* Kyrgios edges Federer in two and a half hour match THIRD set TIEBREAKER WAS ALMOST 20 minutes.
* After strong first round, Americans struggle in second round; only Isner survives
* Verdasco tops Cilic but remains below Top Thirty; Lopez also upset
* Monfils loses three hour, twenty minute match to Granollers but will probably stay #15
Singles – Second Round: N Kyrgios def. (1) R Federer 6-7(2-7) 7-6(7-5) 7-6(14-12)
Swiss tennis player Roger Federer returns a ball to Austrian Nick Kyrgios during their Madrid Open tennis tournament second round match at the Caja Magica pavilion, in Madrid, Spain, 06 May 2015. EPA/JUANJO MARTIN
Roger Federer looked like he might have been done in this match much sooner. He was down 5-3 in the first set, and managed to work his way out of it. But he struggled all last week at Istanbul, and he never managed to take charge of this match either (he said later that he couldn’t handle Nick Kyrgios’s first serve). There were just the two breaks in the first set, two in the second, none in the third — indeed, neither guy even earned a break point in the third set. In the final tiebreak, Kyrgios had a match point on his own serve at 9-8, but Federer saved it. Kyrgios had another chance on serve at 13-12, and this time, he finished it off. At least Federer gets a chance to rest and prepare for Rome. But he loses any chance to gain ground on Novak Djokovic. He’ll remain #2, but his big problem this year has been his inability to go deep at the required events. It will be very hard for him to stay #2 after Wimbledon if he can’t change that.
For Nick Kyrgios, this guarantees a career high. He’ll probably be #30, and very likely a Roland Garros seed.
Singles – Second Round: (2) A Murray def. P Kohlschreiber 6-4 3-6 6-0
Philipp Kohlschreiber and Andy Murray can’t seem to do anything on time. They were supposed to play the Munich final on Sunday; they played on Monday. They were supposed to play this match on Wednesday night; they played it early on Thursday morning because so many other matches had gone long. And then they got into another three set contest! But Murray had at least one advantage on Kohlschreiber: He had had a day off on Tuesday. He was able to stand the pounding longer. Which means that Kohlschreiber won’t rise above the #23 ranking he came in with.
Singles – Second Round: (3) R Nadal def. S Johnson 6-4 6-3
Evidently Steve Johnson didn’t get the memo about how easy it is to beat Rafael Nadal these days. Or the one about Nadal having a bad ankle. Johnson is up to around #50, but that’s significantly below where he was a couple of months ago.
Spanish Rafael Nadal celebrates after winning US Steve Johnson in their Madrid Open tennis tournament second round match at the Caja Magica pavilion, in Madrid, Spain, 06 May 2015. EPA/JUANJO MARTIN
Singles – Second Round: (4) K Nishikori def. D Goffin 6-2 4-6 6-4
Not the greatest start for Kei Nishikori, given that he needs at least two more wins to stay Top Five. David Goffin will probably rise to #20, but no higher.
Singles – Second Round: (6) T Berdych def. R Gasquet 7-6(7-3) 7-5
With Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal both having big points to defend, this week represents a real chance for Tomas Berdych to hit the Top Five. This helps; he leads Nishikori by a hundred points, and Nadal by even more. Richard Gasquet sees his winning streak end with him still just below the Top Twenty.
Singles – Second Round: (7) D Ferrer def. (Q) A Ramos-Vinolas 6-4 6-0
Albert Ramos-Vinolas has been having a good year, so David Ferrer must have been in quite good form to win this so efficiently. Which is interesting, because two more wins just might suffice to take him past Nadal to become the #1 Spaniard!
Singles – Second Round: F Verdasco def. (9) M Cilic 6-7(5-7) 7-6(7-5) 6-3
Clearly Marin Cilic still has some things to work on. Odds are that he’ll stay Top Ten, but he won’t rise. It’s a big win for Fernando Verdasco, who of course wants to be seeded in Paris; this takes him to about #35.
Spain’s Fernando Verdasco returns the ball to Croatia’s Marin Cilic during their second round match at the Mutua Madrid Open tennis tournament in Madrid, Spain, 06 May 2015. EPA/CHEMA MOYA
Singles – Second Round: (10) G Dimitrov def. F Fognini 3-6 6-2 7-5
This was Fabio Fognini’s big chance to clinch a return to the Top Thirty. Instead, this left a real possibility that he might actually fall below his current #31. Grigor Dimitrov remains stuck at #11, but with a faint chance to go higher.
