3 of her matches against players who currently have a worse rank than her current ranking of 65.  A champion beats the players that he or she is supposed to beat, but Heather flounders in these type of situations following her win.  It's as if the knowledge that she actually won a tournament and is supposed to beat a player like Kozlova, currently ranked 85 spots below her, is too much for Watson to handle.  Not to mention that, after Hobart, Watson is 4-5 against players ranked above her, so it's not like she is consistently beating players above her in the rankings either.

Heather Watson has a lot of thinking to do as she prepares for her next match against Varvara Lepchenko in her home country at Eastbourne.  She needs to figure out how to stomp out players ranked below her and consistently challenge those above her in the rankings.  It's not easy to have a champion's mindset.  There is a reason that so few players win that elusive major title.  But, a win just before the Australian Open in Hobart could have been what took Watson to the next level in her career.  But, it almost seems as if Heather Watson is fine with not being the best that she can be.  It's almost as if she has no problems with losing to players below her, while not raising her game to really challenge the best in the women's game.

And what does this tell me?  It tells me that Heather Watson lacks a champion's mindset.

ATP Stuttgart Semifinals Predictions

So, I've decided maybe once a week to do some Semifinals predictions for a tournament going on in that week and this is my first of this weekly installment.  This week's tournament will be: ATP Stuttgart.

Rafael Nadal vs. Gael Monfils

In this big name clash, struggling Rafael Nadal takes on unpredictable Gael Monfils with a spot in the Final of ATP Stuttgart, an ATP 250 event, on the line.  Both players are in, for their standards, mediocre form going into the tournament.  For the first time since 2009, and only the second time since 2005, Nadal did not win the French Open.  In fact, Rafa didn't even put up much of a fight in his highly anticipated clash with Novak Djokovic in the Quarterfinals of the French Open.  Nadal lost in straight sets and was even handed a 6-1 third set loss to Novak.  

But, although it was surprising in the way Nadal lost, the entirety of the late spring clay court season (which excludes Rio and Buenos Aires) certainly foreshadowed that Rafa's dominance at the tournament was not set in stone this season.  Rafa lost in straight sets to Djokovic, Fognini, Murray, and Wawrinka, looking slow and off.  In fact, Nadal has not looked right since his appendex issues at the end of last season.  This tournament has been a struggle for Rafa, as well.  He has been taken to three sets by both Marcos Baghdatis and Bernard Tomic and has not looked himself yet this tournament (or year for that matter).  And although he was able to wear both Marcos and Bernie down in the third set, that is a much tougher task against Gael.

While Gael Monfils started the clay court season strong, he started to slide as the weeks went on.  He started off the clay season in Monte Carlo where he made the Semifinals, including straight set wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Roger Federer.  However, over the next two tournaments in Bucharest and Madrid, he went on to win only three of his next five matches, unexpected given his prowess on the surface.  Monfils then didn't play at Rome, and then played three tough matches at Roland Garros before meekly bowing out to Roger Federer with a 6-1 loss in the fourth set against Roger.

In this tournament, Monfils took out clay courter Andreas Haider-Maurer in two tiebreaks, which was a good way to ease him into the clay court season.  What concerned me about this match was Gael seemed more worried about putting on a show than winning, but Monfils proved that he was very worried about winning in his next match.  Monfils had his most impressive win since Monte Carlo today, beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in Philipp's home country in three sets.  For me, it was an unexpected win, but it showed that Monfils was taking this tournament seriously.

In the head to head, Nadal leads 10-2.  It's important to note, however, that these two have never met on grass before.  While they haven't played in 2015, the two have squared off in 2014, with Nadal winning both matches.  While Nadal won in three sets in Doha, Rafa only gave up six games in demolishing Gael at the Australian Open.  However, if we take away clay, which is the less like grass than hard courts and is also Nadal's favorite surface, Rafa's record is only 6-2, with him winning in straight sets in four of those matches.

Rafa has dominated this rivalry but is playing on what is by far his worst surface (although that's not saying much, he has won Wimbledon twice) and has generally looked shakier than Gael in his first two matches.  However, I beleive that the concentration that Nadal shows on every point in comparison to Gael's numerous mental vacations during a match to be the difference. Rafael Nadal wins 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Marin Cilic vs. Viktor Troicki

The other semifinal match up is a very interesting clash between Marin Cilic and Viktor Troicki.  Both players are no slouches on grass, with Troicki making the Round of 16 at Wimbledon before, and Marin having a great run to the Quarterfinals at Wimbledon, beating former Finalist Tomas Berdych in straight sets and even pushing Novak to five sets in their Quarterfinals match last year.  It was the beginning of a hot streak for Cilic which concluded with him winning the US Open in September.

Both players were very shaky during the late spring clay court season.  Viktor only won four matches from Monte Carlo to Roland Garros and accumulated a poor record of 4-6.  This included three losses in his first match played.  In five of Viktor's six clay season losses, he lost in straight sets too, so his level of competitiveness over the past couple of months has not been too high (including a poor effort at Roland Garros in which he lost to Simone Bolleli in straights, only winning nine games in the process).

