Tuesday, June 07, 2016

TENNIS TUESDAY: Muguruza Soars To WTA #2, Thiem Hits ATP #7, Grass Season Begins



WTA Rankings: Muguruza #2 (And Closing On Serena), Venus Back In Top 10, Kiki Goes +68
This week's WTA rankings are out and, as expected, 2016 French Open champion Garbine Muguruza is at World #2. She is close enough behind Serena that it is possible (but unlikely) that if the Spaniard were to defend all her 1365 Wimbledon finalist points and Serena Williams not defend her Wimbledon champion points, the 22-year-old could claim the #1 spot for the first time. Venus Williams has returned to the WTA top 10, landing at #9 and will most likely be seeded #8 at Wimbledon because #8 Belinda Bencic is injured. After her Roland Garros triumphs, Kiki Bertens jumps 68 places from #96 to #27. She will almost certainly be seeded at Wimbledon, and play for a medal in Rio.

ATP Rankings: Thiem Enters Top 10, Goffin Knocking At #11, Djokovic Nearly Double #2
After battling each other for a major semifinal spot, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin have career high rankings, landing at #7 and #11, respectively. By dint of his holding all four major titles simultaneously, Djokovic has a record number of ATP ranking points (16,950) which is almost double the total of World #2 Andy Murray. Despite leaving his favorite tournament early due to a serious wrist injury, Rafael Nadal moved up to #4 in the rankings which should prevent him from a quarterfinal meeting with anyone else in the Top 4 at Wimbledon.

Djokovic Blows Past $100 Million Career Prize Money:  $101,917,404
With his win on Sunday, Novak Djokovic is slowly making his case to be considered the greatest of all time. By holding all four major titles simultaneously he has accomplished something neither of his contemporaries (Federer and Nadal) have done, and thanks to the monotonic increase in prize money with time, Djokovic is almost certain to end with more prize money than either of them either. Due to his unprecedented success in the ATP Masters Series event, he has earned more than $101 million in his time on tour, and he is not yet 30.

The Grass Season Begins And Federer Returns In Stuttgart, Brown Wins in Manchester
This year Federer is playing not one but two Wimbledon warm-up tournaments, in Stuttgart and Halle. He has reached the Wimbledon final the last two years, losing both times to Novak. Dustin Brown won a grass court challenger tournament in Manchester over the weekend and is now back into the Top 100.

Tommy Haas Hasn't Retired (Yet) But Has Been Announced As Indian Wells Tournament Director
After the collapse of support for Raymond Moore as longtime director of the ATP masters tournament in Indian Wells due to his rampant misogyny and sexism, a search was conducted for a new TD. The announcement was made last week that Tommy Haas (who is still an active member of the ATP Tour, and very popular among the players) has been named as the new Indian Wells tournament director, subject to the approval of the boards of the WTA and ATP.

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