Autumn Tournaments - Run up to the World Tour Finals 2019

All four Slams completed now and we're on to the Asian Swing, followed by the European indoor season and, finally, the O2's penultimate hosting of the year-end championship.

Medvedev, after his New York heroics, is competing in St Petersburg this week and could meet Viola of Italy, who beat Andy Murray in Majorca a couple of weeks ago.

Andy is due to pay a number of tournaments coming up. He says he's feeling fine and just needs the matches.

The Big Three plus Medvedev have already qualified for the O2. Tsitsipas should make it but after that it's a bit of a scramble.

Rafa leads Djoko in the year-so-far points table but the Spaniard is getting married next month and will miss some tournaments. Djoko's aiming to play in Asia but it remains to be seen how well he copes with his injury. Novak also has a huge number of points to defend.

There's an almighty race on to see which woman will be year-end number one. Barty has a tiny lead over Pliskova at the moment, with Halep and Andreescu also having a chance to reach the top by the end of the year.

he doesnt usually play much in this part of the season

he rarely plays the two masters left, so maybe the only difference with a normal season is that he is not playing beijing.

2019 - ??
2018 -
2017 - beijing, shanghai, paris, wtf
2016 - beijing, shaghai
2015 - beijing, shaghai, basel, paris, wtf
2014 - beijing, shanghai, basel


so only 2015 and 2017 out of last 5 years he played more or less everything scheduled

Nadal has been in the atp tour for 17 years now, only 7 of those years saw him playing both indoor masters, and only 5 times he played both masters and wtf

Nadal has a 1960 point lead in the race

so djokovic must win a master and make long runs in the rest of tournaments to oblige nadal to perform

One would assume Nadal would play one of the remaining masters, probably the one Djokovic/Federer don’t play. Obviously Nadal’s serious aim has to be winning in London - only major title to thus far elude the Spaniard.

The WTF could be key. The winner could get 1,300 or 1,500 pts.

As you say, Rafa's never won it and has often not even played it. Mind you, the last three winners at the O2 - Murray, Dimi and Zverev - have all had difficult seasons the year after.

For Nadal the ambition should be winning in London and using that momentum to land a second Australian open - essentially emptying the tank if that's what it takes 

I think it's got to the point where not winning Roland Garros won't really alter his legacy - I mean no one is getting near his haul of 12 anyway.

Australian Open would be my priority

Rafa's been 10 years stuck on just the one AO title. Thanks mainly to Rafa's domination of the French, no one in the Open Era has won each of the slams twice.

While no one has got/is going to get close to Rafa's domination at RG, Federer (at Wimbledon) and Djoko (in Melbourne) have had excellent records.

On a quirkier note, I see Osaka is playing in....Osaka. Just trying to think of a another player who has performed in their namesake town.

I would bet on djokovic to be the one to win 2 of each (after laver)

naxroy wrote:I would bet on djokovic to be the one to win 2 of each (after laver)

As long as Rafa's fit, I can't see Djoko winning another French. Laver, of course, did win all the Slams twice, but not in the Open Era. If professionals had been allowed in in, say, 1963, gawd knows how many Slams Rod would have won.

sirfredperry wrote:Rafa's been 10 years stuck on just the one AO title. Thanks mainly to Rafa's domination of the French, no one in the Open Era has won each of the slams twice.

While no one has got/is going to get close to Rafa's domination at RG, Federer (at Wimbledon) and Djoko (in Melbourne) have had excellent records.

On a quirkier note, I see Osaka is playing in....Osaka. Just trying to think of a another player who has performed in their namesake town.

MaliVai Washington must have done.

sirfredperry wrote:

naxroy wrote:I would bet on djokovic to be the one to win 2 of each (after laver)

As long as Rafa's fit, I can't see Djoko winning another French. Laver, of course, did win all the Slams twice, but not in the Open Era. If professionals had been allowed in in, say, 1963, gawd knows how many Slams Rod would have won.

but laver also won lots of pro slams

Medvedev wins first match after USO - beating Donskoy in straight sets in St Petersburg. Next up is Rublev.

Soul Requiem wrote:

sirfredperry wrote:Rafa's been 10 years stuck on just the one AO title. Thanks mainly to Rafa's domination of the French, no one in the Open Era has won each of the slams twice.

While no one has got/is going to get close to Rafa's domination at RG, Federer (at Wimbledon) and Djoko (in Melbourne) have had excellent records.

On a quirkier note, I see Osaka is playing in....Osaka. Just trying to think of a another player who has performed in their namesake town.

MaliVai Washington must have done.

