Talk About Tennis 2.0

Suliso wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 7:19 pm It took Swiatek ca 16 months from her first WTA level title (2020 RG) to #1 ranking. I wonder if anyone has done it even faster than that on either tour. Not easy to find out...

I don't recall a lot of hype before 2020 RG about her being a future dominant player.

Don't think you can compare hers to others. With the way the rankings were skewed for that period, from keeping the points on and from not having as many tournaments and travel being hindered, it's never going to be apples to apples with other periods. Even that being a Fall French Open with no preceding clay court season is just a strange data point for comparison. Would she have been in the same form 5 months earlier? Would her first title have come in the typical 2020 clay court season in the Spring altering the timeline entirely?


All that being said, I would think that Martina Hingis has both Swiatek and Graf beat on the first title to #1 timeline.

Of course, it's just a fun factoid. Doesn't mean anything in particular, but her rise has still been very fast.

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 7:53 pm All that being said, I would think that Martina Hingis has both Swiatek and Graf beat on the first title to #1 timeline.

Right, it took her only 5 months to do that. Not likely to be beaten anytime soon.

Suliso wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 8:01 pm

JazzNU wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 7:53 pm All that being said, I would think that Martina Hingis has both Swiatek and Graf beat on the first title to #1 timeline.

Right, it took her only 5 months to do that. Not likely to be beaten anytime soon.

I had to look it up. Oct '96, first title, March 97 first #1 ranking.
Yep, that looks here to stay.

Best winning percentages on both tours this year (live, 20 matches min)

ATP

Alcaraz 0.903
Nadal 0.889
Rublev 0.781
Tsitsipas 0.769
Djokovic 0.765

WTA

Swiatek 0.923
Halep 0.76
Anisimova 0.75
Jabeur 0.735
Bencic 0.704

Some other fun factoids:

- Isner and Opelka have won the most tiebreaks on ATP tour with 15 each
- Marcos Giron has lost the most matches on tour this year (8-15), but Benoit Paire is approaching fast (3-14)
- Iga Swiatek has doled out 11 bagel sets while suffering none. The next best is 4 (Kudermetova and Gracheva)
- Madison Brengle has lost six sets at love
- Paula Badosa is the best tiebreak player on WTA tour (8-2). Tereza Martincova is the worst (1-6)

All data from: https://www.coretennis.net/

WTA race to #2 after RG

Current holder in live rankings is Anett Konteveit (4325), but already out. So who could overtake her? Let's also assume that Swiatek wins the tournament. That rules out lots of people who would need to win the title as well as Pliskova for whom QF would not be enough. Remaining candidates are:

Paula Badosa: min result needed R16 and Sakkari not going further than her. Even if she reaches SF's it's not in her hands as Sakkari could be RU

Maria Sakkari: the only player who has it in her own hands. Minimum result to overtake Kontaveit is QF's. If that's how far she goes could be still overtaken by Badosa or Sabalenka SF

Aryna Sabalenka: min result needed SF and Sakkari not in the final.

In my opinion the most likely outcome is Badosa as #2. She only needs a few wins and the draw is favorable. Sabalenka maybe the 2nd favorite followed by Kontaveit rising up despite the first round loss. In my mind Sakkari is least likely as I expect her to lose to Anisimova. If that doesn't happen the path to the final is almost free.

Sakkari didn't even reach the match with Anisimova. She'll be ranked no higher than #5 after RG.

It didn't seem like Krejcikova was fully healthy and wouldn't have attempted it if she wasn't the defending champion in both. I wonder how much the players know about the rankings and why it can be a benefit to stay out if you're not really ready to play. There've definitely been stories before about players losing substantial ranking points not knowing that trying to play injured and having poor results can be worse than actually sitting out and letting the time for the protected ranking to kick in pass. So I wonder if Barbora did herself more harm than good playing RG.

so net net, after Wimbledon, Medvedev will be #1 in the world! The tennis gods must be laughing, I know I am..(though not a tennis god, haha)

To the tune of Alanis Morrisette's IRONIC. "We will punish them by not letting them play, and their best player becomes #1 in the world".
I guess somebody did not think the whole thing through.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 1:04 pm To the tune of Alanis Morrisette's IRONIC. "We will punish them by not letting them play, and their best player becomes #1 in the world".
I guess somebody did not think the whole thing through.

I'm sure someone knew, but this is the lesser of evils. They didn't want a photo of their trophy lifted by a Bela/Russian player or one of their royals in such a photo. But yes, it is ironic.

meganfernandez wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 1:09 pm

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 1:04 pm To the tune of Alanis Morrisette's IRONIC. "We will punish them by not letting them play, and their best player becomes #1 in the world".
I guess somebody did not think the whole thing through.

I'm sure someone knew, but this is the lesser of evils. They didn't want a photo of their trophy lifted by a Bela/Russian player or one of their royals in such a photo. But yes, it is ironic.

Don't cha think?

I'll see myself out.

So the race to #2 is over. Anett Kontaveit has won and most likely will be #2 seed at Wimbledon.

Also Pegula 95% certain to reach the top 10.