Citi Open 2019, Washington DC, USA, ATP 500

[GameSetAndMath]

With this win, Nick will be ranked at 27 tomorrow. Given that he has just 100 points to defend in Montreal + Cincy, it is unlikely that he will regress and even if he does it unlikely that he will fall below 32. So, much to the relief of Fedalovic, Nick will not be a dangerous floater at USO.

 

[Fiero425]

Good point. The list of active players who have been #1 and #2 is the same four players. Here are how players max out in the top five:

#1: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray
#2: None
#3: Wawrinka, Raonic, Zverev, Dimitrov, Cilic, del Potro (Ferrer would have been here)
#4: Nishikori, Berdych, Thiem
#5: Robredo, Tsonga, Anderson, Tsitsipas

The point being, #2 is just as rarifed as #1, at least in recent years. Even historically it isn't that far behind: There are only 11 players who reached #2, but never reached #1 in the ATP era (1973-present): Orantes, Rosewall, Vilas, Ashe, Stich, Ivanisevic, Chang, Korda, Corretja, Norman, Haas.

Not that it was easy, but not so difficult way back when to get to #2 since there was a lot more balance outside of #1! These days it's almost impossible to get a sniff of #2 since Fedalovicray have owned this era like no other "Big 4" in the history of the game! Even if 1 or 2 of them are disabled like with Djokoray a couple seasons ago, Fedal took their places right away and the "also rans" continued to be "also rans!" It would be nice if most #2's at least won 1 major (maybe played a final), but we started getting inferior #2's at the time like Ivanisevic (before Wimb. win), Corretja with a YEC, Norman, and Haas! Who do people think will be the next real #2 outside of the current crop; Thiem, Zrevev, Tsitsipas, Khachanov, or Medvedev? :whistle: :cuckoo:

 

[El Dude]

Not that it was easy, but not so difficult way back when to get to #2 since there was a lot more balance outside of #1! These days it's almost impossible to get a sniff of #2 since Fedalovicray have owned this era like no other "Big 4" in the history of the game! Even if 1 or 2 of them are disabled like with Djokoray a couple seasons ago, Fedal took their places right away and the "also rans" continued to be "also rans!" It would be nice if most #2's at least won 1 major (maybe played a final), but we started getting inferior #2's at the time like Ivanisevic (before Wimb. win), Corretja with a YEC, Norman, and Haas! Who do people think will be the next real #2 outside of the current crop; Thiem, Zrevev, Tsitsipas, Khachanov, or Medvedev? :whistle: :cuckoo:

Tsitsipas is the mostly likely, in my opinion. I do think FAA is the most talented young player and will eventually be #1, but he's further away and thus more than go wrong. Tsitsipas is much closer and I think has surpassed Zverev and Thiem in terms of probability of winning any given Slam and reaching #1-2 range.

Zverev is in head-case territory. He's young enough (still only 22) that he can be a #1 and multi-Slam winner, but there's a reasonable narrative that he's going to have an erratic career. But sure, he could be #2 very soon.

I'm not sure Thiem can be consistently good enough off clay to be #2. He's done better this year, but I'd like to see how he does for the rest of the year.

I don't think Khachanov or Medvedev will ever be #2, but that's just me. These guys seem like the next Berdych/Tsonga types.