The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsThis is the first article in what will be a regular feature looking the ATP Tour, written for the Sports Lowdown by Roger Mottram.
It was a week to forget for the seeded players in this week’s tournaments with Marin Cilic the only seeded player to make a final, doing so in Marseille. However, the former US Open Champion found himself up against Australian, Nick Kyrgios who was in great form. The 20 year old has won his first ATP World Tour title, demolishing Cilic in straight sets, 6-2 7-6. The Aussie, who was followed by the Australian fanatics every step of the way, had to beat two top 10 players on the way to the final, beating Richard Gasquet 6-0 6-4 and World Number 8 Tomas Byrdych 6-3 6-2, the first time anyone under 21 has achieved this feat since Juan Martin Del Potro in 2009. Meanwhile Cilic had to beat Benoit Paire, conqueror of Stan Wawrinka, Robin Hasse and Andrey Kuznetsov. The results in Marseille will see Kyrgios move up to 33rd in the rankings.
The most shocking results this week however came at Delray Beach in Florida, as top 3 seeds Kevin Anderson, Bernard Tomic and Ivo Karlovic were all beaten in the first round and 4th seed Grigor Dimitrov beaten by Rajeev Ram in the semi finals. This meant that Sam Querey picked up his first title in almost 4 years and 8th title in his career, in the all American final, beating Ram comfortably in straight sets, 6-4 7-6. However, Ram will not be displeased overall, as he will move to a career high of 60 in the rankings. Meanwhile, Sam Querrey is back into the top 50 rising 18 places to Number 43. Also pleasing to see was the long awaited return of injury specialist and part time tennis player, Juan Martin Del Potro, who was given a wildcard at the event and managed to make it all the way to the semifinal, losing to the eventual winner, Sam Querrey, 7-5 7-5, but will leap up in the rankings by 622 places to 420 and will hope to continue with his progress this year.
There were more shocking results on the clay in Rio, as last week’s champion in Beunos Aires, Dominic Thiem, who beat Rafa Nadal on the clay, was beaten easily by Guido Pella in the semifinals. Thiem will be impressed with his recent form however as he beat David Ferrer in the quarter finals and has looked impressive so far this year. Elsewhere it was another disappointing week for Rafa Nadal, who lost in a very close semi final to Pablo Cuevas, where Nadal, despite playing on clay, still did not look comfortable and looked very nervous every time he had a chance to close a set or break of serve out. 3rd and 4th seeds Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and John Isner respectively both lost their first round ties as well as 6th seed Jack Sock. Pablo Cuevas was the eventual winner in Rio clinching the title 6-4 6-7 6-4, and in doing so, won his first ATP 500 title. It has been a great week for Guido Pella despite the loss. Pella, who was announced in the Argentine Davis Cup team for the first time, will rise from 4th best Argentine in the rankings to the 2nd best, 2 places behind Leonardo Mayer at a career high of 42. The result sees Cuevas rise to back into the top 30, at 27.
Next week sees the return of Novak Djokovic in Dubai and Kei Nishikori in Abierto Mexicano, at ATP 500 events, with an ATP 250 event in Sao Paolo.
