Takeaways from Week One of 2017

[El Dude]

There are still two finals to be played--Dimitrov vs. Nishikori and Medvedev vs. Baustista Agut--but I don't think the outcomes will change any initial impressions from the first week of the 2017 season.

With the caveat that it has been only one week, what are your first impressions? For me:

*Despite losing to Milos, Rafa looks pretty good and should be able to at least find the form he showed last clay season before injury. At the very least he should be a factor through clay season again.

*Roger also looks quite good and there's no reason to think he can't return to his 2014-15 form.

*Novak is not going to roll over for Andy.

*Alexander Zverev is primed to take another step forward. He may not quite be Slam ready this year, but expect him to reach the second week of at least one or two Slams, win some more minor titles, possibly challenge for a Masters title, and even challenge for a spot in the top 10 by year's end. 2018 should see a bigger breakthrough.

*Dimitrov is back? Maybe. But he could be the surprise top 10 player of the year.

*Milos also looks good, but clearly has a ceiling of play. He can win a Slam, but needs some combination of several factors: He needs to do a Cilic and play lights out for a whole seven matches in a row; and/or he needs the draw to open up with superior players eliminated, and/or face someone other than a top player in good form.

 

[mrzz]

Good that you opened this thread, Dude. I wanted to comment somewhere that I am pretty impressed with the level I am seeing this year. I catch up only a few matches, saw some good highlight reels (1o minutes +, which can give you a quite good idea of the level), and lot of them were really high quality:

Zverev x Federer
Raonic x Nadal
Dimitrov x Raonic
Federer x Gasquet
Djokovic x Verdasco

I honestly expected everyone a bit slower... looks like a pretty good AO coming in.

And I agree with most of the OP. About Raonic, however, I would not be so sure about the ceiling of play.

 

[sid]

Takeaways from Week One of 2017.

Novak & Andy are way in front of the rest @ this point in time.

 

[Shivashish Sarkar]

The biggest takeaway is - Djokovic is back. Another pleasing one (for me) is that Roger is playing good tennis again. I am sure he will play one or more good matches at Australian Open. If the draw is favourable, he can make a QF or a SF. But SF is the farthest he can possible go this time around I would think. Hoping for the best.

 

[Front242]

Semis would be a great result for Roger as it would mean he potentially may have to beat Nadal and Novak/Murray depending on the draw. I think he'd take that result Managing that feat and then losing in the semis would suck though.