This year started with a lot of predictable changes on ATP ranking level and now we're at the point where changes have happened already. Last year was full covid-19 year, meaning that certain travel bans decided who goes where. Valuable players got stranded in their country, not being able to attend different events. This is the reason ATP decided not to change the ranking, which was not necessarily a good thing.
This year is different. Even though there are restrictions in place at almost every tournament and rules are stricter, most if not all the tournaments are held and the ATP ranking is subject to change.
ATP Ranking
There's a major change on the list and that is Rafael Nadal losing third position to Stefanos Tsitsipas. It's been known that Nadal is not going to be able to keep up and dealing with injuries does not help either. He's lost one position but this is just the beginning. Zverev is coming fast and it's just a matter or time till the German takes Nadal's place.
The next batch is also interesting. The Italian Jannik Sinner had a fantastic jump this year, advancing 9 places up, being 15th at the young age of 20. On the opposite end, Gale Monfils fell 5 places, which is not a good sign.
ATP Masters 1000 Canada
The ATP Masters 1000 Canada is ongoing and obviously, as expected, surprises are coming every day. This is why this sport is so enjoyable. Nothing is certain.
The first surprise was Dan Evans not being able to defeat Alexander Bublik on Monday. Looks like Evans is part of the fluctuating players category. He had some nice moves, but lately nothing seems to work for him as he is leaving almost every tournament too early.
The second surprise came the same day, as Lorenzo Sonego could not qualify for the next round as Ugo Humbert was better than him.
Alexander Bublik's victory lasted till the next day as he met the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who's ATP No. 2 for a very food reason, so Bublik had to go home on Tuesday as the tournament ended for him.
John Isner, my favorite player had no problem winning against the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. He needed two sets to win, the second set ended with a comfortable 6 - 1 and the American was able to serve 19 aces. This guy!!!!
Looks like Nick Kyrgios was not in shape on Tuesday as he lost to Reilly Opelka, but then again, he said repeatedly that he's not training, he's just playing. He missed last season and the majority of this season, so no surprise there.
Lloyd Harris on the other hand, one of my favorites could win against the Canadian Brayden Schnur in two sets.
Wednesday was another interesting day but not for Aslan Karatsev, who was defeated by Karen Khachanov. Arslan Karatsev has not been doing well lately, looks like he has lost momentum as nothing is favorable to him these days. Karen Khachanov on the other hand is doing great. He's coming after the Olympics, where he was able to get a silver medal, which is huge! I'm not sure why Karatsev is not able to get better results, but I truly hope it's just a bad period in his life and his game is going to improve soon. He's an important player in this colorful mix.
Fabio Fognini also had a bad day on Wednesday as Andrey Rublev only needed two sets to win. The Italian's days are slowly over as he's not who he used to be, winning is getting harder and harder for him and it's going to get worse. I'm wondering how long he'll be able to resist.
Next, who had a bad day was Jannik Sinner, who got defeated by James Duckworth, who I've never heard of. This is a problem as Sinner has not been showing his true potential lately. He should have been in the quarterfinals or even semifinals but somehow things are not working out for him lately. He's still very young, he needs practice and experience, but he is definitely capable of more.
John Isner vs Cristian Garín, this was a bittersweet match as I like them both and wanted them both to qualify for the next round, but obviously only one can win and that was Isner. Garing is good, he can resist the pressure, but against a technical player like Isner, not many have a chance. Isner had 21 aces in this match and let's not forget that he has the second-most aces in the history of the ATP Tour. I'm not sure if it is possible, but I'd love to see him beat the current record.
Yesterday the shock continued as Andrey Rublev had to find out the hard way what it means to play against John Isner. I've been watching Rublev for more than two years now and am firmly convinced that his temper is working against him and he doesn't seem to realize it. When things don't happen like he wants them to, he loses his temper, starts talking to his trainer, or just channeling his anger towards him. Yesterday for example he threw his racket on the ground and got a warning for that.
The visible signs are nothing, compared to what must be going on in his mind. If you follow his behavior you'll notice that when he starts losing his temper, his game becomes reckless, he is making mistake afer mistake.
Yesterday for example Rublev would have had a real chance to win against
John Isner, but the American was smarter. They have et three times till now and Rublev hasn't been able to defeat Isner, not once.
To my surprise and anger as well, Reilly Opelka won against the South African Lloyd Harris. I wanted to see Harris play the quarter finals at least, but he's not doing great lately. Too bad.
Karen Khachanov had the misfortune to meet the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas at this stage of the competition and was the last match for him. At the Olympics Tsitsipas was eliminated too early, which meant a plus chance for Karen Khachanov. They have met 4 times so far and all the four matches have ended in favor of the Greek.
Denis Shapovalov also had to leave the competition yesterday as he was eliminated by Frances Tiafoe, who I have never seen playing. This is also a shock as I wasn't expecting it to happen. I guess we all have some certain scenarios and expect to see things play out as we would like. Well, that did not happen.
Today is going to be interesting, with a few nice matches, but because of the time differences I'm not going to see much.
This is the match I'm most interested in, obviously. I want to see Isner playing, but I'm not sure I'm able to get up at 3.20 am. Will see. The outcome is 99% preset as Monfils is not at a level at which he can win against Isner, but who knows.
Conclusion
I love how things are going right now in tennis. The dominance of the big trio is long broken, actually only one of them is dominating, the other two are not doing much. The new generation is fighting to take over and a new elite is forming already. This year will be the last for quite a few players.
