THE BIG FOUR – PART 4 – THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUMMER HARDCOURT SEASON ALSO KNOWN AS THE US OPEN SERIES UPDATE ON FEDERER , RAFA , MURRAY AND DJOKOVIC BY DR. DON BROSSEAU

Written by: Tennischiro on 12th August 2014

THE BIG FOUR - PART 4 - THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUMMER HARDCOURT SEASON ALSO KNOWN AS THE US OPEN SERIES UPDATE ON FEDERER , RAFA , MURRAY AND DJOKOVIC BY DR. DON BROSSEAU

epa04195362 Spain's Rafael Nadal returns the ball to Argentina's Juan Monaco during their men's second round match of the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament at Caja Magica complex in Madrid, Spain, 07 May 2014. EPA/EMILIO NARANJO |

Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Big Four. Here are the links to the first three articles:

Part 1: The Big Four – How Good Are They Really?

https://archive.10sballs.com/2014/07/25/federer-nadal-murray-the-bouncer-novak-djokovic/

Part 2: The Big Four: How Do They Do It?

https://archive.10sballs.com/2014/07/25/more-from-10s-chiro-federer-murray-djokovic-rafael-nadal-part-2/

Part 3: The Big Four in the Grand Slams

https://archive.10sballs.com/2014/07/30/nadal-federer-djokovic-murray-the-big-four-the-four-grand-slams-by-dr-don-brosseau

I started out this series of articles to emphasize the importance of the six week season from the week of the Washington D.C. tournament before Toronto through to the end of the US Open. I ended up talking more about the Big Four and how they have attained and maintained their dominance over the field since September 2008, almost 6 years ago. The US Open and the French Open are the only Grand Slams where a player, playing on the same surface, in just two tournaments besides that major in a mere three weeks before that major, can accumulate 4000 points. The scheduling of the Washington ATP500 just before the Canadian Open adds even more weight to this little section of the annual pro tournament calendar. The US Open series used to be even richer when it included the LA Open, but the points for the old LA ATP250, the Atlanta ATP250 and the Winston-Salem ATP250 are too little to draw the elite players at the top of the rankings.

It doesn’t happen that often, but last year Rafael Nadal used a sweep of Montreal, Cincinnati and the US Open to go from 4th to first in just a few weeks. In fact, prior to Madrid, Nadal was carrying the lowest ranking he had had in 8 years at #5. In just 6 tournaments in 8 weeks of play for Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros, Montreal, Cincinnati and the US Open, he earned 8000 points. In most years before this quartet began to dominate the later rounds of major events, that alone would have been enough to garner the catbird seat in the ATP Singles rankings. Certainly, it worked for Nadal last year and it was a tremendous sweep of everything on clay and hardcourts from the final of Monte Carlo right through to the final of Beijing (except the grass season where he lost the one match he played against Steve Darcis at Wimbledon).

I want to take a closer look at the effect the Canadian Open and Cincinnati have had leading into the US Open since 2008 when the Big Four started to dominate.

In 2008, Rafa first took over the number one ATP ranking on August 18 after winning Toronto, reaching the semis of Cincinnati (where he lost to Novak) and then winning the Olympics. He would go on to lose to Murray in the semis of the US Open. But that’s a total of 3150 points (1000+450+800+900) in just a few weeks.

In 2008, Djokovic lost to Murray in the quarters of Toronto and the finals of Cincinnati. At the Olympics, Nadal stopped him in the semis but he won the bronze over Blake. Then at the US Open he lost to Federer in 4 sets in the semis. That’s a total of 2260 points (250+700+410+900). He held the #3 rank right through until May of 2009 when Murray bumped him to #4.

In the meantime, Federer was bumped off his perch at number one after a long stretch on top. He lost that monumental Wimbledon final to Nadal and followed it up with a disappointing second round loss to Simon in Toronto and a third round loss to Karlovic at Cincinnati. He followed that with a loss to Blake in the quarters of the Olympics, but bounced back to beat Murray in the finals of Flushing Meadows. That saved him the number two ranking, but you can argue getting just 360 (=10+150+200) points in Toronto/Cincinnati/Beijing cost him the number one ranking at year end as he finished 2008 1370 points behind Nadal.

Murray was making real inroads towards the top. Nadal stopped him in the semis of Toronto, but he beat Djokovic in Cincinnati. He followed that with a devastating first round loss to hometown favorite Lu in Beijing before reaching his first major final at the US Open. The 2860 (450+1000+10+1400) points catapulted him into his spot in the top 4.

The top 4 spots in the rankings at the end of this stretch in 2008 established the Big Four:

Nadal – 7000, Federer – 5920, Djokovic – 4855 and Murray 3040. At year end the rank would be the same but the point totals would be: Nadal – 6675, Federer – 5305, Djokovic – 5295 and Murray – 3720 with Davydenko more than 1000 points behind at number 5 with 2715 pts.

The point is that this little stretch of North American hardcourt tournaments is very important and the Canadian Open and Cincy are really important in building momentum going into the US Open. I don’t want to put everyone to sleep so I’m not going to labor through the next 5 years the same way. I’ll put out a small addendum piece in a few days to detail the results in these events from 2009 through 2013. I’m actually curious to see what the numbers tell us. But this is enough for right now.

So far this year, Roger has started off this segment well, but he along with Djokovic, Murray and Dimitrov went down to the hot hand of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. Tsonga bowed out in his first match today in Cincy against Youhzny, but Fed, Nole and Andy are still alive and looking to ignite their run into the US Open. Nadal is nursing his injuries and giving up a lot of points. Losing in the round of 16 last week, Djoker missed a good opportunity to put some space between himself and Rafa. He’s bound to do better this week and he only has quarters to defend from last year. Murray looms for Roger in the quarters unless Monfils can get to him first; Pospisil in his first match is a threat as well. Djokovic looks like he has a clear path to the semis where he could face Dimitrov or Wawrinka, but he struggled in his first match with Simon. I like Nole for the finals and I think Murray may be ready to show the form he demonstrated two years ago. This week will tell a lot about what to expect at the US Open. At the same time, players will also be trying to secure their positions in the second four for seeding purposes; Cincy will be the last event to influence the US Open seedings. A spot in the top 8 means you won’t have to play any of the top 4 players before the quarterfinals; there are a number of players hoping to squeeze into that eighth spot.

10sChiro

to see other articles by 10sChiro, go to

https://archive.10sballs.com/category/columnists/dr-chiro/

https://archive.10sballs.com/author/don/

For more information about about lessons with TennisChiro at Griffith Park or Arcadia Park or his videotaping and analysis service, just dial **tennispro on your cell phone. You will get a text with his email and phone number

Topics: 10sballs, 10sChiro, Andy Murray, Atp, Cincinnati, nadal, Novak, Novak Djokovic, Rafa, Rf, roger, Tennis, Tennis News, The Big Four

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10sBalls_com says:

August 12, 2014 at 8:46 pm

THE BIG FOUR – PART 4 – THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUMMER HARDCOURT SEASON ALSO KNOWN…- http://t.co/JBRUPFVYXE @nadalnews @DjokerNole #Federer