Will Jack Sock Sustain His Success?

2017 in the tennis season concluded with many heart-warming stories. Lucas Pouille came through in the clutch to beat Steve Darcis in the decisive fifth rubber at Davis Cup. David Goffin finally seemed to turn a corner in his career, beating Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the ATP Finals, and then beating Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in Davis Cup. Grigor Dimitrov played, arguably, the best week of tennis in his career when he took the ATP Finals crown, going undefeated in the process.

But, for me, the biggest story at the end of season was Jack Sock's emergence as a threat to anyone he plays and his incredible successes to close out what was, beforehand, a forgettable season. Before playing in the Masters 1000 event in Bercy, Sock hadn't played great tennis. He hadn't made the Semifinals of a tournament since Washington before the hard court, summer Masters 1000 tournaments, a tournament in which he managed to embarrass himself by questioning the surface on which the tournament was played. It seemed as if Sock would meekly finish out 2017 before looking to turn things around in the new year.

But, Jack was not going to accept that script. His game started to come together in his first match in Paris. Played off the main court, Jack took on Kyle Edmund in a rematch from an earlier meeting in Atlanta where Kyle easily took care of Sock 6-4, 6-1. And it looked as if Sock's season would be ending soon when Edmund took a 5-1 lead in the third set.

But, Jack did not quit. I've questioned Jack's work ethic in the past, but I must give him credit, in this match he did not give up. Watching the tiebreak, which ended 7-5 in Sock's favor, I couldn't get over the attacking, physical style of tennis he played. He wouldn't let Edmund really get into the tiebreak, despite the deceivingly-close score. Once Jack got the mini-break to lead 4-2 in the tiebreak, one could sense the match was over.

From there, Jack beat Lucas Pouille in straight sets before taking on Verdasco. Fernando won the first set in a tiebreak and, again, it would have been easy for Jack to mail it in and call it a season. But, again, Jack refused to go down. Sock dominated the last two sets for a three-set victory. Then Sock took down hometown favotite Julien Benneteau in straight sets before playing Filip Krajinovic in the Final.

It was surely tough on Jack to have to take on Krajinovic. Sock was seen as the heavy favorite in this match, and given that a trip to the ATP Finals, was on the line, this was surely mentally tough on him. But after losing a tight first set, Sock played the best tennis I've ever seen him play and easily won the final two sets. Sock had now won three matches in the tournament having lost the first set.

And, instead of resting on his laurels after such an impressive tournament, Sock kept up his high level of play in the ATP Finals. He played Roger Federer tough in his first match and then, with elimination lurking, he came back from a break down in the third set to beat Marin Cilic in a third set tiebreak.

Sock would then take on Alexander Zverev, a top three player in the world, with the winner advancing on to the Semifinals. Sock won the first set before playing a terrible second set and getting down a break in the third. In addition, Sock got a point penalty early in the third set. Everything was seemingly go against Jack and, once again, Jack could have just played out the cards and go into the offseason feeling good about himself.

But, Jack wouldn't give up. Jack came back and won the match 6-4, breaking for the in at 5-4 up, to go on to the Semifinals against Grigor Dimitrov. And while he lost the match, he still took the first set over Grigor and proved, once again, that he could compete against the best in the world. Jack Sock had proven to the world that he could be a force in the coming years.

But, will Jack Sock sustain his success? This is then natural question after such great success which, at least from an outside perspective, seems to have come out of nowhere. For Jack, I think the key to success is making sure that his fitness is high. That has been a question mark in the past, and it will be interesting to see if Jack continues to show a high level of fitness when not in the climate controlled conditions that indoor tennis produces.

Another interesting question is how Jack Sock handles the pressure of being the top American male tennis player. For a very long time, John Isner has been the top male American tennis player, and now Jack will be tasked with leading what was once the top country in male tennis. Jack seems like an easy-going guy, so the pressure that produces shouldn't be a problem for him, but it is a question that needs to be asked.