At this tournament, Troicki is playing much better.  He has only lost one set in three matches played, and today, he beat Sam Groth who was undefeated in his seven previous matches of the grass court season (although five of them were challenger matches).  His win over Groth had a 6-1 second set, which is really impressive considering that Groth has won of the biggest serves on tour.  Troicki should comes into this match full of confidence.

Marin Cilic also had a rough clay court season, although his Roland Garros campaign was a decent one.  Before coming to Paris, Cilic had also only won four matches on the dirt, and put together a mediocre record of 4-5 from Monte Carlo through Geneva.  This included two exits in his first match at a tournament, and four losses in straight sets.  However, at the French Open, Cilic, who has been injured for much of this year,  won his first three matches in straight sets, including a surprisingly-easy win over Nice finalist Leonardo Mayer.  And although he lost easily to David Ferrer, Cilic had already made a statement that he was going to turn his season around.

Marin's good form continued this tournament.  After a straight set win over Matthias Bachinger in his first match, Cilic managed to get past Mischa Zverev in a third set tiebreak.  And while this might indicate poor form to an outsider, it is important to note that Mischa was playing in his home country and was on a five match winning streak, including straight set wins over Dominic Thiem and Andreas Seppi.  Cilic did very well to make it out of that Zverev match with a win, and should be relieved and play loose against Troicki.

The head to head is very interesting.  These two played (excluding a retirement) seven times, with Cilic winning four of the seven.  However, the order in which they won is a bit odd.  Marin won the first four matches, all on hard courts, only losing two sets in the process.  However, in their past three matches, although the most recent being in 2013, Troicki won all three, not losing a set in any of the matches (two on hard, one on clay).  This shows that perhaps Viktor discovered the key to Marin's game.

While Cilic's form is rapidly improving, Viktor is playing very well on the grass, and his straight set win over Groth today is very impressive.  The fact that Troicki hasn't dropped a set to Cilic also suggests that he has become very comfortable playing that Croat.  I think Troicki will be too strong.  Viktor Troicki wins 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

What's the Deal With Hyeon Chung's Schedule?

On the ATP World Tour, the amount of points you earn determine your ranking on the tours.  However, it doesn't matter how you accumulate those points, just that you have them.  For instance, you could get 90 points for making the Semifinals of an ATP 250 event, or you could try to win a $75,000 dollar challenger to get those 90 points.  But, under this system, it doesn't matter how you get the points, only that you get them.

This brings me to Hyeon Chung  This 19 year old South Korean is quickly rising in the rankings, and is currently number 74 in the world.  Chung is heralded by the media, among others, as a "next generation" player, ready to take over once the Big Four + Stan Wawrinka decide to put away their rackets for good.  However, the paths that Hyeon has taken is not allowing him to maximize his abilities.  Let me explain.

Hyeon Chung burst onto the scene not for who he beat, but rather for how much he won.  Over the course of a three tournament span, Chung won 14 of 15 matches and won two of the three tournaments.  In fact, Hyeon only dropped four sets and went 12 straight matches without dropping a set. From the beginning of 2015 until now, Chung won three tournaments and made the Final of an additional two tournaments.

So, you might be asking yourself, "How come this kid hasn't rose to the Top Ten yet?"  The answer lies in what type of tournament Chung is playing in.  On the ATP World Tour, excluding special tournaments (Olympics, ATP Finals, etc.), there are six levels of tournaments.  The lowest level of is on the ATP Futures Tour, with point values for tournament winners ranging from 18 to 35 points.  Next is the ATP Challenger Tour, with point values for winners ranging from 80 to 125 points.  ATP 250 winners get 250 points, ATP 500 champions get 500 points, Masters 1000 winners get 1000 points, and Grand Slam champions get 2000 points.

Hyeon Chung has played in the main draw in 12 tournaments this year.  10 of those 12 tournaments have been ATP Challenger Tour matches, with another only being an ATP 250 tournament.  The 12th tournament Chung played in the main draw was when he received a wild card into Miami in March.  As a result, Hyeon has not challenged himself against some of the upper-echelon players in the men's game, and is therefore not ready for the struggles that playing at tennis' highest level brings.
 
To show this more fully, it is important to note that Hyeon Chung's best win is a three-set win over Marcel Granollers, who is only six spaces ahead of him in the rankings.  Chung only has had two matches against others players in the Top 50 (Berdych and Verdasco) and did not win a set in either of the matches.  Hyeon has also never qualified for a major, and has a pedestrian 3-3 record at major qualifying, along with a two game losing streak at these major qualifying events.  In addition, Chung has never actually qualified for a tournament bigger than an ATP 250 event and never won over two non-qualifying matches.

Despite Chung's rise in the rankings this year, it is quite apparent that he is still struggling to even qualify and win matches on the main tour, that he would realize that he actually has to consistently play main tour players in order to succeed at that level.  You have to play other guys in 250 and 500 events if you want to beat them and not expect to show up to the occasional ATP World Tour event expecting to succeed.  And given that Chung has had a lot of success in challengers since around this time last year, it is certainly time to make the leap.  Chung might take a dip in the rankings at first, after all he won't have these easier challenger points to win, bur in the long run, battling tougher players will, in turn, toughen up Chung's game.

