Daily Men Tennis Update – Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rankings

Written by: Staff on 23rd April 2012

Monte Carlo

Singles – Final: (2) R Nadal def. (1) N Djokovic 6-3 6-1

Would you believe that a Rafael Nadal/Novak Djokovic match could take only one hour and eighteen minutes? This one did. It was close for about five games, but then it was over. Nadal won 71% of the points in the second set, and cruised through to title #8 here.

Hard to believe that it is Nadal’s first title of the year. But then, it’s also his first clay tournament…. In fact, it’s his first title since Roland Garros 2011, which was his last clay tournament before this.

Still, his 22-3 record this year (22-4 if you could his Miami semifinal as a loss) isn’t bad at all. He has one title, one final (Australian Open), and three semifinals (Doha, Indian Wells, Miami). His three losses are to Monfils, Djokovic, and Federer.

It’s interesting to look at the Race numbers for the Top Twelve so far this year (not counting Davis Cup):

Djokovic: 4140

Nadal: 3010

Federer 2855

Murray: 2060

Ferrer: 1595

del Potro: 1405

Berdych: 1375

Isner: 1065

Tsonga: 1060

Almagro: 1030

Tipsarevic: 735

Fish: 315

Djokovic obviously has a substantial lead even in this, but his lead in the rankings is 3500 points — and we’ve been playing mostly on Djokovic surfaces so far. Frankly, this year looks as if it could be a lot more interesting than Djokovic wanted.

Singles – Final: (1) Bryan/Bryan def. (2) Mirnyi/Nestor 6-2 6-3

The Bryans had been cruising all week, and Mirnyi/Nestor struggling. Obviously that continued in the final, which took less than an hour. It was definitely a good time for the brothers to win their first title since Sydney, and their twentieth Masters title; as we mentioned yesterday, they would have lost the #1 rankings had they lost this. As it is, we show the Top Four as follows:

1..(1) Bryan…………..9430

3..(3) Mirnyi………….9060

3..(3) Nestor………….9060

The Race is even more interesting. Paes/Stepanek came in as the #1 team, and they’re still there, but not by all that much. And the contest between Mirnyi/Nestor and the Bryans is a nailbiter. Mirnyi/Nestor had a 390 point lead coming in. Since a title here is worth 400 more points than a final, the Bryans are now ahead of their chief rivals by all of ten points. It’s quite possible that we will have a three-way contest for the year-end #1.

Barcelona

The withdrawals are starting. #4 seed Tomas Berdych is out. #5 Janko Tipsarevic has been promoted into his place. #9 Fernando Verdasco was promoted into Tipsarevic’s place (meaning that he gets a bye). Albert Ramos moves up to the #17 seed in what had been Verdasco’s spot.

Also, #14 seed Juan Ignacio Chela withdrew, giving Denis Istomin the #18 seed in his place.

Three Lucky Losers ended up in the draw, in part because of those withdrawals: Arnau Brugues-Davi (a new name to us), Stephane Robert, and Evgeny Donskoy.

Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings

As of April 22, 2012

Rank &

Prior…Player………..Points

1..(1) Djokovic……….13270

2..(2) Nadal…………..9715

3..(3) Federer…………8880

4..(4) Murray………….7860

5..(5) Tsonga………….4825

6..(6) Ferrer………….4160

7..(7) Berdych…………4080

8..(8) Tipsarevic………2820