Something else to look for is whether or not Jack can consistently compete at the level he competed with at the end of the season. It's one thing to win a Masters 1000 event and then do well in the next tournament, but it's a whole different ball game to keep those successes coming. Earlier in the season, when Jack had some successes in Indian Wells and Miami, he followed that up with a disappointing loss to Jordan Thompson in Davis Cup.

And while he did make the Semifinals of Houston in the following tournament, he then didn't Semifinals of a tournament (nor win more than two matches in a tournament) until Washington, which was then followed by some more poor results. So, it will be interesting to see if Jack can get some sustained success to start 2018. If Jack starts off strong through the Australian Open, then thoughts of the next American grand slam champion will come into view.

He needs to have the right attitude, though. That outburst that I mentioned earlier is not the type of behavior typically seen in champions. Sock's game is not on the level of a guy like John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors, he can't be losing his focus on issues such as the condition of the court. But, I think that, given what we have seen at the end of the season, winning a slam is certainly a possibility.

With a continuation of good fitness and with a good attitude, I believe that Jack Sock can win at least one slam and sustain his success.

US Open Men's First Round Upset Predictions

With the men's US Open draw officially out, it is now time to make bold predictions and predict upsets that will look foolish within 30 minutes of play beginning on Monday. But, alas, I will still try my best to predict the big upsets that I think will occur in the US Open men's tournament. For the purposes of this post, upset predictions will be made based on non-seeds beating seeds and not on the odds for each match.

US Open Men's First Round Upset Predictions

Damir Dzumhur to beat Pablo Cuevas (27) in four sets: Dzumhur has looked fantastic this week in Winston-Salem, playing in the Final today. He has beaten very solid players this week, defeating players such as Gilles Simon, Hyeon Chung, and Kyle Edmund. Cuevas, on the other hand, has been in very poor form. Pablo has lost five matches in a row and has only played in one hard court tournament this summer, losing in straight sets to Jan-Lennard Struff. What worries me about picking Dzumhur in this matchup is the fact that he could be fatigued. He made the Final of a clay court tournament last week and is in the Final of Winston-Salem this week. On the hot hard courts of Flushing Meadows, he could crack. Still, I like Dzumhur to win this match.

Jordan Thompson to beat Jack Sock (13) in five sets: I really liked how Thompson played in Washington. His match over Bemelmans was thorough domination and then he played Alexander Zverev the closest that anyone played him in Washington that week, losing 7-5 in a third set tiebreak. The fact that Zverev won Washington and Montreal makes his efforts against Alexander even more impressive. Thompson plays that pesky game that annoys opponents, much like Dzumhur. Thompson has also done well recently on the Challenger circuit, making the Final of Binghampton and Vancouver. Sock has lost three of his past four matches and has not been playing well ever since his victory over Milos Raonic in Washington. In addition, when these played before in a Davis Cup match in Australia earlier this year, Thompson won in four sets. And while the crowd should help Jack, I think Thompson style of play bothers Jack greatly and Sock wilts in the New York heat. This match could be similar to the match that Sock played against a similarly styled player in Yuichi Sugita, where Sock lost in straight sets.

So, those are the only seeds I have losing are these two, which obviously is unlikely to occur, but I am just trying to be honest with how I see these games playing out and not just pick upsets for the sake of picking upsets. But obviously, because I picked so few upsets, expect about 10 seeds to be out by the time morning play starts on Tuesday!

Growing Pains Part of the Process for Taylor Fritz

Throughout the second half of 2015, things were almost coming too easily for American Taylor Fritz, currently number 73 in the live rankings.  Playing in, from what I can, only his second ATP Challenger Tour event ever, the essentially unknown Fritz blitzed the field in Sacramento.  The surprises really started in the Second Round when he beat Dustin Brown in a tight three-set match before then taking out Jared Donaldson, another young American talent much higher in the rankings at the time, in the Final, showing mental resiliency from a blown second set.