So, it was definitely encouraging to see that Chung attempted to qualify for s'Hertogenbosch instead of playing in the numerous challengers this week.  It would have been easy for Chung to sign up for Surbiton, Prague, Moscow, or Caltanissetta and try to pick up some quick points.  After all, Caltanissetta is a worth the maximum amount of points for a challenger event, at 125 points.  Instead, Chung decided to put himself out there by not only trying to qualify for a grass tournament, in which he has never played a match before in his professional career, but also chose to attempt to play in a 250 instead of the grass challenger (Surbiton).  And while Hyeon lost in straight sets to Nicholas Monroe, playing in this event showed that Chung was serious about rising on the ATP World Tour.

An interesting case study to compare Hyeon Chung to is Thanasi Kokkinakis.  Kokkinakis is also 19 years old and is slightly ahead of Chung, at number 69 in the world.  Kokkinakis' schedule is the antithesis of Chung's schedule.  In 2015, Kokkinakis has played ten ATP World Tour events and only one challenger (which he won).  This includes winning at least one match in both the Australian Open and the French Open, where he actually made it to the Round of 32.  Another great tournament for Kokkinakis was when he made the Round of 16 at Indian Wells, beating tough veterans like Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Juan Monaco in the process.  What might be Thanasi's greatest feat, however, is how he's qualified every tournament he attempted to qualify for this year and has not had a losing streak this year of greater than two matches.  Kokkinakis is proving that, as a teenager attempting to make it on tour, playing mostly ATP World Tour matches with the occasional challenger or two thrown in there is the best course of action for young players.

Perhaps it is even a good thing that Chung is on a three match losing streak right now, the longest losing streak he's had since another three game losing streak ending in January. This small losing streak can be a wake up call for Chung without seriously damaging his ranking.  Chung needed to realize that playing as many challenger matches as he has played will not lead to automatic wins.  Hyeon needed to see that the challenger tour will only take him so far and that the main tour must be the next step, and quickly.  That's not to say that his last two losses were not especially embarrassing.  After all, Hyeon only won one game against Jared Donaldson and the previously mentioned straight set loss to Nicholas Monroe, doesn't even have a singles ranking on the ATP website at the time I was writing this article.  But, as more players hear about Chung's game and figure him out, Chung will need to adapt as well.  And this adaptability can only successfully occur on the main tour.  Hey, if Thanasi can do it, then so can Hyeon.

Hyeon Chung's schedule has not allowed him to make the most of his abilities so far.  However, if his appearance in s'Hertogebbosch is any indication of his future plans, then Chung is certainly on the right track

*Note: this post focuses exclusively on ranking points on the ATP Tour and not the WTA Tour.

Cici Bellis Hinders Tennis Development at the French Open

We all remember the US Open last year for many reasons.  Serena Williams finally tied Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova with 18 majors, Kei Nishikori stunned Novak Djokovic in the Semifinals, and Marin Cilic won the first major of his career.  However, we also remember the 2014 US Open for Cici Bellis.  Cici was the 15 year old (at the time) girl who defeated 2014 Australian Open Finalist Dominka Cibulkova in her first major on the WTA Tour.  And while Bellis lost in three sets to Zarina Diyas in her Second Round match, it was a great start to Bellis' career.

To understand why Bellis hindered her development at the French Open, we must first look to last year.  In 2014, Bellis played 11 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit.  Being only 14/15 during that year, it was certainly understandable that Bellis did not play on the main circuit.  Of these 11 tournaments, Bellis played the Juniors in three of the four, excluding the Australian Open, (more on this later) and even the prestigious Metropolia Orange Bowl International Championship.  And Bellis, for the most part, succeeded on this junior circuit last season.  Not only did Bellis make the Round of 16 in the Junior French Open and the Semifinals of the Orange Bowl, but she also made the Final of a tournament and won four other junior circuit tournaments.

So, the fact that Bellis not only grabbed the chance to play in the main draw of the US Open, but also won a match is not a total shock given her recent form on the junior circuit.  It was almost as if the US Open were merely icing on the cake.  Bellis would play a couple more tournaments on the junior circuit, but the Orange Bowl would be the last junior tournament she would play for a very long time.  By the looks of it, Bellis was moving up the ladder of women's tennis.

Bellis' next non-Junior tournament following the US Open was not nearly as glamorous.  Playing at Captiva Island, a $50,000 dollar , hard court tournament at the very end of the 2014 season, Bellis lost in straight sets to Tatjana Maria.  And while Maria is a decent player, she beat (a struggling) Bouchard this year, she was definitely an opponent that Bellis could defeat.  After her what seemed to be her last Junior tournaments she would ever play at the end of 2014, Bellis next played at the beginning of 2015, in a $25,000 dollar, clay court tournament in Daytona Beach.  Playing in her first match at the tournament Bellis got only six games in another straight set loss to Arantxa Rus.  This was an opponent that Bellis definitely should have beaten, so the fact that she went down so meekly was indicative that perhaps Cici wasn't ready for the rigors of the professional tour.

