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With three ATP 250-level tournaments this past week, there are a number of opportunities for lower-ranked player to make rankings moves.
Among those who made the most hay is 18-year-old Joao Fonseca, considered by many to be a big star of the near future.
Fonseca made it look (almost) easy as he tore through the field in Buenos Aires and won his first career ATP Tour title at age 18. Needless to say, he leaps to a career high.
Also great stories: Miomir Kecmanovic saves two match points and wins only his second career title, in Delray Beach. It comes five years after the first.
And in Marseille, No. 2 seed Ugo Humbert defends his title. Which is a hard thing to do.
For the complete, updated ATP Tour rankings for Monday, click here.
Daniil Medvedev (RUS): No. 8 ===========> No. 6 (Despite a rather desultory loss to the much lower-ranked Hamad Medjedovic in the Marseille semifinals, Medvedev squeezes past both Novak Djokovic and Alex de Minaur and into the No. 6 slot).
Medvedev will have good memories of Doha, which he won in 2023. But he gets the tough Karen Khachanov in the first round (Photo: Qatar Open)
Ugo Humbert (FRA): No. 17 ===========> No. 14 (Humbert, last year’s Marseille champion, defended all his points from a year ago. But the schedule has a few quirks and isn’t exactly the same week-on-week – see De Minaur, Alex. So his run in Marseille moves him up three spots, as he defends his title. He withdrew from Doha this week).
Alex Michelsen (USA): No. 37 ===========> No. 33 (A run in Delray Beach puts the 20-year-old at another career high, and not far away from looking forward to being seeded at majors).
Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB): No. 56 ===========> No. 42 (The reliable performer has bursts of premier play, and this week in Delray Beach is one of those weeks. He wins in Delray – his second career title and first in five years. His career high of of No. 27 was reached a little over two years ago).
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (ESP): No. 60 ===========> No. 50 (The former No. 21 chose the American tournaments over the ones in Europe, and it proved a good move as he, made the Delray final – his first ATP final in three years. He will leave Florida kicking himself, though, after he had two match points – one of the missing by the most excuciating of margins. But he does get back into the top 50. He, too, pulled out of his planned event next week in Rio – which is a serious commute from Florida and on a completely different surface).
Hamad Medjedovic (SRB: No. 96 ===========> No. 73 (The 21-year-old Serb made a calculated decision to skip the Aussie summer and not play the qualifying there, opting to build up his ranking in Challengers to start the season. It has paid off; not only did he make the Marseille final after upsetting No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the semis, but he’s at a career high).
Joao Fonseca (BRA): No. 99 ===========> No. 68 (Fonseca is soon arriving at a space where he won’t need any more wild cards or “Next-Gen” passes. He managed some lower-back/ab pain in getting through his semi. And he was broken twice serving for it in the final Sunday against Francisco Cerundolo. But he came up aces in the tiebreak. It was a big moment for tennis, and for the poised 18-year-old. Fonseca earned a special-exempt into his home-country ATP 500 in Rio next week – already not needing a wild card. Another huge moment; will he be gassed? It helps to be 18).
Marton Fucsovics (HUN): No. 97 ===========> No. 84 (After a trip to Montreal to be Davis Cup hero, Fucsovics went back east and wins the Challenger in Bahrain this week).
Laslo Djere (SRB): No. 112 ===========> No. 98 (The former No. 27 and Rio champion, Djere came from the qualifying to reach the semifinals in Buenos Aires, getting him back into the top 100. But he didn’t manage Fonseca’s injury situation in the semifinals well – at all – and went out).
Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP): No. 133 ===========> No. 111 (It’s been a loooooooong road back for the 33-year-old former No. 18. But he makes a dent by winning Tenerife Challenger).
Juan Manuel Cerundolo (ARG): No. 139 ===========> No. 127 (A surprise winner in Cordóba as a teen in 2021, Cerundolo is now 23 and it’s been a slog since then. But he did win a round in Buenos Aires this year – and unfortunately ran into his big brother Francisco in the second round. He did qualify in Rio against over the weekend).
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA): No. 192 ===========> No. 163 (The former No. 36 in singles and No. 2 in doubles saw his career fall off a cliff during the pandemic but at 33, he’s slowly making his way back. He qualified and won a round in Marseille – and also won the doubles as a wild card. Which moves him up 117 spots to No. 161).
Diego Schwartzman (ARG): No. 386 ===========> No. 340 (Schwartzman had barely played in a year before making his career finale at home in Buenos Aires this past week, with an inspiring win over Nicolas Jarry. So at least his final rankings move as an active player is a positive one).
Milos Raonic (CAN): No. 250 ===========> No. 377 (Despite being idle, Raonic’s ranking didn’t change that much the last little while because he had so few points to defend. That changes this week as the 100 points he earned last year in Rotterdam fall off).
Alex Michelsen (USA) (No. 33)
Pedro Martinez (ESP) (No. 37)
Zizou Bergs (BEL) (No. 58)
Hamad Medjedovic (SRB) (No. 72)
Joao Fonseca (BRA) (No. 74 – 68)
Tristan Boyer (USA) (No. 109)
Ethan Quinn (USA) (No. 144)
Brandon Holt (USA) (No. 153)
Kyrian Jacquet (FRA) (No. 156)
James Trotter (JPN) (No. 176)
Alex de Minaur (AUS): No. 6 ===========> No. 8 (De Minaur tied his career high last week after making the Rotterdam final. But his points from doing the same thing last year only drop off this Monday, which puts him back down where he was).
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL): No. 13 ===========> No. 15 (Dimitrov drops points from a semifinal in Rotterdam last year, where he was beaten by de Minaur. He has hardly played this season so far, but is due back next week in Doha).
Gael Monfils (FRA): No. 33 ===========> No. 38 (The idle Monfils drops some points from Marseille a year ago; he’s also withdrawn from Doha this week).
Nicolas Jarry (CHI): No. 41 ===========> No. 46 (Jarry wasn’t the only casualty at the hands of teen dream Joao Fonseca this week in Buenos Aires, but his quarterfinal loss after making the final last year drops him).
Tallon Griekspoor (NED): No. 42 ===========> No. 50 (Griekspoor didn’t play last week, and drops his points from a semifinal in Rotterdam a year ago).
David Goffin (BEL): No. 57 ===========> No. 65 (Goffin drops points by not playing an ATP Tour event this week. But he’s earning some good bucks at the UTS event in Guadalajara).
Alexander Shevchenko (KAZ): No. 88 ===========> No. 103 (The Kazakh drops out of the top 100 after his first-round exit in Delray Beach. It’s been a pretty poor run of form for a while now).
Facundo Diaz Acosta (ARG): No. 75 ===========> No. 117 (Diaz Acosta was the shock winner in Buenos Aires a year ago. As so often happens, he wasn’t able to defend those points after getting a tough first-round opponent in Thiago Seyboth Wild. And so he drops out of the top 100).
Stan Wawrinka (SUI): No. 158 ===========> No. 171 (Wawrinka, soon to be 40, is existing on wild cards in the bigger events these days. But he continues to be competitive. He posted a good win over young Frenchman Arthur Cazaux Saturday in the first round of qualifying in Doha, and fell narrowly to No. 1 seed Quentin Halys).
Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN): No. 147 ===========> No. 202 (Ruusuvuori was out after Washington last summer, and delayed his return a bit so he could be out six months and qualify for a protected ranking. He returned the last two weeks in Challengers, and won a round last week. But he drops points from his Rotterdam quarterfinal a year ago and is out of the top 200 in the actual rankings).
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