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.

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.