Singles – Second Round: L Mayer def. (11) F Lopez 7-6(7-3) 7-6(8-6)
Once again Feliciano Lopez under-performs on clay. He loses his faint chance to rise above #12, and there is a chance he might fall. Leonardo Mayer is now one win away from the Top 25.
Singles – Second Round: (12) J Tsonga def. J Sock 6-3 1-6 7-6(7-4)
After all their success in the first round, it obviously wasn’t a very good second round for Americans. Jack Sock will be #34 or #35, meaning that he has an outside shot at a Roland Garros seed but will probably need a nice draw at Rome.
Singles – Second Round: (WC) M Granollers def. (13) G Monfils 7-6(8-6) 6-7(7-9) 6-4
This was looking like it might end up the longest best-of-three-set match of the year; they hit the three hour mark only about half way through the third set. Then Marcel Granollers broke for 5-3. Only to have Gael Monfils break right back. But Granollers broke back again, and after three hours and twenty minutes, it was over. That means Monfils will not rise above his current #15, although there isn’t much chance that he will fall.
Singles – Second Round: (14) R Bautista Agut def. S Querrey 7-5 6-4
And there goes another American…. Sam Querrey will be #35 or lower, so he too needs something nice at Rome to have a shot at a Paris seed. Roberto Bautista Agut still hasn’t clinched his Top Twenty spot, but it now seems likely he’ll manage it
Singles – Second Round: (16) J Isner def. (Q) T Bellucci 7-6(7-5) 6-7(11-13) 6-1
At least that’s one American finding success. John Isner defends his points, which should assure that he stays Top Twenty.
Singles – Second Round: S Bolelli def. (Q) L Vanni 4-6 6-3 6-2
The good news is, Simone Bolelli is in the third round here, and should rise back above #60. The… other… news is that he faces Rafael Nadal next. Is that bad news?
Doubles – Second Round: J Murray/Peers def. (2) Dodig/Melo 7-6(8-6) 6-2
It really is amazing how well Murray/Peers play on clay, given their backgrounds. Of course, one of the problems is that so few teams this year really want to step up.
Doubles – Second Round: (3) Pospisil/Sock def. Anderson/Chardy 6-7(4-7) 6-1 10-4
A major exception to the “not stepping up” rule is, of course, Pospisil/Sock, who look likely to be slugging it out with the Bryans in a lot of finals this summer. And if they can win on clay, too, so much more interesting for those who follow the doubles Race. With #3 Melo and #6 Dodig defeated, and #5 Zimonjic and #7 Nestor the defending champions, and #8 Benneteau unable to play, we might well see Pospisil rise to #3 in the rankings this week, and Sock has a fair shot at making the Top Five.
Doubles – Second Round: Cilic/Troicki def. (4) Rojer/Tecau 6-4 2-6 10-7
How could Cilic and Troicki look so bad in the singles when they’re playing this well in the doubles?
Doubles – Second Round: Bopanna/Mergea def. (8) Mahut/Roger-Vasselin 6-4 4-6 10-5
Once again we see a pair of Frenchmen struggling on clay. Surprising, though, that Edouard Roger-Vasselin was one of them, since he won Roland Garros last year.
Doubles – Second Round: (WC) F Lopez/Mirnyi def. Peya/Soares 6-4 7-5
Last week, Peya/Soares won their first title in months. But it was a mere 250 point event, hardly worth noticing for top teams. So what do they do at the big show? They lose to a GREAT TEAM OF MAX THE BEAST MIRNYI AND FELICIANO LOPEZ.
Doubles – Second Round: Cuevas/Marrero def. Johnson/Querrey 3-6 6-3 17-15
Tennis players spend most of their time traveling, so they don’t have much time for being club members. But there are some clubs that you join automatically. Winning Wimbledon, for instance, gets you the privileges of being an All-England Club member.
And then there is the Thousand Wins Club. Roger Federer in January became the only active player who is a member.
Federer won’t have company any time soon, but there are lots of other clubs players can belong to. For example, Federer was also a member of the seventy-wins-in-2014 club. He was the only player to reach that level in 2014.
We thought we’d classify all the ATP players based on the clubs they belong to. Note: Although the ATP counts Davis Cup wins, we’re not going to, for our usual reason: Davis Cup results are not entirely up to a particular player. (Although our biggest single reason is that keeping track of every tier of Davis Cup is too complicated….) The effect of this is to demote Federer from the Seventy Wins Club to the Sixty Wins Club — which hardly matters, since he’s still almost alone. We’re going to do this by tens — so the Sixty Win Club, the Fifty Win Club, etc. We’re also going to list the players’ 2014 year-end rankings, and see what that tells us about how many wins you need to get into the club. Note: The lists below are ordered by number of wins, then by ranking.