Juan Monaco

Washington and Monaco. Good spots. There was a player called Stafford but don't think there's been too many tournaments in Stafford.

Guess we'll have to wait until Mr and Mrs Cincinnati have a tennis-playing child.

anybody watching LaverCup?

sirfredperry wrote:All four Slams completed now and we're on to the Asian Swing, followed by the European indoor season and, finally, the O2's penultimate hosting of the year-end championship.

Medvedev, after his New York heroics, is competing in St Petersburg this week and could meet Viola of Italy, who beat Andy Murray in Majorca a couple of weeks ago.

Andy is due to pay a number of tournaments coming up. He says he's feeling fine and just needs the matches.

The Big Three plus Medvedev have already qualified for the O2. Tsitsipas should make it but after that it's a bit of a scramble.

Rafa leads Djoko in the year-so-far points table but the Spaniard is getting married next month and will miss some tournaments. Djoko's aiming to play in Asia but it remains to be seen how well he copes with his injury. Novak also has a huge number of points to defend.

There's an almighty race on to see which woman will be year-end number one. Barty has a tiny lead over Pliskova at the moment, with Halep and Andreescu also having a chance to reach the top by the end of the year.

If djokovic wins tokio, shanghai, paris and WTF, he would get to 11265 points.
Nadal is in 9225 so he needs 2040 to assure YearEnd Nº1

that would be possible making final in both masters and in the ATP finals... I doubt Nadal can get such results, but I also doubt Djokovic can even play all tournaments.

If djoko comes back fit, he can perfectly win everything... he has done such things in the past, but for every tournament he doesnt win, Nadal´s chances to get number 1 grow exponentially

Daniil Medvedev continues his remarkable form by reaching his fifth consecutive final. He’ll face Coric in St. Petersburg. Ninth final of the year for the Russian

Osaka wins In Osaka by beating Pavlyuchenkova

I am fairly confident to predict that Medvedev will now be a regular force at the latter stages of the slams and wouldn't be surprised if he started winning them next year.

Daniil Medvedev wins St Petersburg after beating Borna Coric in the final - a 6th career title for the Russian

Andy Murray beats Tennys Sandgren 6-3 6-7 6-1 to go through to the Second Round in Zhuhai. A match almost two and a half hours long. Next up for him the Australian Alex De Minaur.

Encouraging win for Andy. He was very tired at the end but at least he gets a day off now.

Murray loses 6-4 2-6 4-6 against Alec De Mineaur. A long match over two and a half hours but no disgrace considering De Mineaur is No 31 in the world.

Perfectly respectable effort from Andy. He said he was very tired at the end but he's got in two longish matches which will put him in a good position for the weeks ahead.

Wins today for Cameron Norrie and Dan Evans in qualifying in Beijing, where Andy Murray has been drawn against highly-ranked Berrettini.

Strongish field for the men in Beijing but Djoko looks to have an easy run in Tokyo.

One women's result caught my eye. Former French Open champion Ostapenko, now languishing down the rankings, beat Pliskova in Beijing.

Another former GS winner - Stosur - has also been dragging herself up the rankings, reaching a final earlier this month and getting back into the top 100.

Really dreadful result for Edmund today - losing to some guy ranked in the 200s. He's having a fairly awful time of it, with his coach having quit.

Cameron Norrie's opponent had to retire today so there could be an all-British clash if only Murray can beat Berrettini. Andy normally does well against the big servers as he returns so well. But it's asking a lot of him to beat a guy ranked as high as the Italian.

Murray has beaten Berrettini 7-6, 7-6 in a two-hour match. Only seen the stats which showed that each broke once in each set and that Andy's serving stats were pretty good.

Berrettini is ranked 13 so this is an excellent result for Andy who now plays Cameron Norrie. Dan Evans will now play Isner who bt Monfils in three.

LATER: Murray was down 5-3 in the first set and 2-0 down in the second before breaking back. The Italian twice had SP in the second-set tiebreak that Andy eventually won 9-7.

sirfredperry wrote:Murray has beaten Berrettini 7-6, 7-6 in a two-hour match. Only seen the stats which showed that each broke once in each set and that Andy's serving stats were pretty good.

Berrettini is ranked 13 so this is an excellent result for Andy who now plays Cameron Norrie. Dan Evans will now play Isner who bt Monfils in three.

LATER: Murray was down 5-3 in the first set and 2-0 down in the second before breaking back. The Italian twice had SP in the second-set tiebreak that Andy eventually won 9-7.

Another little step on the long road back. It proves that he is still capable of beating an in-form player inside the world top 20. Well done Andy.

Another Murray win but he takes 2hrs 52mins to see off Cameron Norrie.

