It certainly isn’t news anymore, but it remains a remarkable fact of professional tennis that the very small handful of elite players at the top win a very large percentage of the high-profile tournaments.
It won’t surprise anyone to hear, once again, that on the men’s tour only four players outside the Big Four have won a grand slam in the past decade. Since the ATP Masters 1000 series was formalised in 2009, the stranglehold of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray has been broken all of five times in 50 tournaments.
This stratification is less pronounced in the women’s game, but even there, nine players account for the past 19 grand slam titles.
Which makes this current little slice of the tennis season a particularly enjoyable one. For those who like tennis in the purest sense, those that simply like to watch the sport be played between clearly skilled players, there’s a deluge of it on offer annually in July and August, between Wimbledon and the US Open. With the January and February opening season, this is tennis’ most competitive time of the year, believe it or not.
With 13 ATP tournaments, mostly of the 250-series variety, and 10 WTA events, the majority of which are small-money International-level, this is a seven-week stretch in which the unheralded figures of the sport get a chance at a day in the sun.
Look at some of the winners of the last few weeks: in Bastad, Sweden, the 28-year-old veteran Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, the world No 60 who has never gone past the second round of a slam, won his first ATP title. Hamburg’s 500-series event was also taken by an ATP title first-timer in Leonardo Mayer, 27, the world No 62 Argentine who’s made it to the fourth round once at a grand slam. He had to top no less a talent than David Ferrer for his trophy.
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt recaptured some old glory for a moment and snagged a 30th career title in Newport, US, by beating world No 31 Ivo Karlovic in a final. His enigmatic 21-year-old countryman Bernard Tomic moved back into the top 100 with a win in Bogota, Colombia (also over Karlovic). That’s Tomic, who had gone out in the first or second round of seven straight tournaments since January’s Sydney International (where he lost the final to Juan Martin del Potro).
The story has been similar on the WTA circuit. World No 42 Mona Barthel, never beyond the third round at a grand slam, lifted the trophy in Bastad.
There’s more to come. Just this week there are ATP tournaments in Gstaad, Switzerland, Atlanta and Umag, Croatia. The top seeds in those tournaments are Mikhail Youzhny, John Isner and Fabio Fognini. The top seeds at the WTA events in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Nan Chang, China, are Sorana Cirstea (world No 29) and Peng Shuai (No 50).
It’s easy to forget, but tennis is a large sport, with hundreds of professionals who will never sniff glory at the All England Club or Roland Garros or Arthur Ashe Stadium or Rod Laver Arena. It becomes easy to dismiss the world-class talent it takes just to be, say, world No 60.
Fortunately, there are stretches like this on the tennis calendar where the lesser lights get their day to shine.
jraymond@thenational.ae
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