However, Bellis definitively proved the doubters wrong.  In her next tournament, she qualified for a $25,000 dollar event in Sunrise, and this time, she beat Maria in her first match.  She even won the last set of the match 6-0.  And while she lost her next match. to win four matches in a non-Juniors tournament was very impressive.  A few weeks later, in one of Bellis' biggest successes to date, Cici won a $25,000 dollar hard court tournament in Rancho Santa Fe, only dropping one set in the entire tournament and losing a total of two games in the Final.  Bellis proved that she could contend, even if it was merely a $25,000 dollar tournament.

But perhaps Bellis' biggest triumph since the US Open was her run to the Round of 32 in Miami, a WTA Premier Mandatory event.  Bellis only lost seven games combined in her two wins in South Florida.  This included a 6-2, 6-1 win over Zarina Diyas, a fantastic win given the fact that Diyas is currently the 32nd ranked player in the world.  And while Bellis got destroyed by Serena Williams in the Round of 32, it was a great learning experience for Cici.

So, you might be wondering, what does this all have to do with Bellis' development at the French Open?  Well, there are two things that my readers need to learn from all of this about Cici Bellis.  First is what I mentioned at the beginning of the post, that Bellis has had a ton of success on the ITF Junior Circuit and had not played a Junior match since 2014.  This certainly suggests to that Bellis has outgrown the junior circuit.  Second is that, not only has Bellis outgrown the junior circuit, but she is holding her own, if not thriving on the professional circuit.  She won a match at the US Open, won a couple matches in Miami, and even won a small tournament in Rancho Santa Fe.  Playing a Juniors tournament seemed to be a thing of the past for Cici.

 However, as we learned at the French Open this year, that was not the case.  Bellis signed up for, and played qualifying for the professional French Open qualifying draw for the chance to get into the main draw of the tournament.  But, qualifying ended up being a full-blown disaster for the young American.  Bellis played Paraguayan Veronica Cepede Royg in the First Round of Roland Garros qualifying.  Bellis lost the match 6-4, 6-0 in an extremely disappointing result for her.  It wasn't extremely disappointing in the sense that she lost the match, it was more the way she lost it.  The way Bellis couldn't hang with Cepede Royg must have deeply disappointed Cici.

But, this type of loss didn't necessarily hinder Cici Bellis' development.  Sometimes, you have to go through losing in order to experience the winning that follows.  Sometimes it takes a poor loss to really motivate a player to practice harder and develop a winning attitude.  It's quite possible that Bellis' development could have been advanced due to the outcome of her match with Cepede Royg rather than hindered.  This was not the case, however, because Bellis decided to take the "easy way out".  She did this by playing in the Junior French Open.

Cici Bellis made the decision to attempt to play in the women's French Open main draw when she entered the qualifying draw.  But, really, there wasn't even a decision to make.  She had previously played six professional tournaments where she even attempted to qualify and/or was in the main draw since her last Juniors tournament and had not played a Juniors tournament this entire season.  It was quite obvious that Bellis was focusing on the main tour and that playing other women attempting to make it on the tour was best for her development.  But, yet, Cici shot herself in the foot.

It was later learned that Cici Bellis had signed up for the Junior French Open tournament.  Now, I'm not trying to claim that Bellis didn't win matches at the Junior Roland Garros, because she certainly had a good tournament.  Cici made the Semifinals, only losing one set in her first four matches.  But, I propose the question, What good did this really do for Bellis?  Despite the fact that she could have gained confidence from the Junior wins, for one, a lot of the players she played in the Junior French Open and others that she could have played, depending on the draw, are of a lower caliber than Bellis would be (and should be) playing in order to sufficiently improve Cici's game.  But, it's more than that.

Playing at the Junior Roland Garros teaches Cici Bellis that when you lose, you can get a second chance to try to make everything right in your world.  The world of professional tennis is cutthroat.  Cici has hundreds upon hundreds of women, young and old, fighting just like her for a spot on the WTA Tour main circuit, and these women don't normally get a second chance in a $25,000 dollar or $50,000 dollar tournament in some random corner of the world.  And while a counter argument may be, "Well, what about lucky losers?" (and trust me, I don't like those either), my response would be that while those are given out randomly (hence the "lucky" in lucky loser), Bellis made the conscientious decision that she deserved a second chance from her failure in the qualifying draw.  She made the decision that she was entitled to a second chance.

Now, another doubt that may enter your mind is, "Why aren't you getting on her after playing Juniors after two matches in the main draw of the US Open?".  And my answer is simple, her mindset was most likely much different at the time.  Before those main draw matches at the US Open, Bellis had never played a match at the professional level in her life.  When Bellis got the wildcard to the US Open, she most likely intended on playing a match to see what the professional tour is like for a match before returning to the junior circuit.  And while that mindset may have a changed a bit once she beat Cibulkova, one must give her the benefit of doubt that with such little time to soak in the win over Dominka, her mindset did not drastically change in such a short period of time.  So, for the US Open, I give Bellis a pass for playing in the Juniors.

But, I do not give Cici a pass for playing in the Junior French Open.  In fact, Cici Bellis hindered her own development as a tennis player at the French Open as a result her decision.