Norrie was 5-2 up in the second set having lost the first 7-6, but Murray got it back on serve only to lose the second-set tiebreak.

But Norrie only got 11 points in the final set with Murray taking it 6-1. Thiem, almost certainly, will be next up for Murray who at the very least will have three matches under his belt this week.

I've just watched the replay of the Murray Norris match and if you'd not kept abreast of the Tennis news for the past three years, I'd defy anyone to notice any major difference

Service speeds are around what they always were and shot speed seems good. Movement is frigging amazing, considering!! Some classic 'only Murray can do that's moments as well

Thiem, who is arguably the only youngster, to make the strides he should have done, in the last two years, will of course beat him and Andy's next step will be beating the good players later in tournaments, ie fitness to last an event is the worry for me

Andy had a little kip before his press conference and admitted being fairly tired.

He said he'd tried to keep the points short at the end of the second set and throughout the third. Interestingly, it seemed it was Norrie that tired first, given how few points he won in that final set.

Agree that Thiem will beat Murray who at least has a day off. But it will be another three matches under Andy's belt.

Meanwhile, with the women, Andreescu's amazing run - 16 straight wins now - continues. Winners today included Barty and Kvitova who now meet.

Evans beaten by Isner 7-6, 7-5. You really have to take the tiebreaks in Isner matches as there is very little chance of ever breaking his serve.

For me I will be more interested in how competitive Andy can be tomorrow. Narrow set defeats and he can take a lot from that as Thiem is a top ten player in the world and Andy is on a long comeback trail. Already in Beijing though Andy has beaten a top twenty player and one just outside the top fifty so the signs are promising.

The day off will certainly help Andy. He'll be happy enough to get three matches in including two long ones on successive days.

May be too much to expect him to beat Thiem, but as CC says, making it competitive will be satisfying.

Dominic Thiem wins 6-2 7-6 against Andy Murray. From what I saw Andy moved well and was competitive although tie-breaker was a bit disappointing. All in all very encouraging considering that this was a QF against a player ranked so high.

Pretty much what most could have expected, with Murray at least making it reasonably competitive.

Andy said afterwards he was pleased with the week - three matches, feeling better all the time etc etc.

Murray gets a qualifier in round one in Shanghai and would then face Fognini or Querrey - could be worse.

Meanwhile, Djoko looks well on the way to winning Tokyo. He's a set up against Goffin and would then play Millman, a qualifier, in the final.

Osaka finally ended Andreescu's extraordinary run yesterday in what was reportedly a terrific match.

Dominic Thiem's opinion on Andy's level at the moment: "I was very impressed today.

But on the same time I knew that he's going to play very well because you don't beat players like Berrettini or Norrie for a reason. Also last week he was the only one to push de Minaur to the limit on the way to de Minaur's title.

I expected that he's going to play well. It's just impressive how he's coming back from his tough injury. It's great for everybody. It's great for us players, great for tennis in general. If he continues to play like in this week, we'll see him pretty soon on the top top again." .

Thiem just thru to the final after a 2hr 41 min battle with Khachanov. 2-6, 7-6, 7-5. Plays winner of Zverev-Tsitsipas in final.

Barty saved an MP before finally seeing off Bertens in three and will meet either Caroline W or Osaka in the final.

Qualifying-match wins today for Dan Evans and Norrie in Shanghai.

Tsitsipas bt Zverev in straight sets to set up a final with Thiem, while Osaka defeated Caroline W to make the final.

Tsitsipas bt Zverev in straight sets to set up a final with Thiem, while Osaka defeated Caroline W to make the final.

Djokovic returns from injury and wins the Japan Open beating Millman 6-2 6-3 in the Final.

Thiem beats Tsitsipas 3-6 6-4 6-1 to win the China Open

Yes, good wins for Djoko and Thiem while Osaka bt Barty.

Chardy proved too much for Dan Evans in Shanghai qualifying but Cameron Norrie made the main draw.

Murray will on Monday play qualifier Juan Ignacio Londero. The Argentinian has had a good season but this is a winnable match for Andy.

Cameron Norrie has beaten Simon in straight sets in Shanghai. Fed won't have to play Cilic in second round as Marin beaten by R-Vinolas.

Battle for the remaining WTF spots will really hot up in Shanghai, with so many London qualifying contenders in the field.

(duplicated post)

Bad times continue for Kyle Edmund. Sixth straight first round defeat in a row .... this time by Chardy.

What will it take for him to get back on track, I wonder

Yes, horrible run for Kyle. At least there was a welcome win for Heather Watson today - another Briton who's having a dreadful year.