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ROLAND GARROS – It’s a weird update, as there were two ATP Tour events and just one Challenger last week, as the players between No. 100 and around No. 250 played the Roland Garros qualifying.

So it was an opportunity for some at the ATP level – notably Arthur Fils, who won his first career tournament at age 18, with the help of a retirement and walkover – and found himself transported to Roland Garros as a wild card (even though his new ranking would more than get him straight in) – and THEN gets No. 29 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the first round.

So Fils loses in four sets, and is out of Roland Garros before he even has time to process his big win in Lyon.

It’s kind of like that.

(For the complete, updated ATP Tour rankings for Monday, click here).

WTA Rankings Report – As of May 29, 2023

ON THE UPSWING

Taylor Fritz (USA): No. 9 ==========> No. 8 (Fritz gains some points from making the semifinals in Geneva and squeezes past Jannik Sinner for the No. 8 spot in the rankings, by 35 points).

Francisco Cerundolo (ARG): No. 28 ==========> No. 23 (Cerundo reaches the Lyon final, losing to Fils but beating Jack Draper and Cameron Norrie on the way. It’s a career high for him).

Grigor Dimitrov (BUL): No. 33 ==========> No. 29 (Not done yet, Dimitrov reaches the Geneva final, after beating Fritz in a third-set tiebreak in the semifinals. He had a break, as he only plays his first-round match at Roland Garros on Tuesday).

Nicolas Jarry (CHI): No. 54 ==========> No. 35 (It’s been a loooong road back for Jarry, a once rising star who was sidelined by a doping suspension, and then the pandemic. He is now at a career high, with two titles this year, after winning Geneva. In February, he was at No. 139; in February, 2021 he had … no ranking at all. He gets Hugo Dellien of Bolivia in the first round, and also had a break with the Tuesday start.

Brandon Nakashima (USA): No. 52 ==========> No. 45 (Nakashima beat Schwartzman – not a rare thing these days – Rinderknech and Tommy Paul before losing a third-set tiebreak to fils in Lyon. Then he rolls into Roland, gets Shapovalov in the first round, loses the first two sets, wins the next two and loses in five, and 3h47. And that’s it for the fortnight. It’s a tough grind).

Yibing Wu (CHN): No. 59 ==========> No. 54 (The 23-year-old makes the quarters in Geneva, but retires 1-4 down to Alexander Zverev. So not great heading into his Roland Garros debut. He gave Roberto Bautista Agut a tight first set, but goes down with baguettes after that).

Jack Draper (GBR): No. 60 ==========> No. 55 (Draper returned for the first time since Monte Carlo in Lyon, and made the quarterfinals. But apparently he still is just having trouble staying healthy; hem too, made his Roland Garros debut. But down 4-6, 0-1 to Etcheverry, he retired. Feels like he’s getting an early-career start on some kind of record, the way he’s going).

Arthur Fils (FRA): No. 112 ==========> No. 63 (Fils became the first player born in 2004 to win an ATP title on Saturday, at “home” in Lyon. He’s on top of the world, at a career-high ranking and comes to Paris and does a big press conference Monday. Tuesday, he bows out to Davidovich Fokina in the first round).

Ilya Ivashka (BLR): No. 86 ==========> No. 73 (Ivashka made the quarters in Geneva – and loses in four to Alex de Minaur in Paris Monday. It’s like … a pattern).

Christopher O’Connell (AUS): No. 85 ==========> No. 77 (Rinse, repeat: quarters in Geneva, first-round exit in Paris in straight sets to Taro Daniel Monday).

Dragos Nicolae Madaras (ROU): No. 241 ==========> No. 213 (The 25-year-old is at a career high after making the semifinals at the lone Challenger tournament in Skopje, Macedonia last week. The week before he was at an entry-level $15K in Turkey. But he was on a roll there; since late March, Madaras played seven Futures and knocked off four titles and three finals. And with all that, he raised his ranking from No. 300 to No. 213. I mean, that’s nuts).

Pablo Llamas Ruiz (ESP): No. 240 ==========> No. 223 (A 20-year-old from Spain, Llamas Ruiz qualified in Lyon and beat No. 67 Max Purcell before falling to Félix Auger-Aliassime. These were his first career ATP Tour main-draw matches, and that’s a career high).

Mate Valkusz (HUN): No. 283 ==========> No. 225 (The 24-year-old, a former top junior, wins the Challenger in Macedonic and gets to a career high in the rankings. He came from the qualifying to do it, too. Valkusz was the No. 1 junior in the world in January 2016, and was in the same crop that produced Auger-Aliassime, Hurkacz, Shapovalov, de Minaur and Tsitsipas. He beat Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime, several times each – including Shapovalov in the opener and Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Repentigny junior tournament in 15 – the tuneup for the US Open (he also beat Casper Ruud). Then he lost to JJ Wolf in the first round there, on a retirement. But all those players made it; he’s still trying to get there – seven years-plus later).

ON THE DOWNSWING

Alexander Bublik (KAZ): No. 48 ==========> No. 51 (Bublik slides out of the top 50 after losing in in the first round in Geneva and failing to defend some points. He has qualifier Giulio Zeppieri in the first round of Roland Garros Tuesday).

Jordan Thompson (AUS): No. 71 ==========> No. 76 (Thompson didn’t play anything on the clay, after a Challenger Tour in Korea. So he lost some points. He gets countryman Max Purcell, who has been playing a lot, in the first round of Roland Garros on Tuesday. That’s better than his first-round opponent a year ago in Paris. Some guy who ended up winning the tournament for theh 14th time. But Thompson has a fair bit on the line in the next month; he has a Challenger title and a final on grass coming up for defence).

Daniel Altmaier (GER): No. 72 ==========> No. 79 (Two weeks ago, Altmaier was at a career high No. 53 after making the Madrid quarterfinals out of the qualifying, and the second round in Rome out of the qualifying. Now, he’s leaking a few points from the Challengers he played a year ago. But he had a good win Monday at Roland Garros, in straight sets over Marc-Andrea Huesler. Altmaier had a great run in the “fall 2020” edition in Paris, going from the qualifying to the round of 16 and beating Jan-Lennard Struff and Matteo Berrettini en route. Clearly he’s a guy capable of big runs of form; his next challenge will be to be more consistent about it).