The Power of Twitter in Relation to Tennis

As someone who has on twitter for over three years now, I know twitter very well and love it dearly.  I love sending out irrational, angry tweets to my 100+ followers who could probably care less what I have to say.  But, as some random, unimportant dude who's tweets really mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.  I've made tweets that, if I had any sort of stature in society, would get me ridiculed with sponsors pulling any support of me they previously had.

But, the good news?  I don't have to worry about that because, as I said before, I am essentially Joe Schmo.  However, for players on the WTA and ATP Tours, one is constantly in the spotlight.  As a professional tennis player, whatever you say will be twisted, convoluted, and you will be blasted for something that you totally did not mean to say.  But, in the case of some players on tour, no twisting is needed and what players say on twitter is quite powerful.

Perhaps the biggest example of someone who probably needs to censor themselves more on Twitter is Ivo Karlovic.  We all surely remember Ivo Karlovic's passive-aggressive tweet following Serena William's 19th Grand Slam victory in Melbourne.  When Serena closed out Maria Sharapova in straight sets to win the tournament, in showing her excitement, Williams started jumping up and down and hopped over to her Player's Box.  Karlovic, upon seeing Serena's celebration, sent out a nasty tweet that said "Earthquake in Melbourne #jumping".  The implication here certainly seems to be that Serena is overweight and her jumping is causing the ground to shake.

So, what were the implications of such a tweet?  Well, of the direct responses to the tweet, some of them thought it was funny (but did not necessarily agree with what Ivo had to say) while many others ripped into Ivo and thought it was anything but amusing.  In addition, tennis website tennis.com considered it a lowpoint and the tweet generated A LOT  of discussion on the popular women's tennis forum tennisforum.com, in which, based on the first couple of pages that I read for writing this post, were not favorable.  In any case, it was very inappropriate of Karlovic to (whether intentional or not) deflect the spotlight from Serena and onto himself.

This was not the only case of Karlovic making a spectacle of himself with jabs on twitter.  Just last Sunday, Ivo lashed out in a tweet against Roger Federer, saying, "Roger said its dark so it's dark".  What Karlovic completely ignored is the fact that it was cloudy out, and therefore would get darker earlier than usual, and also that Monfils could have probably used the rest, given that the world later learned he was sick for that match with Roger.  So, while Karlovic had been trying to take a swipe at Federer, he ended up looking pretty stupid himself.  Karlovic also has had many more cases in which he has written rude tweets, so he certainly has a track record with abusing his twitter account for the sake of putting down others.

So, why am I bringing up athletes and twitter today?  This is because, today, I read a very rude and disrespectful tweet from Tara Moore, who is also on the WTA Tour (but is lightyears behind Serena in terms of quality of play, and I now know, in terms of quality of individual).  It was learned before the match that Serena was very sick for her Semifinals match against Timea Bacsinszky at the French Open.  Serena was very down on court, and was clearly suffering even more so than during the Australian Open this year.  However, Moore was not convinced about Serena's performance and sent out a tweet in which she said, "Not only is serena one of the best women players of all time, she's also one of the best actresses #suckitup #learnhowtolose #pathetic".  In my opinion, the hashtags at the end of the tweet are where Moore really crossed over the line and made a rude tweet into a disrespectful one.

So, how did this tweet go over for Moore?  Well, almost every reply was negatively directed towards Tara, with Moore later even tweeting that death threats were coming her way.  Moore tweet also got coverage at theguardian because of her tweet, which also reported that even injured tennis player Laura Robson sent out a tweet dismissing Moore's "#pathetic".  All of this controversy over the 395th ranked women's player in the world in the live rankings!  This should really not be happening and the amount of attention payed to Moore is certainly not proportional to the amount of attention she has received (almost entirely negative) due to this tweet.

So, a player like Moore should be desperately working to make her way up the rankings in order to really try to make it on the tour.  Instead of sending out a nasty tweet about, arguably, the best women's tennis player of all time, she should be making sure the spotlight is off of her, so that she has no distractions on her quest to be the best that she can be.  And the same can be said for Karlovic, as well.  Since winning Delray Beach in February, Ivo has won a total of three matches.  In the entire clay court season, he won a total of one match.  And, when he sent out the tweet regarding Serena and an earthquake, he had made a Second Round exit in the Australian Open.  Again, like Moore, instead of drawing attention to himself, Karlovic should be wanting to deflect all of the attention off oh himself and really focus in on his tennis.

I must say, though, I give a little more leeway to Moore regarding this issue (as of now) than I do to Karlovic.  This is because Karlovic (as previously mentioned) definitely has a long history with sending out rude and hurtful tweets, where, as far as I can tell, Moore seems to be a "first time offender".  And while she is an adult, and thus is totally responsible for whatever decisions she makes, perhaps she didn't quite realize just how bad her tweet had and the subsequent impact it would have, while Karlovic seems to tweet nasty things all of the time without batting an eyebrow.  However, both Karlovic and Moore should feel ashamed about how they have presented themselves on their twitter account.

In any case, the main lesson here is that, for professional tennis players, twitter is very powerful.  For players those who tweet with class and grace it can be a great way to connect with their fans.  But, for those who do not conduct themselves in that manner on twitter, perhaps it's time to shut the account down.  Maybe Ivo Karlovic and Tara Moore's twitter accounts need to be deactivated.

