
(Photo: LTA)
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The first full week of grass-court tennis in the books.
And Frances Tiafoe is not only a champion on grass, but he’s into the ATP Tour’s top 10 for the first time in his career.
He joins Taylor Fritz, and it’s the first time two Americans have been in the top 10 since 2012.
And there are a number of other players reaching new career highs, as the first week on grass is prime hunting ground for points and money before the vast majority of the big guns get on the greens.
(For the complete, updated ATP Tour rankings, click here).
ON THE UPSWING
Frances Tiafoe (USA): No. 12 =======> No. 10 (Tiafoe wins Stuttgart in a tight one over Jan-Lennard Struff, his second of the season and third overall, his first on grass and his first trip to the top 10, at age 25).

Jan-Lennard Struff (GER): No. 24 =======> No. 21 (If you thought Struff, now 33, hit his peak a few years ago and would never get there again, think again as he’s just 50-some points out of the top 20, at a career high ranking, after making the Stuttgart final).
Tallon Griekspoor (NED): No. 38 =======> No. 29 (A slightly late bloomer at 26, Griekspoor wins the second ATP Tour title of his career (and second this year), as the No. 6 seed in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. And he’ll be looking at a seed at Wimbledon).

Andy Murray (GBR): No. 44 =======> No. 38 (Murray doesn’t give a fig that he’s winning on the Challenger circuit. He’s winning, and winning feels good. And he’s back in the top 40 for the first time since April, 2018; he certainly can have aspirations of maybe snagging a Wimbledon seed, if he can stay healthy and get some breaks at Queen’s Club).

Adrian Mannarino (FRA): No. 52 =======> No. 46 (A quarterfinal run in ‘s-Hertogenbosch gets Mannarino back in the top 50.
Richard Gasquet (FRA): No. 55=======> No. 49 (Gasquet’s quarterfinal run, also at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, also gets him back into the top 50 and included his 600th career match win on the ATP Tour. The other three guys who have done this are pretty good).
Marton Fucsovics (HUN): No. 86 =======> No. 66 (Fucsovics is a better player than his recent ranking would indicate. Making the Stuttgart semifinals moves him up 20, closer to where he should be).

Jordan Thompson (AUS): No. 103 =======> No. 76 (A nice jump for Thompson, who made the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch – beating Milos Raonic in the second round. The last time he played there in 2019, he made the final as well).
Fabian Marozsan (HUN): No. 113 =======> No. 91 (Remember all the noise when the Hungarian had such a great run from the qualifying in Rome? Things got a bit quiet after that. But winning the Challenger title in Perugia gets him into the top 100 for the first time, and a career high).
Arthur Cazaux (FRA): No. 181 =======> No. 147 (Another young Frenchman, whose junior career came just before them, is into the top 150 and joins Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche to give hope to the French fans as they now have three in the top eight for the race to the Next-Gen Finals. He made the final in Nottingham, losing to Andy Murray).

Alexis Galarneau (CAN): No. 224 =======> No. 216 (A quarterfinal effort at a Challenger in Puerto Rico moves Galarneau into the top 220. If the deadline were today, he’d made the Wimbledon qualifying. But since it came too late he’s down in South America grinding it out on Challenger clay).
Gabriel Debru (FRA): No. 522 =======> No. 413 (A career high for the tall French kid, who won’t be 18 until a few days before Christmas and is represented by Félix Auger-Aliassime’s agent. He makes the semifinals at the Lyon Challenger and moves up more than 100 spots to a career high).

Michael Zheng (USA): No. 1118 =======> No. 543 (The unknown 19-year-old American cuts his ranking in half by getting to the final at the Palmas del Mar Challenger, losing to some guy named Nishikori in the final. He was a finalist at junior Wimbledon last summer, and is in his first year of Ivy League at Columbia).