To state the obvious: Every member of a club is also a member of all the clubs “below” it, e.g. members of the Sixty Wins Club are also members of the Fifty Wins Club and so on down. We won’t list them in those “lower” clubs, though, to keep this from getting too long.
Sixty Wins Club
ATP #2 Federer: 67 wins
ATP #1 Djokovic: 61 wins
Observations: Every member of this club was Top Two.
Fifty Wins Club
ATP #6 Murray: 56 wins
ATP #10 Ferrer: 54 wins
ATP #7 Berdych: 53 wins
ATP #5 Nishikori: 52 wins
ATP #9 Cilic: 51 wins
Observations: You had to be Top Ten to get into this club. It includes three of the Top Five and seven of the Top Ten.
Forty Wins Club
ATP #11 Dimitrov: 49 wins
ATP #3 Nadal: 48 wins
ATP #8 Raonic: 47 wins
ATP #15 Bautista Agut: 44 wins
ATP #17 Robredo: 43 wins
ATP #13 Gulbis: 41 wins
ATP #14 Lopez: 40 wins
Observations: Interesting that Rafael Nadal, who was ranked #3, didn’t manage to make the Fifty Wins club. Other than Nadal, everyone in this club is ranked between #8 and #17. Counting the players in the higher clubs, there are 14 members of this club, all of whom are #17 or higher.
Thirty Wins Club
ATP #16 Anderson: 38 wins
ATP #19 Isner: 37 wins
ATP #20 Fognini: 36 wins
ATP #24 Kohlschreiber: 36 wins
ATP #27 Karlovic: 36 wins
ATP #4 Wawrinka: 35 wins
ATP #12 Tsonga: 33 wins
ATP #29 Chardy: 33 wins
ATP #18 Monfils: 32 wins
Observations: Pretty stunning to see that ATP #4 Wawrinka couldn’t even make it into the Forty Wins Club. He is the only Top Ten player down this low; the only other player ranked above #15 to be this low is Tsonga. All members of the Thirty Wins Club are ranked above #30 — an interesting symmetry. Counting the players in the higher clubs, there are 23 members of this club. It includes all of the Top Twenty, with only three lower-ranked players: #24 Kohlschreiber, #27 Karlovic, #29 Chardy.
Twenty Wins Club
ATP #26 Gasquet: 29 wins
ATP #32 Giraldo: 28 wins
ATP #21 Simon: 27 wins
ATP #23 Dolgopolov: 27 wins
ATP #31 Rosol: 27 wins
ATP #40 Becker: 27 wins
ATP #42 Sock: 27 wins
ATP #49 Istomin: 27 wins
ATP #28 Mayer, L: 26 wins
ATP #33 Verdasco: 26 wins
ATP #35 Querrey: 26 wins
ATP #25 Benneteau: 25 wins
ATP #36 Garcia-Lopez: 25 wins
ATP #38 Lu: 24 wins
ATP #34 Klizan: 23 wins
ATP #54 Sousa, J: 23 wins
ATP #73 Nieminen: 23 wins
ATP #22 Goffin: 22 wins
ATP #39 Thiem: 22 wins
ATP #41 Andujar: 22 wins
ATP #43 Janowicz: 22 wins
ATP #45 Seppi: 22 wins
ATP #62 Monaco: 22 wins
ATP #75 Matosevic: 21 wins
ATP #87 Roger-Vasselin: 21 wins
ATP #60 Delbonis: 20 wins
Observations: This is a big club — 49 members total, of which 26 are in this club and no higher clubs. The rankings range is pretty amazing — the top guy to be in this club and no higher clubs is #21, the bottom guy #87. Six of the 49 members are ranked below the Top Fifty — meaning that there are seven Top Fifty players who aren’t members of the Twenty Win Club.