The Not-So-Random Stan Wawrinka

When one initially takes a look at the results of Stan Wawrinka, what one sees could puzzle him or her.  There is seemingly a rash amount of inconsistencies.  At some points you might ask yourself, "How can this man string together matches on the ATP Tour?".   On other moments, however, you might ask yourself, "How has this man not consistently won majors during his career?"  The answer to the second question is quite simple: The Big Four (consisting of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer) is just too good.  And while this is less of the case now than it has been in the past (as evident today), the fact that Stan was able to win one shows just how high his level can be.

The answer to the first question has to do with Stan's mindset.  Although this is not always the case (i.e. Chennai/Rotterdam), Stan sometimes does not show up mentally for non-major tournaments.  This year, for instance, Stan has lost to players such as Sergiy Stakhovsky and Federico Delbonis in ATP 250 tournaments.  However, his in-and-out mindset even applies to Master 1000 Tournaments.  At Indian Wells, for example, Stan lost his first match to Robin Haase and at Miami, Stan lost his second match in straight sets to Adrian Mannarino.  This is not showing disrespect to Sergiy, Federico, Robin, nor Adrian, however, it is frustrating to see now that the world knows  just how well Stan can play.  In addition, Wawrinka has lost in his first or second match of a non-slam tournament in six of his nine ATP Tour-level events.  That just seems a little bit off, especially after watching Stan at the majors.

At the four Grand Slams (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open), Stan Wawrinka is a totally different man.  It's as if a light switch goes off in his head.  This is best exemplified by the fact that from the 2013 French Open onwards, Stan has made the Quarterfinals or better in seven of the nine majors (including the 2015 French Open) during this time span.  Of these majors he has made the Semifinals or better in four of the nine and won the 2014 Australian Open.  This interesting trend has resurfaced because Wawrinka beat Roger Federer in straight sets today to make the Semifinals of the 2015 French Open where, if he continues to play as well as he played today, he will be near-impossible to beat.

So, what does this all say about Stan Wawrinka's mindset?  To me, it shows that majors are his one and only priority.  Whether or not Stan does well in a non-major tournament seems to almost entirely depend on how important he thinks a tournament is to do well at a subsequent major.  Let's dive in deeper.

Ever wonder why Stan "randomly" shows up for Chennai, a measly ATP 250 tournament?  Well, after a long offseason it is his only warm-up tournament before the Australian Open.  Therefore, if Stan wants to have good form going into the first major of the season, it is imperative that he do well at Chennai.  Unsurprisingly, Wawrinka has won the tournament two years in a row.  It's also unsurprising that Wawrinka, "randomly" took out the 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic in a Quarterfinals run in Cincinnati in his final warm-up tournament before the 2014 US Open.  After losing the first set to Cilic, he lost one game in the final two sets combined, a very impressive feat considering how Cilic performed at the US Open.

Wawrinka made at least the Quarterfinals of two majors in one year for the first time in 2013, where it seems as if he started taking his job much more seriously.   While Stan had won a couple of titles on clay at this point (nothing on grass), at the majors, hard court had certainly been Wawrinka's best surface.  Stan had made the Quarterfinals of the US Open in 2010 and the Australian Open in 2011, but hadn't made the Quarterfinals of either the French Open or Wimbledon.  But, when Wawrinka started taking his career more seriously in 2013, his attitude towards grass and clay warmup tournaments changed as well.

In 2013, on clay, Wawrinka made the Quarterfinals of Monte Carlo, the Semifinals of Casablanca, the Finals of Buenos Aires (although not a warm-up tournament) and Madrid, and was the champion of Estoril.  And, subsequently, how did Wawrinka do at the 2013 French Open?  He made his first ever French Quarterfinals.  And while he bonked out early of the 2014 French Open, he showed that he took warm-up tournaments on clay seriously, winning Monte Carlo.  This year, Wawrinka made the Semifinals in Rome, beating Rafael Nadal on the way.  His efforts were rewarded this season,  as he has a really good shot to win the French Open this year for his second major.

On grass, Wawrinka's desire to win Wimbledon, through the help of warm-up tournaments, has been rewarded as well.  In 2013, in line with Stan's new attitude, Wawrinka made the Final of 's-Hertogenbosch, not losing a set until the Final.  And while this did not pay off immediately, following a run to the Semifinals of Queen's Club, he finally made the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon, losing only one set in his first four matches and even taking a set off of Roger Federer in his quarterfinal.  Stan's hard work on the grass paid off.

Now, I'm not saying that there are no exceptions to Wawrinka's norm form of play.  For instance, Stan obviously decided to take the  2014 Year End Championship (where he made the Semifinals) and 2015 Rotterdam (where he won it) seriously.  However, that might be just to the streaky nature of  the Wawrinka game itself than his mindset.  And it's not like he does well at every warm-up tournament either, as he clunked out in his match in Madrid last year and his second match in Madrid this year, for example.  But, perhaps that's because he doesn't see the Madrid elevation, for instance, as a great warmup for clay now that he has established himself on the surface (which wasn't the case in 2013).  Perhaps that's why he's only has had runs in the much-lower elevations of Monte Carlo and Rome in the past couple of years.