This was followed by an astonishing run in the Fairfield Challenger, where he didn't drop a set.  In fact, no opponent even got five games in a set against Taylor in that tournament.  He beat Brown in the Final there, proving that the previous week was anything but a fluke.  Then, just a few tournaments later for Fritz, when his results seemed to have slowed, Taylor made the Final of the Champaign Challenger, barely losing in three sets to Henri Laaksonen in the Final there, and thus ending a very successful 2015 campaign for Fritz.

With little points to defend in 2016, Fritz kept up his frantic pace of picking up points.  His first challenger tournament in 2016 resulted in a win in Happy Valley, a tournament in which he only dropped one set and beat veteran Dudi Sela in the Final.  Fritz then qualified for the Australian Open and took Jack Sock to five sets, before then reaching the Final in an ATP World Tour 250 event, losing in a tight battle to Kei Nishikori.  It seemed like everything was clicking for Fritz, he reached as high as number 69 in the world (still very close to what he is now), and his climb to the Top 50 seemed inevitable at that point.  So, what happened?

Well, initially, nothing happened. After an early loss in Delray Beach, Taylor still had an impressive run as a qualifier to the Quarterfinals of Acapulco and was a set away from the semis.  And while Fritz then lost in the First Round of Indian Wells, that was a very understandable loss, as his opponent, Frances Tiafoe knew him very well from their days playing junior tennis.  Fritz qualified in Miami and came within a point of winning the first set in the Second Round against hardened veteran, and a player near the top of the game, David Ferrer.

However, this is about where the good results end for Taylor.  He shockingly lost in the First Round of a challenger event in Leon to Agustin Velotti and lost to Malek Jaziri in the semis of the next challenger he played, struggling with a couple lower ranked players in previous rounds just to get to that point.  Obviously, something was changing in either Taylor's level of play, or, more interestingly, in how opponents approached playing Fritz.  This was further exemplified in Taylor's losses in the First Round of qualies of both Madrid and Rome to Radek Stepanek, his first ventures to the European clay (and Europe in general) as an ATP-level player.

I think that there are two main factors in play as to why Taylor is starting to stagnate in terms of results, beyond just a dip in his level of play.  The first is that, I believe, opponents are finally starting to get good tape of Taylor and are figuring out how to play him effectively.  Fritz essentially barnstormed the challenger circuit when he first started playing ATP Challenger Tour matches.  Here was a guy who hit the ball with such power, had a rocket serve, and who just seemed to overpower opponents, despite, in my opinion, not really utilizing the width of the court or incorporating much variety in his game.  But, at first it didn't matter, as opponents didn't know much about Taylor's game, and quite frankly, weren't ready for what he brought to the table.  So, all Fritz had to do was go out there and play his game, and that was usually good enough to win, and win handedly at that.

However, as time goes on, match film comes out that players, and coaches can study, a larger sample size gives a player and his team more information on Fritz's tendencies, and therefore, what parts of his game can be exploited.  And so, if Taylor doesn't adjust, players will gradually catch on to his game, and thus, start to beat him.  And so, perhaps Fritz naively thought that he could keep playing without making adjustments and this would allow him to rise to the top of the men's game unhindered, I don't know, but I think this is a major reason why his results have slowed, and a guy like Tiafoe was just ahead of the rest of the field in exploiting this in Indian Wells.  It's up to Taylor to adjust his tendencies not only to opponents, but ultimately to surfaces other than hard courts in order to keep up his ascent in men's tennis.

The other big factor in why I think Taylor has stalled in the rankings a bit is because he is now playing on European clay courts, definitely not in his comfort zone.  Those hard courts in North America, but especially the US, were Fritz's bread-and-butter.  It was his best surface (at least compared to clay, the jury is still out regarding grass) and he was playing in front of friendly fans, and overall, in a very comfortable environment.  There seems to be no better place in this world for Fritz to rise in the rankings and breakthrough.  But, alas, you can't get by only playing on one surface and in one area of the world.  I commend Taylor for his good results in Australia, but I think that when he struggled with his surroundings, the hard court surface was there to bail him out a bit.  Things aren't coming so easily for him on European clay, but to be honest, that's to be expected.

