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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Australian Open men’s draw was missing its nine-time champion – a big loss, obviously.
But somehow, it managed to pull together a pretty fascinating event. And the fact that the other member of the “Big 3” who was on hand, Rafael Nadal, put up a pretty superhuman effort to win it all, was the icing on the cake.
Nadal puts No. 21 on the career Grand Slam titles toteboard. And it’s now up to the others to try to catch him.
Had Daniil Medvedev won it, he would be just 90 points behind Novak Djokovic in the race for No. 1. By reaching the final, he’s 890 points behind. Which is as close as anyone has been for awhile.
Medvedev has pulled out of next week’s 500 event in Rotterdam, it should be noted. He could have made up some more ground, given the top points he has on his resumé for the 500-level tournaments are 150 for Washington and Barcelona. But he pretty clearly needs some time to decompress and process.
ON THE UPSWING
Matteo Berrettini (ITA): No. 7 ============> No. 6 (Another step up for the Italian, who is at a career high).
Denis Shapovalov (CAN): No. 14 ============> No. 12 (It was a very good Australian Open for Shapovalov – and it was almost great, as he came awfully close to derailing Nadal in the quarterfinals).
Gael Monfils (FRA): No. 20 ============> No. 16 (A throwback major for Monfils, who moves up).
Taylor Fritz (USA): No. 22 ============> No. 20 (The top American is officially in the top 20 for the first time).
Reilly Opelka (USA): No. 29 ============> No. 24 (The No. 2 American moves up five, after losing to Shapovalov in the third round)
Alex de Minaur (AUS): No. 42 ============> No. 33
Adrian Mannarino (FRA): No. 69 ============> No. 58 (Mannarino continues to surprise at age 33).
Maxime Cressy (USA): No. 70 ============> No. 59 (The Franco-American is into the top 60 after qualifying and making the final of a tuneup in Melbourne, making the quarterfinals in Sydney and then the fourth round of the Australian Open, where he gave Medvedev a few fits before bowing out in four sets. He arrived in Australia at No. 112, having made a yeoman effort to get close to the main draw in the late-season Challengers. Because of some withdrawals, he did make it, and ran with it).
Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB): No. 77 ============> No. 63 (The Serb took advantage of ending up playing a lucky loser instead of his original Australian Open first-round opponent, which was … Novak Djokovic).
Sebastian Baez (ARG): No. 88 ============> No. 77 (The 21-year-old Argentine, build in the … mold of countryman Diego Schwartzman – if you catch our drift) is at a career high after arriving Down Under at No. 99 for his Australian Open debut. He beat Ramos-Viñolas in five sets in the first round, and took Stefanos Tsitsipas to four sets before bowing out in the second. He began the 2021 season ranked No. 309. So that’s a serious rise. He also got to play doubles against Rafael Nadal).
Ricardas Berankis (LTU): No. 93 ============> No. 82
Kamil Majchrzak (POL): No. 107 ============> No. 95 (Majchrzak had a wild ride in Australia, testing positive for COVID just before Poland’s semifinal tie in the ATP Cup. At that point, he was still the next into the Australian Open main draw and wasn’t going to be able to play the qualifying because of having to isolate. In the end, he did get in. And after moving up 10 spots with three wins in the ATP Cup, he moves up a little more with his second-round effort in Melbourne).
Andy Murray (GBR): No. 113 ============> No. 102 (Murray might not need any more Grand Slam wild cards. But he wasn’t happy with his Melbourne effort. And his trial with former coach Jan de Witt ended along with it).
Tomas Machac (CZE): No. 132 ============> No. 116 (The 21-year-old not only reaches a career high in singles after qualifying at the Australian Open and reaching the second round, he also got to play mixed at a major with better half Katerina Siniakova).
Vasek Pospisil (CAN): No. 138 ============> No. 121 (A good start for Pospisil’s 2022 season as he wins the Challenger in Quimper, France and makes a dent in his ranking).
Dominic Stricker (SUI): No. 241 ============> No. 204 (The 19-year-old Swiss is at a career high after going from a second-round loss in the Australian Open qualifying to Columbus, Ohio, where he won the Challenger last week. He beat Sandgren in a third-set tiebreak in the first round).