Ten Wins Club
ATP #37 Johnson: 19 wins
ATP #46 Granollers: 19 wins
ATP #50 Hewitt: 19 wins
ATP #53 Pospisil: 19 wins
ATP #48 Youzhny: 18 wins
ATP #57 Young: 18 wins
ATP #67 Gabashvili: 18 wins
ATP #30 Cuevas: 17 wins
ATP #56 Tomic: 17 wins
ATP #72 Berlocq: 17 wins
ATP #44 Mannarino: 16 wins
ATP #68 Stepanek: 16 wins
ATP #99 Sela: 16 wins
ATP #58 Stakhovsky: 15 wins
ATP #59 Struff: 15 wins
ATP #65 Bellucci: 15 wins
ATP #70 Kukushkin: 15 wins
ATP #83 Haase: 15 wins
ATP #96 Dodig: 15 wins
ATP #66 Vesely: 14 wins
ATP #69 Lajovic: 14 wins
ATP #71 Almagro: 14 wins
ATP #77 Haas: 14 wins
ATP #113 Melzer, J: 14 wins
ATP #117 Mahut: 14 wins
ATP #51 Carreno Busta: 13 wins
ATP #63 Ramos-Vinolas: 13 wins
ATP #89 Brown: 13 wins
ATP #108 Montanes: 13 wins
ATP #110 Tursunov: 13 wins
ATP #64 Lorenzi: 11 wins
ATP #95 Lacko: 11 wins
ATP #97 Mathieu: 11 wins
ATP #112 Gimeno-Traver: 11 wins
ATP #122 Hanescu: 11 wins
ATP #118 Paire: 10 wins
Observations: Counting the players in the higher clubs, there are 85 members of this club. So there are 36 members of this club who are not members of higher clubs. It is fascinating to note that there is a Top Thirty player (Cuevas) who didn’t even manage to make the Twenty Wins club (although he’s doing well enough in 2015 that it seems clear he’ll manage it this year). This club includes every member of the Top Fifty except #47 Gilles Muller, who had only four wins.
Observe that there are only seven players ranked below #100 who managed to earn ten or more wins. The winningest of these were #113 Melzer and #117 Mahut with fourteen wins. The others: #109 Montanes, #110 Tursunov, #113 Gimeno-Traver, #122 Hanescu, and #118 Paire.
But if there were 85 members of the Ten Wins Club, and seven of them were ranked below the Top Hundred, then there were fully 22 Top Hundred players who managed nine or fewer ATP wins. That list, sorted by ranking:
ATP #47 Muller: 4 wins
ATP #52 Kyrgios: 8 wins
ATP #55 Bolelli: 6 wins
ATP #61 Schwartzman: 2 wins
ATP #74 Golubev: 9 wins
ATP #76 Jaziri: 8 wins
ATP #78 Estrella Burgos: 8 wins
ATP #79 Gojowczyk: 7 wins
ATP #80 Rola: 4 wins
ATP #81 Groth: 9 wins
ATP #82 Haider-Maurer: 4 wins
ATP #84 Sijsling: 9 wins
ATP #85 Baghdatis: 7 wins
ATP #86 Berankis: 6 wins
ATP #88 Falla: 9 wins
ATP #90 Souza, J: 1 win
ATP #91 Coric: 6 wins
ATP #92 Gonzalez, A: 9 wins
ATP #93 Kuznetsov, An: 8 wins
ATP #94 Ito: 3 wins
ATP #98 Kamke: 9 wins
ATP #100 Soeda: 1 win
Thus Souza and Soeda were the least winning players in the Top Hundred, with just one win each. The highest-ranked player with no wins at all? #104 Ilhan. The lowest-ranked player to have any wins at all? #413 Petzschner. Of course, Petzschner was injured, so his ranking is artificially low. The lowest-ranked player to play a full year and have an ATP win was #408 Mate Pavic. The lowest-ranked player with multiple wins was #364 Bjorn Phau, who had three wins.
Incidentally, if we look at Clubs so far this year, not counting results at Madrid, we find that the following are members of the Twenty Wins Club:
Novak Djokovic: 29 wins (it seems pretty clear he’ll hit the Thirty Wins Club in Rome)
Tomas Berdych: 27 wins
David Ferrer: 27 wins
Kei Nishikori: 24 wins
Andy Murray: 23 wins
Roger Federer: 21 wins
Rafael Nadal was just short of the club, at nineteen wins; he’s hit twenty now, of course, but that’s a very low number for him at this time of the year, since he tends to build up wins early and then coast. Milos Raonic had eighteen wins to start the week. Stan Wawrinka’s total was seventeen. Marin Cilic had just two (and added only one at Madrid, so he will probably go to Roland Garros with fewer than ten wins this year). And that’s the entire Top Ten.
There is no particular correlation between wins and ranking, so far; Gilles Simon is ranked #13 but has eighteen wins; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, whose ranking is twice that, has nineteen. So does Bernard Tomic. But that officially makes them all members only of the Ten Wins Club, which is big enough that we aren’t going to list it.