Liam Draxl (CAN): No. 617 =======> No. 546 (Draxl was busy with NCAA competition this spring, but his quarterfinal in Palmas del Mar gives him a nice bump to start the summer).
Kei Nishikori (JPN): No. ∞ =======> No. 492 (All it takes is winning a Challenger, and you go from nowhere to the top 500. Kei Nishikori is back. It was his first tournament since losing in the second round of the October edition of Indian Wells in 2021 – more than a year and a half ago. He dropped off the rankings last October).


Milos Raonic (CAN): No. ∞ =======> No. 835 (Raonic got back on the horse last week after nearly two years away. And went from nowhere to No. 835 by winning a round. Raonic dropped off the charts in early August, 2022. He plays Jordan Thompson – again – in the first round of Queen’s).
ON THE DOWNSWING

Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN): No. 11 =======> No. 12 (A spot last week, a spot this week as Auger-Aliassime misses the first two weeks of the grass-court season. He drops his points from making the quarterfinals in Halle last year. His first major chunk of points up for defence will be his quarterfinals at both Montreal and Cincinnati – 360 points coming up for air in August).
Hubert Hurkacz (POL): No. 14 =======> No. 17 (Hurkacz makes the semifinals in Stuttgart, but drops 410 net points from from winning the Halle ATP 500 a year ago. Because the weeks are a bit staggered this year, he can make those up in Halle this week, where he drew big-serving Chris Eubanks in the first round).

Nick Kyrgios (AUS): No. 25 =======> No. 31 (On the plus side, Kyrgios is back after about six months away with injury. But he lost in the first round of Stuttgart, and dropping his semifinal points from Halle last year drops him out of the top 30. But, like Hurkacz, he can try to make those up this week although he didn’t look very good in his return. There are players who could pass him and drop him out of the seeds at Wimbledon. But that’s unlikely to happen. Still, if he makes the third round and rounds into form, he’s likely to get a top-8 seed. He might consider it a blessing that there were no points awarded at Wimbledon last year, because he made the final. And he won’t have to defend them).

Matteo Berrettini (ITA): No. 21 =======> No. 34 (A year ago, Berrettini came back from injury and won Stuttgart and Queen’s after being out since Indian Wells. But he lost in the first round in Stuttgart this year, and it was tough to watch. He dropped those Stuttgart points last week and drops the 500 from Queen’s today. Berrettini was a late withdrawal from Queens with “abdomen pain”. It might not even matter that he’s unseeded at Wimbledon, where he was a finalist two years ago).
Botic van de Zandschulp (NED): No. 34 =======> No. 41 (The Dutchman, who hasn’t had much going on since his new association with coach Sven Groeneveld, did not play last week and drops the points from his semifinal effort at Queen’s last year. He also may well himself out of the Wimbledon seeding, which will make the road potentially tougher for him. Van de Zandschulps drew Frances Tiafoe, who just won Stuttgart Sunday, in the first round at Queen’s).

Marin Cilic (CRO): No. 65 =======> No. 100 (Cilic has been dealing with a knee since January, and is trying to come back – and he will be able to have a protected ranking. Dropping his semifinal points from Queen’s a year ago is a blow to the ranking. The last time his ranking was in triple digits was Oct. 2007).
Filip Krajinovic (SRB): No. 105 =======> No. 206 (The former No. 26 drops like a stone, failing to defend 300 points from making the Queen’s final last year. So far this year it’s been a disaster for the 31-year-old from Serbia – he’s 3-12 on the season).
Oscar Otte (GER): No. 141 =======> No. 228 (Tough blow for the 29-year-old, as he drops points from his 2022 Halle semifinal and lost in the first round of Stuttgart. He has a wild card into Halle, so hopefully he can make up some ground).

Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA): No. 445 =======> No. 493 (Herbert’s career highs – No. 36 in singles, No. 2 in doubles, feel like they were eons ago. His career has absolutely sunk like a stone since the pandemic. He drops almost out of the top 500 after losing to young Arthur Fils in the final round of qualifying in ‘s-Hertogenbosch).
THE CANADIANS

THE ROAD TO TURIN

THE ROAD TO THE MIDDLE EAST


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