ON THE DOWNSWING
Roger Federer (SUI): No. 17 ============> No. 30 (That Federer, who was announced Wednesday as a participant in the 2022 Laver Cup in London along with Rafael Nadal) is still in the top 30 is pretty mind-boggling. Some 600 of his 1,665 points are from his 2019 Wimbledon final, with whother 500 from the … 2019 Miami Open win. Those will be gone in April. If only his points from the last 52 weeks were on the board, he would have 180 from last year’s Roland Garros, and 45 from last year’s Doha. Those 225 points would tie him with No. 260 Yosuke Watanuke. Which is also pretty crazy, when you think about it).
Dominic Thiem (AUT): No. 16 ============> No. 37 (When Thiem does get back – he was due back in Cordoba this week, but pulled out because of a finger issue – and gets back into form, he’s going to be a dangerous, unseeded floater for quite awhile, messing up draws all over the planet).
David Goffin (BEL): No. 45 ============> No. 52 (The struggling Goffin is a wild card into the Pune tournament this week).
Arthur Rinderknech (FRA): No. 48 ============> No. 60 (The 26-year-old Frenchman went from No. 58 to No. 48 after making the Adelaide final, then pulled out of his second-round match against Daniel Evans to drop down again).
Jaume Munar (ESP): No. 71 ============> No. 88 (Munar will try to make up some of those points on the South American clay-court swing).
Guido Pella (ARG): No. 76 ============> No. 91 (Pella took a pass on the Australian summer. Given the crazy time he had at the US Open in 2020 being a close contact of a positive case, maybe he didn’t want to take another chance).
Sam Querrey (USA): No. 110 ============> No. 118 (It’s hard to fathom Querrey playing the qualies at a major. So unless he can get his ranking back up, you’d have to think this year is going to be a challenge).
Milos Raonic (CAN): No. 85 ============> No. 119 (Raonic drops out of the top 100 after missing the Australian summer. He’s at his lowest ranking since he jumped into the top 100 after his great effort in Australia, way back in 2011. When he comes back, he should be able to use a protected ranking. But there’s still no word on when that will be).
Jérémy Chardy (FRA): No. 122 ============> No. 125 (Still no word on when Chardy, who hasn’t playedf since the US Open, will return. He reportedly had a poor reaction to the COVID vaccine).
Nick Kyrgios (AUS): No. 115 ============> No. 122 (Whatever goes on this year with tennis’s bad boy, he’ll always be a Grand Slam champion after winning the men’s doubles in Melbourne with Thanasi Kokkinakis as a wild card).
Stan Wawrinka (SUI): No. 102 ============> No. 159 (He’s coming back, isn’t he? Wawrinka has been out nearly a full year, since losing in the first round of Doha to Lloyd Harris last March).
Tennys Sandgren (USA): No. 94 ============> No. 165 (Good for Sandgren for standing up for his principles … we guess? He drops way down after passing on the Australian summer because of his stand against vaccination. It cost him more than $100,000 – which he would have earned just for losing in the first round of the major. And it will cost him going forward if he has to qualify at the French and Wimbledon. He’s currently playing Challengers in the U.S.).
Fernando Verdasco (ESP): No. 170 ============> No. 200 (Verdasco has been playing clay-court Challengers in South America. No, we don’t know why, at age 38 and with about $18 million in career earnings. I guess he just loves to play tennis. He has lost to the No. 348 in Brazil, and the No. 246 in Bolivia).
Ernests Gulbis (LAT): No. 197 ============> No. 265 (Gulbis, still only 33, went down to Australia to play the qualies, but was overcome by the conditions and retired in the third of his first-round match against Gastao Elias. He played the qualies in Montpellier this week).
Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (USA): No. 224 ============> No. 304 (The 26-year-old American is out of the top 300 after what looks like a rankings dump from 2020. Last week, that year, Kwiatkowski won a big Challenger tournament – $162,480 in prize money – in Newport Beach, Ca. He hasn’t started his 2022 season yet).
Juan Martin del Potro (ARG): No. 755 ============> No. 757 (The good news is that the beloved Delpo’s return is imminent. He still has 28 points from his brief forays back in the spring of 2019 – 23 from Queen’s Club and five from the Masters 1000 in Madrid).
The Canadians
Doubles
Don’t look now, but Ram and Salisbury are sneaking up on No. 1s Pavic and Mektic, who famously lost to Kokkinakis and Kyrgios at the Australian Open.
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