But, in any case, Stan Wawrinka on the whole has shown that, in 2013, he completely changed his mindset.  He started taking the majors much more seriously and really seeing the value of warm-up tournaments.  The next step for Wawrinka will be to take an even greater number of tournaments seriously as his career goes on.

So, while many may call Stan "unpredictable", in my mind, he's really not so random.

Elina Svitolina: A Presence On The WTA Tour Who's Here To Stay

2015 was a huge year for 20 year-old Elina Svitolina.  How would she respond to a huge 2014?  Her 2014 year included a title in Baku, a Round of 16 in Miami, a Quarterfinals appearance in Cincinnati, and she also made the Semifinals in Nuremberg, Wuhan, and Osaka.  Svitolina could either sink with the pressure of a significant ranking points or swim and thrive on the WTA Tour.  I think it's safe to say that Svitolina is swimming at the moment.

2015 got off to a spectacular spot for Svitolina as she made the Semifinals of Brisbane.  I knew Elina was in for a special year when I watched her match against Angelique Kerber in the Quarterfinals.  Elina was calm, cool, and collected, and was certainly not intimidated by the moment.  She repelled almost anything Kerber through at her, and held her nerve to win in a tight three-setter.  And although her run came to an end in the next round against Maria Sharapova, Svitolina showed that she was not going to slip into mediocrity in the new year.

While a Third Round appearance at the Australian Open a few weeks later could be seen as an average tournament for Svitolina, it was the way she played those three matches that impressed me most.  In the first two rounds of the tournament, Svitolina acted as a seasoned veteran, beating both of her lower-ranked opponents in straight sets to play tournament-champion Serena Williams in the Third Round.  Svitolina ended up being one of only two players to take a set off of Williams in that tournament, taking the first set 6-4.  And while Elina would only win two games for the rest of the match, the fact that she could win a set against Serena showed her potential.

Svitolina's next good run of play occurred from Indian Wells till Marrakech.  In Indian Wells, Elina made the Round of 16.  However, it was her straight-set win over an in-form Lucie Safarova (won Doha a couple weeks before) that, once again, showed the world that Elina would be a tough out for whoever played her.  The following month in Bogota, Svitolina made the Semifinals, showing once again that she can consistently win on the WTA Tour.  Then, a couple weeks later, she won another title, this time in Marrakech, a clay court event.  In the five matches she played in that tournament, Elina only lost one set and cruised to the title.  Svitolina beat Timea Babos in the Final in straight sets to once again prove she wasn't a rising force for the rest of the WTA, she was a force that had arrived.

Svitolina's latest triumph has occurred at the French Open.  She is currently in the Quarterfinals and is playing unbelievable tennis.  The most impressive part of Elina's run is her maturity (and the composure that stems from that maturity).  In two of Svitolina's first four matches, she has been pushed deep into a third set.  But, each time, she came through.  In the Second Round, Svitolina beat Yulia Putintseva 9-7 in the third set, while in the Third Round, Elina beat Annika Beck 6-4 in the third set.  Even in the Round of 16, with Svitolina losing serve when serving for the match twice and wasting three match point in the tiebreak, when Cornet had a set point, Svitolina refused to let that set slip away.  And when she let two more match points get away from her, Elina dug in and finally closed the match on her sixth match point.  Svitolina had made her first Grand Slam Quarterfinals appearance ever against Ana Ivanovic.

However, it surely seems like it won't be her last Grand Slam Quarterfinals appearance ever. Elina Svitolina has definitely proved that she is here to stay.  Who knows?  A week from today, she could be a Grand Slam champion.

What Has Happened To Madison Keys?

When a player is ready to be great, the breakthrough becomes the norm.  When a player is ready to be great, the results meet the expectations  When a player is ready to be great, surprise turns into a steady focus.  Madison Keys is not quite ready to be great yet.

Madison looked spectacular in Australian Open run in January.  She made the Semifinals, beating great players such Petra Kvitova (in straight sets) and Venus Williams along the way.  In fact, Keys only lost two sets en-route to the Semifinals and was within a two point swing of taking the first set from Serena Williams in an extremely tight first set.  I remember sitting on my couch watching Madison rocket aces past Serena and thinking to myself, "This girl is unbelievable".  Even though she lost that semifinal match against Serena, the world now knew Madison Keys' name, the breakthrough was complete.

However, the next step of the process is turning the breakthrough into the norm, which entails dealing the new pressures to succeed, dealing with the increased media presence (and outside distractions) surrounding you, and trying to stay humble.  Obviously, this step is extremely hard to take,and it seems like Madison is having a very hard time taking this next step.

Following her great run in Melbourne, Keys went on to lose in her second match to a struggling (at the time) Jelena Jankovic at Indian Wells, and in her first match to Sloane Stephens in Miami to go a measly 1-2 in the spring American hard court swing.  Gone was the jubilation of the run in Melbourne, replaced instead by the realization that the WTA tour (and the ATP tour for that matter) moves on with or without you.