Because, to be completely honest, I commend Taylor for giving European clay a try, instead of just staying in his comfort zone in the United States, playing the US green clay events and, instead, challenging himself in Europe.  And, yes, the results weren't there this time around, but I think that playing in Europe on a surface he isn't totally comfortable on was a great idea.  Taylor is getting used to unfamiliar surroundings and competition, in Stepanek, that is unlike what he would see normally on the challenger tour, despite Radek's current live ranking of 132.  Because Stepanek is crafty veteran who won't wilt to Fritz's power game, a player who will try to outwit Taylor.  And it's good for Fritz to get experience playing a guy like Radek, as it can only help him adjust to the level of play he will see on the main tour, and ultimately, make him better.

I think Fritz's run in Memphis was a little bit of fool's gold, I'm not going to lie.  Despite the fact that he was playing in very friendly surroundings, something that I think is irrelevant in this case, Fritz played a Futures/Challenger level player in his first match against Michael Mmoh, a stagnant Steve Johnson in the Second Round.  Then, Fritz played a Challenger-level player, Benjamin Becker in the Quarterfinals, before taking Ricardas Berankis in the Semifinals, who I believe to having a very inflated ranking due to the number of challenger events he plays.  So, while Taylor should be commended for reaching the Final, let's not pretend like he faced top competition in getting there.

And, because of this, I think the American tennis media did Fritz a huge disservice by pumping him up and putting so much additional pressure on his back, when he's only 18 years old, much like the hype that Ryan Harrison and Donald Young got in his early days playing professional.  Sometimes, it's good to praise a young man for a good tournament, without proclaiming that he will be a top-tier player very shortly, instead letting the talented player to mature at his own pace and go through the ups and downs of professional tennis.

Because, it would be impossible for a tennis player to not have any growing pains in his or her career.  And that's just what these results are for Taylor: growing pains.  Yes, losing in the First Rounds of qualies to the same player twice might not feel good for Fritz right now, but it is ultimately necessary for him to go through stretches like this in order to get to the top of the game.  And while I think that Taylor might need to adapt his game to the growing knowledge of what he brings to the table, that's a fix that can be done, and will be done, with time.

I understand why the American tennis media wants the next "star" American urgently.  The top players on the men's side right now are on a downward swing.  John Isner is showing zero ambition by not going the Olympics, instead opting to stay in his comfort zone by play an ATP 250 event in Atlanta.  Jack Sock is turning out to be an unfit, petulant, whiner who refuses to improve his backhand.  Sam Querrey, while showing glimmers of hope by winning Delray Beach, continues to be all serve, but little else to offer.  Donald Young's forehand has turned out to be absolutely horrific, and Ryan Harrison has a horrific attitude, like Sock, but without the good attributes of Jack's game.  And ultimately, guys like Fritz and Tiafoe have to take the heat for the generation before them.  Because, the tennis media in the US know that they need someone to hype up, someone to save American men's tennis from going down the tubes.

So, what they do is push the envelope, ignoring the benefits of giving these young talents time to improve, and ultimately, find themselves.  And, ultimately, that's all I think Taylor Fritz needs: time to work out the kinks in his game and get comfortable playing on any surface, anywhere.  Because, whether people like to admit it or not, growing pains are part of the process, even for someone as talented as Taylor Fritz.

Vasek Pospisil, Clay Courts, and Fitness

Vasek Pospisil, by all accounts, has had a very successful career.  On the singles side, he has gotten as high as number 25 in the world, has been a finalist of an ATP World Tour 500-level tournament (Washington), and even made the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year.  In doubles, Pospisil has won six titles with his doubles partner Jack Sock, He won the Wimbledon doubles title with Jack Sock, including a Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.  However, Vasek's biggest doubles achievement was a Wimbledon doubles title, something that definitely provided a bump in results for his singles career too.

