2024 ATP General News

[El Dude]

Fils is definitely taking another step up. It is too easy to compare him to Alcaraz as the current exemplar of a great young player, but Alcaraz broke out unusually young. Fils is a bit over a year younger, and just finishing up his second full season. He just earned his third title and second ATP 500 at 20 years, 3 months.

It still remains to be seen what his ultimate upside is, but I think he's going to at least be a top 10 guy, Masters winner, and eventual Slam contender. I expect he'll reach the top 10 next year, and start going deeper in Slams. He's probably my top contender for next new Masters winner.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Fils is definitely taking another step up. It is too easy to compare him to Alcaraz as the current exemplar of a great young player, but Alcaraz broke out unusually young. Fils is a bit over a year younger, and just finishing up his second full season. He just earned his third title and second ATP 500 at 20 years, 3 months.

It still remains to be seen what his ultimate upside is, but I think he's going to at least be a top 10 guy, Masters winner, and eventual Slam contender. I expect he'll reach the top 10 next year, and start going deeper in Slams. He's probably my top contender for next new Masters winner.

I had to go out straight after Fils match, so I did not post results of his match, may I add the 'resilience' Fils showed in the match was just top level, he has really improved of late, especially the mental side of his game.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

5th final? Which one did he lose?

I didnt post correctly
Alcaraz claimed his 3rd victory in a row this year against Medvedev to reach his 5th final in 2024. ( I have soo many bits of paper with info and stats I posted incorrectly.) I corrected it on my original post

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Quite an bizarre scheduling decision at Shanghai Masters to have the top half of the draw play first. Top half is the one with Alcaraz, Sinner Medvedev as well as Tokyo finalists Fils and Humbert.They do have a 1st round bye, surely they deserve an extra day between 2 tournaments?

 

[Jelenafan]

I woke up to find Holger must've used up all his luck vs Kei! He went down in "straights" to Fils! I'll chk. it out later since both are "hotties!"

“Straights” doesnt do the match justice, two titanic tie breakers sets 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (12-10) little Holger had set points in both TB’s , a fun & very entertaining match.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

With Fils ATP500 win in the Japan Open, he rises 3 spots from 24th to 21st in the ATP Live Rankings putting him just one spot below his career high best of 20th.
Hopefully his leg injury which kind of hampered him in his 3 set win at times, though his serve won the day when it mattered, will be okay for the Shanghai Masters.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

"Hawkeye sucks, don't trust hawkeye"

Advice from Daniil Medvedev ( in his SF match against Alcaraz

 

[don_fabio]

I had to go out straight after Fils match, so I did not post results of his match, may I add the 'resilience' Fils showed in the match was just top level, he has really improved of late, especially the mental side of his game.

Fils played roller coaster matches all week and won all of it. For me match against Shelton was the best, pity it was too late and many spectators left the stadium. Well deserved trophy for the French and he is really the one to watch going forward. He is very tough mentally in tight moments. I like him.

 

[don_fabio]

Alcaraz looks like he has some mental block against Sinner. His game is oscillating too much up and down, while Sinner is more solid.

Alcaraz failed to serve it out in 1st set and then lost it in TB with some UEs. It's good match, hope it goes to 3rd.

 

[don_fabio]

Charlie turns it around and the match goes to 3rd set.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

Alcaraz completes the comeback, wins 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3). Alcaraz won 7 straight points in the 3rd set tiebreaker after falling behind 0-3.

 

[don_fabio]

Alcaraz had so many chances to put Sinner away earlier in the match, but he managed to find his magic while down 0:3 in 3rd set TB and won the match.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Alcaraz had so many chances to put Sinner away earlier in the match, but he managed to find his magic while down 0:3 in 3rd set TB and won the match.

Don,

Sinner's serve let him down when it mattered, he could not find his first serve,, he has won 18 of the last 19 TB, not today.In fact he had trouble all match with his serve.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Fils played roller coaster matches all week and won all of it. For me match against Shelton was the best, pity it was too late and many spectators left the stadium. Well deserved trophy for the French and he is really the one to watch going forward. He is very tough mentally in tight moments. I like him.

Fils has really improved his mentally of late, especially in the final match, when Humbert had MP and Fils made an incredible passing shot, I have always liked him as a player, interesting to see how he fares in Shanghai.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Zverev still has a lung infection, but is cleared to play in Shanghai

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Don Fabio,
I feel Jannik has to change his serving strategy next time he plays Alcaraz. Alcaraz's return is too good to just throw flat serves that dont have enough direction.
The first serve percentage is also going to dip when you feel you have to bomb first serves.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Alcaraz becomes the first player to win ATP500 tournaments on all 3 surfaces ( hard, clay. grass) in series history ( since 2009)

 

[kskate2]

Alcaraz had so many chances to put Sinner away earlier in the match, but he managed to find his magic while down 0:3 in 3rd set TB and won the match.

Watched the replay on TTC. He gave away the lead so many times, I was wondering if he really wanted to win.

 

[Fiero425]

Watched the replay on TTC. He gave away the lead so many times, I was wondering if he really wanted to win.

It came to me off a sudden, Alcaraz rerminds me of Hana Mandlikova! They're both super-talented, have all the shots, can hit w/ power, & has great touch & feel for the ball; esp. at the net! Hana should never have lost to Evert on any surface; esp. grass, but her head was scrambled w/ too many options! I'll always have Martina Navratilova on top w/ #'s that will never be surpassed including 167 titles in singles & 177 in doubles! The only difference is Carlos ends up working too hard to win matches; sorta like his hero Nadal! He makes it look easy, but he's killing himself out there running down shots unnecessarily! He's a hotdog TBH and it's going to be the premature end of him trying to make the highlite reel w/ every match he plays! No way will he keep this up for 20+ yrs. like the Big 3! Sinner needs to put some meat on his bones! He's another one that works too hard & will probably break down a lot sooner than past champions!

 

[Sundaymorningguy]

I think the only thing that can really do Alcaraz in is injuries which is a great possibility given his playing style.