Who won more matches than Nadal in 2013?

[GameSetAndMath]

Pablo Busta.

Will he upstage the tomics and grigors of the world soon?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelmorales/2013/12/02/meet-the-spaniard-who-won-more-tennis-matches-than-rafael-nadal-this-year/

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

Not close to Vilas's 145-15 in 77, but amazing nonetheless

 

[El Dude]

I'd like to see how he does against "real" opponents, but I'm tentatively optimistic. He's about the same age as Dimitrov, two months younger I think. The highest ranked player he beat last year was Fabio Fognini (#25) at Oeiras in April, in which he also beat Julien Benneteau (#33) and David Goffin (#61). But after that he didn't beat anyone ranked higher than #69 (Alex Bogomolov Jr).

Ranked in the 60s he's going to face a lot of good players in the first round of big tournaments in 2014, so it will be a trial by fire.

 

[zalvar]

Was kinda disappointed this year that he didn't play a lot of, at least, 250s. We'll see next year.

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Actually, it takes a lot of dedication and committment to keep winning against
players that you are supposed to defeat. Pablos certainly has that dedication.
I think he will be able to hang with the other players in the 50-100 atp zone easily.

Many of these players in the 50-100 category try to give an inspired performance
against better players and fail to keep their end of the bargain when playing against
inferior players.

 

[herios]

Since Portugal in May, where he blasted on the main tour with that great run out of nowhere, I was watching closely how he did week in and week out.
Based on the events he elected, and how he performed, he will develop I think into a very typical spanish player who will be very good on clay and his HC game and results will be developing and improving at a slower rate.
On clay he will be a force to be reckon with a la Almagro in 1-2 years, HC I do not know. His stock will definitely go up, a top 40-50 is a sure bet, based on how many HC events are in comparison, his progress overall will depend also on his HC results.
About why he did not pick more 250 events, I think he returned to the challenger tour after already he was inside the top 100 because he had been entered before in those, his spectacular jump of 600 ranking positions or so was so unexpected and he also needs at least 6 weeks before the event starts to be in ranking wise which he probably was not.
In any case from here on yes, he will be well tested because he will have to face all the good players every event.
Hopefully his meteoric rise will not disappoint and he will consolidate his ranking this year.
Bottom line, Spain has so many top 100 players but most of them are now closer to 30 and some 30+ years, has not produced such solid talent IMO.
Both Ramos and Agut who are the younger ones, when you discount Busta, are only mid 100 players, they will not achieve many significant results in their career. Busta I think will be a lot better than these two.

 

[El Dude]

herios, do you see his upside as being something like Almagro or Feliciano Lopez? Top 10-20 guys at their best?

 

[herios]

herios, do you see his upside as being something like Almagro or Feliciano Lopez? Top 10-20 guys at their best?

El Dude, I think it is too early to assess his career best at this moment. He had played too little at ATP main tour level, his record is 7-8 wins-losses, all matches this year except an encounter with Paire from 2011 which he lost.

In many cases, a future top 20 player has lukewarm years after a big jump through the rankings. That is mainly because they need to adjust and get used to play in the big league, unless they are exceptional talents, it will take more time to work their way towards the top.
I checked both Almagro and Lopez how they managed to climb the ladder in years.
Almagro for example had a similar big jump, he went pro in 2003 going from:
737 to 156, at 18y of age.
Next few years were not as great:
finished 2004 ranked 103
2005 ranked 114.
Then comes another significant jump ending 2006 ranked 32 and gets stuck once again ending 2007 ranked 28.
In 2008 breaks into the top 20, being ion tour by then for 6 years. He is more or less steady ever since with periodic drops and a peak in 2012 when he was ranked as high as 9 for one week.

Lopez experienced in comparison a much slower development, spending many years outside of the top 100, albeit he went pro earlier at 16y.

Pablo Carreno-Busta started his pro tour later than both of them at 20 and most of the year when he was 21 was out due to injury (surgery). He my catch up but that remains to be seen.