2016 ATP Year-End Top 20 Rankings: Federer, Ferrer Fall; Pouille Rises

Karlovic has gotten better with age, and what, he’s now 37? The guy has had an amazing career considering he has one of the worst backhands on tour. Theim? Can he back it up and improve this year or will he be a pretender? Congrats to Murray, and there is no denying Novak had a fine year overall also, just some bad bumps….. Fed drops to 16? Oh well, gonna be some tough draws for him soon as a result. Rafa manages to stay in the top 10 despite his so so year. Not bad. Hope Delpo stays healthy for this coming year, he could do some majors (pun)damage.

Who would have thought that the rankings would turn out like this at the beginning of 2016?
Now who is going to win the Tennis X predictions this year? lol…..

November 30th, 2016 at 1:00 pm

WB,

If you read this:

Djoko and Boris will work together also next year. But Becker expects from Novak, that Pepe plays a smaller part in his coaching team. Am sure that neither Djoko or Boris will give an official statement about this condition. Would be weird. It seams yhey have spoken on the phone at Becker’s birthday.

http://www.sport.de/news/ne2525031/kehrtwende-becker-doch-weiter-djoker-coach/

Now I am really off :)

November 30th, 2016 at 1:16 pm

I Wouldnt be surprised if Delpo finally lives up to the hype and becomes a top 10 player, then again i wouldnt be surprised if he doesnt, as we seem to go down the same road every year ….

November 30th, 2016 at 2:41 pm

How good to see Milos, Thiem, Naughty Nick, Alexander and Lucas rising in the ranks. Big congratulations to them.
And to darling Andy of course :) Hope to see him there this time next year! Let’s Go Andy! Let’s Go!

November 30th, 2016 at 3:00 pm

Not even Laver could be top 3 for 10 years. His opponents weren’t generally as good as Novak.
Fed collapsed in a “weak year” with injured players.
He still couldn’t dominate the “unimpressive” and injured #1 player at the us open, but Fed beat Murray on grass.

November 30th, 2016 at 4:03 pm

VP,

Thanks, that’s good to hear. Their agreement from the very beginning was to work on the one year basis, then to discuss everything at the end of the season and decide whether to go continue for another year or not.

The more I read, in Serbian press, about Nole and Pepe, the more I realize that this was Nole payback to Pepe for helping his brother Marko to get out of depression (what was Nole major family problem in the last year), and not really some serious association with Pepe. Just saying thank you by putting Pepe on the front pages.
Marko went into serious depression for failing to live up to (tennis) standards of older brother, he stop communicating with people, couldn’t handle more that few people around, retrieved into himself, thought that wasn’t loved, avoided people and conversation, apparently Pepe helped him to get out off the dark place and Nole being Nole, felt that he has to give Pepe something back in return.

Cheers VP, enjoy coming holiday times:)

November 30th, 2016 at 4:41 pm

Good point Truth, I didn’t realize that this was tenth year in a row that Nole finished in the top 3, talking about consistency.

November 30th, 2016 at 5:33 pm

Skeezer i have been close before ;-)) ….

November 30th, 2016 at 5:35 pm

Wog Boy – that explains a lot. How could you expect to be as good as Novak – but of course this isn’t a question of logic.

November 30th, 2016 at 9:43 pm

1. Again congrats to the Murray Brothers and their proud parents on the unprecedented #1 finish of one in singles, the other in doubles.

2. Djokovic at the beginning of the year had to confront being a “veteran”. Most of his career after coming into full form has been the upstart, the youngest player in the Top 10 for more months than not until Kei and Milos came along. The upstart going after “the veterans”, as the media cast it. As this is his 10th year in Top 3, he sure is a vet. That only Connors, Ivan Lendl, and Roger have exceeded that mark is testimony to Djoker’s longevity, toughness, sustained excellence and belonging in any conversation about best player careers in their era.

3. Alex Zverev the first teen in Top 20 since Murray and Djokovic did it 10 years ago??? Rafa the year before them? Just amazing. On several levels.
Besides the German, the Austrian Dominic Thiem impressed me a lot with his game and “A level” quality of character and sportsmanship.

4. Don’t count Rafa out. He still made Top 10 in a year impacted by injury and the Djokovic Ascendancy when many were writing him off. Rafa is a tough b___d! If there is a way back he will try his damnest!!

5. Age waits for no one. We see the natural decline of career arc manifesting in not just Fed, but longtime stalwarts of the Top 10 like Tsonga leaving it, along with David Ferrer. Berdych (10) may not come back either. Yep, players get better with age, until they don’t, then start their fall from the peak – gracefully or not.

6. Tennis Magazine carried an article on speed of the top players, their court coverage. Djokovic and Simona Halep came out #1. The article unfortunately omitted Gael Monfils as a non-top player, but had great things to say about Rafa’s world class speed – fast enough for elite football, any field position…and lots of time on Andy. Almost as good as Djokovic on court coverage and faster than Djokovic on short forward acceleration (better than Usain Bolt’s 1st 10 meter times). And coaches have noted that younger Andy was an Olympic prospect in track at 400 meters, trained with Olympians – could well have gone under 53 seconds perhaps in sub-50 sec territory had he gone with track and field over tennis. Like Nadal with football, and Djokovic with down hill skiing – Andy made the right choice to stick with tennis.
Amazingly, stats also show Milos Raonic is now in the top 7 on the men’s side in rated court coverage ability.
Lessons:
A. Look for speed in the NextGen. Who has it.
B. If you are not a speedster, a great serve and tons of practice sessions playing Djokovic helps enormously.

December 1st, 2016 at 7:00 am

LOL Dont count out Rafa, err nobody was ! ….

December 1st, 2016 at 7:34 am