Estimated ATP World Tour Rankings
As of May 5, 2015
Rank &
Prior…Player………..Points
1..(1) Djokovic……….13845
2..(2) Federer…………8645
3..(3) Murray………….6120
4..(6) Raonic………….5070
5..(7) Berdych…………4870
6..(5) Nishikori……….4770
7..(4) Nadal…………..4480
8..(8) Ferrer………….4220
9..(9) Wawrinka………..3575
10.(10) Cilic…………..3360
11.(11) Dimitrov………..2985
12.(12) Lopez…………..2245
13.(13) Simon…………..2210
14.(14) Tsonga………….2090
15.(15) Monfils…………2065
16.(17) Anderson………..1925
17.(18) Isner…………..1765
18.(19) Robredo…………1755
19.(16) Bautista Agut……1715
20.(21) Goffin………….1700
21.(23) Gasquet…………1580
22.(20) Gulbis………….1560
23.(24) Kohlschreiber……1535
24.(22) Cuevas………….1502
25.(25) Karlovic………..1480
26.(27) Mayer…………..1442
27.(26) Tomic…………..1400
28.(28) Garcia-Lopez…….1290
29.(29) Mannarino……….1268
30.(35) Kyrgios…………1220
Madrid — Week of May 4
………………3R
1 Federer………Kyrgios
16 Isner……….(16)Isner
12 Tsonga………(12)Tsonga
6 Berdych………(6)Berdych
3 Nadal………..(3)Nadal
15 Anderson…….Bolelli
10 Dimitrov…….(10)Dimitrov
8 Wawrinka……..(8)Wawrinka
7 Ferrer……….(7)Ferrer
9 Cilic………..Verdasco
14 Bautista Agut..(14)Bautista Agut
4 Nishikori…….(4)Nishkori
5 Raonic……….(5)Raonic
11 Lopez……….L.Mayer
13 Monfils……..Granollers
2 Murray……….(2)Murray
STATUS OF SEEDS:
1 Federer……….lost 2R (Kyrgios)
2 Murray
3 Nadal
4 Nishikori
5 Raonic
6 Berdych
7 Ferrer
8 Wawrinka
9 Cilic…………lost 2R (Verdasco)
10 Dimitrov
11 Lopez………..lost 2R (L. Mayer)
12 Tsonga
13 Monfils………lost 2R (Granollers)
14 Bautista Agut
15 Anderson……..lost 1R (Bolelli)
16 Isner
WEDNESDAY
MADRID
Singles – Second Round
N Kyrgios def. (1) R Federer 6-7(2-7) 7-6(7-5) 7-6(14-12)
(2) A Murray def. P Kohlschreiber 6-4 3-6 6-0
(3) R Nadal def. S Johnson 6-4 6-3
(4) K Nishikori def. D Goffin 6-2 4-6 6-4
(6) T Berdych def. R Gasquet 7-6(7-3) 7-5
(7) D Ferrer def. (Q) A Ramos-Vinolas 6-4 6-0
F Verdasco def. (9) M Cilic 6-7(5-7) 7-6(7-5) 6-3
(10) G Dimitrov def. F Fognini 3-6 6-2 7-5
L Mayer def. (11) F Lopez 7-6(7-3) 7-6(8-6)
(12) J Tsonga def. J Sock 6-3 1-6 7-6(7-4)
(WC) M Granollers def. (13) G Monfils 7-6(8-6) 6-7(7-9) 6-4
(14) R Bautista Agut def. S Querrey 7-5 6-4
(16) J Isner def. (Q) T Bellucci 7-6(7-5) 6-7(11-13) 6-1
S Bolelli def. (Q) L Vanni 4-6 6-3 6-2
Doubles – Second Round
J Murray/Peers def. (2) Dodig/Melo 7-6(8-6) 6-2
(3) Pospisil/Sock def. Anderson/Chardy 6-7(4-7) 6-1 10-4
Cilic/Troicki def. (4) Rojer/Tecau 6-4 2-6 10-7
Bopanna/Mergea def. (8) Mahut/Roger-Vasselin 6-4 4-6 10-5
(WC) F Lopez/Mirnyi def. Peya/Soares 6-4 7-5
Cuevas/Marrero def. Johnson/Querrey 3-6 6-3 17-15
CONTENT VIA Bob LARSON TENNIS NEWS SERVICE.
Topics: Andy Murray, ATP Madrid, Mutua Madrid Open, Nick Kyrgios, Rafa, Roger Federer, Sports