And as great of a career as this has been for Vasek, looking at his results, they definitely leave something to be desired.  Because, for all his great results on grass, and to a lesser extent hard courts, his clay court prowess, in regards to his singles career, has been pathetic.  Yes, I said it, pathetic.  Vasek Pospisil, 25 years old, and currently the world number 46 in the live rankings, has never won a main draw ATP clay court match in his life.  And as much as this shows how well he must have done on other surfaces, it's deeply disturbing to see this level of ineptitude on the second most common surface on the ATP World Tour.  In fact, in the best-of-five format, Pospisil has only forced a fifth once, losing to Horacio Zeballos in five sets in 2013.

But, it's not for a lack of trying, at least during matches.  Unlike another top 50 tennis player, Bernard Tomic, when watching Pospisil on clay, you can see that despite it not being a surface he is even decent on, he is still giving his all and is mentally engaged in the match.  Against Radek Stepanek in the First Round of Madrid earlier this week, Pospisil was trying to fire himself up upon winning the second set and one could tell that he was desperately searching for answers on how to solve the puzzle that is clay court tennis.  And I commend him for having this attitude, there is nothing worse than the attitude of Bernard Tomic, where because his game might not naturally suit clay, he just doesn't give a shit (excuse my language).  And for Vasek, it's not like he can't win a set on clay.  In the past two years, in a best-of-three format, he has won a set in an ATP-level match three different times, but always fell in the third set.

So, now that we've established that Pospisil is giving his all on the court, and has had successes on other surfaces, what could be the major obstacle stopping Pospisil from success on clay and how can he jump this hurdle?  And upon watching and following Vasek's career enough, I have come to the conclusion that the major problem with Pospisil on clay has nothing to do with his tennis game itself.  Rather, Vasek is so unbelievably unfit, that he physically cannot win a match against decent competition on this surface.

You see, clay is unlike other surfaces in that the surface itself doesn't allow players to merely out-serve and outhit their opposition, which is much of what has made Pospisil successful on the main tour.  Point construction is a must, and one's baseline skills must be fine-tuned in order to be successful on the surface.  What all of this means is that points are going to last longer and be much more physically taxing than on, say, a grass court.  And if a player is not in tip-top shape, then said will struggle massively on the surface.  And, upon watching Vasek on clay and seeing his results, I think it's safe to say that his fitness level is deplorable, which means that his successes on clay will be very minimal.

I like to think of myself as someone who has been involved with fitness for quite some time, and someone who recognizes the importance of fitness as something that is crucial to the life of everyone, but should be especially crucial in the prime years of their life, such as Vasek.  And I believe that the problem with Pospisil's fitness, and a lot of tennis players in general, is that tennis training focuses too much on short bursts of speed/intervals.  And while this is definitely the most practical fitness application to tennis, I think that long-distance running gets short-changed, and for someone who might not naturally be a "runner" like Pospisil, this can severely affect his results.

You know, it seemed like people all throughout the tennis world were collectively wondering what Caroline Wozniacki was doing when she decided to run that marathon at the tail end of 2014, however, it was amazing to see her results spike when she was training for that marathon.  During the second half of 2014, she was able to consistently challenge Serena Williams and even got to the US Open Final.  I definitely think that there was a correlation between her marathon training her results.  And, while I'm not saying that Vasek needs to run a marathon, some distance running would definitely do some good for not only his clay results, but for every match he plays.

So, for as hard as it seems Pospisil is during matches, it is clear that he either is not working hard off of the court, or is not training in a proper fashion.  And maybe, at least partially, the environment he is putting himself in is to blame.  Or, in other words, since Sock seems to be having issues being able to physically last in matches too, perhaps this doubles combination creates a horrible environment for fitness, as one's poor training rubs off on the other's training too.  And, again, this is just speculation, however it is curious to me how two of the people with the worst fitness on tour just so happen to be doubles partners.

Vasek Pospisil has a decision to make.  He is absolutely a talented tennis player.  Now, he must decide whether he wants to put in the work, and the right type of work, in order to reach his full potential.