Perhaps this was a wake-up call for Madison, because she performed quite well on the green clay in Charleston.  I suspect, however, that this was more due to weak competition than anything else, as the strongest player Madison faced was Lauren Davis before the Final.  However, I'm sure that these easier matches boosted Keys' confidence and allowed her to forget about her failures in Indian Wells and Miami.  In the Final, though, Madison was leading 4-1 in the third set before collapsing and losing the third set 7-5, thus giving Angelique Kerber the tournament win.  It took a lot of mental strength to make the semis in Melbourne (especially her tough win over Venus in the Quarterfinals), but it seems as if that mental strength did not transfer over to Charleston.

And Madison has not seemed to recover from that Charleston loss, losing in her first match in Madrid, in straight sets to Kaia Kanepi, and losing in her second match at Rome to Bojana Jovanovski, for another 1-2 record at big tournaments on the European clay court swing.  At the small event in Strasbourg (currently going on this week), Keys won her first two matches, including a TOUGH match over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, before withdrawing with an injury, unable to gain any real momentum heading towards the French Open.

So, what do I think has happened to Madison Keys?  I think she is overwhelmed right now.  Overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed within the game and the new pressures around her outside of the game.  Her confidence from the Australian Open also seems to be gone too, so Lindsey Davenport will really have to work with Madison regarding her confidence too.  Lindsey will also have to try to get Madison to focus in on tennis itself, and not worry about what's going outside of the game.

At the end of the day, I still see a great future for Madison.  It just might not come as soon as many predicted.

So, Who is the Favorite at the French Open for the Men?

So, a major debate going on in the tennis world right now is: Who is the real men's favorite to win Roland Garros this season?  Let's dig in.

Possible Favorites:

-Andy Murray: You might be thinking to yourself, "Huh?  Not possible."  But, I'm being dead serious when I include Murray in this section.  Andy has been spectacular this clay season.  After entering the clay court swing with no titles on the surface, he exits with two trophies and zero losses.  He first won the title at the BMW Open in Munich, Germany.  On the way he beat some pretty good clay court (and overall) players in Goffin, Bautista Agut, and Kohlscreiber (in a Monday Final!).  Then Murray quickly went to Spain and played some of the best tennis, in my opinion, that he's ever played on any surface.  He dismissed the new generation in Raonic and Nisikori, both in straight sets, and then rocked Rafael Nadal, only giving up five games in the process.  Andy Murray has earned his place on my unimportant blog!

-Novak Djokovic: This guy is just incredible.  After having won the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Miami on hard courts, Novak continued his success on the clay.  He then went on to Win Monte Carlo  (also destroying Nadal, only losing six games to him) and then went on to win Madrid, beating clay courters like Almagro and Ferrer and also beating all-court players like Federer and Nishikori to complete a perfect clay court season (him and Murray either played different events or Murray withdrew).  Djokovic also has the claim that he made the Final of the French Open in two of the past three seasons, with seemingly only Rafa being able to stop him.

-Rafael Nadal: I don't even think I have to say a word here.  Seriously.  This guy has won nine of the past ten French Opens (2005-2014 sans 2009) and has utterly dominated other clay tournaments in past years with zero mercy.  Rafa is a clay legend.  But, while he did pick up a clay 250 in Buenos Aires, Rafa has not done as well this clay court season.  He made the Round of 16 in Barcelona, quarters in Rome, semis in Rio and Monte Carlo, and the Final in Madrid.  For a lot of people, that is a great clay season, but not for Rafa.  It also was the way he meekly went out in a lot of those matches (such as Murray in Madrid and Wawrinka in Rome) that has a lot of tennis fans worried.

So, who do I think the favorite is?  Let me first rule out Andy.  Although he has played really well this season, I can't get over how he had zero clay titles before 2015.  While Andy has GREATLY improved on the surface, it's too big of a stretch to say that he goes from not having even won a 250 on clay to the favorite for the French Open.  He might make a run, but until Novak and Rafa are out, he won't be the favorite.  That leads us Djokovic and Nadal.  A lot of tennis "pundits" think that Novak is the favorite, and while I can't fault them for their choice (he has played AMAZING this season), I'm sticking with Rafa.

First off, I can't get over how Rafa is a nine-time champion at a MAJOR and has won 90% of the major champions in Paris over the last ten years!  Just think about that.  90%!  So, that brings with it a lot of psychological advantages, which I think the media is too quick to say is escaping from Nadal.  On top of that, Djokovic has won 0 majors on the surface, which says a lot about how he performs in Paris, NOT how performs on clay.  In addition, Nadal is 6-0 against Djokovic in best-of-five on clay (Davis Cup and FO, excluding a Djoker retirement).  The main court at Roland Garros, Philippe Chatrier, also suits Nadal perfectly, giving him A LOT of room to move around, which is super important for Rafa's game.  Rafa also has the uncanny ability to grind an opponent down in best-of-five which one cannot see in a best-of-three clay court event.  Finally, when I was looking at Djokovic's past results at RG, I noticed that every one of his losing matches from 2010-2014 were in four or five sets.  What does that tell me?  It shows me that Djokovic can play extremely well on the surface, but despite having extraordinary conditioning, on clay he just wears down.  It's not that he's being outclassed, he's just wearing down.  And that is a disturbing trend.

So, there you have it!  Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with what I've had to say!