By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday August 5, 2019
It was an eventful week of tennis across the globe with tournaments on clay (Kitzbuhel) in Europe, and on Hardcourts in the U.S. and Mexico (Citi Open, San Jose and Los Cabos). So what did we learn? Tennis Now’s Chris Oddo breaks down some of the finer points of the week that was in tennis.
It was a busy week in tennis. Yeah, nothing new there, right? Before I get into my main points here's a list off the top of my head of things I didn't get to in the below piece, but still enjoyed over the course of the last seven days.
Stuff I didn’t talk about but also enjoyed:
Tsitsipas shoegate, Jannik Sinner’s challenger title in Lexington, the fact that it didn’t rain in D.C. this year, Daniil Medvedev’s solid play, Aryna Sabalenka’s return to form, the shot that Horia Tecau took to the head in the men’s doubles final in D.C. (doubles, rough game), Karen Khachanov working with Nikolay Davydenko, and how many fans turned out in Kitzbuhel to embrace the sport and local hero Dominic Thiem.
And now, on to the deep thoughts...
The Best of Kyrgios Was on Display, and We Were Entertained
We saw it in Acapulco in February and early March, when Nick Kyrgios came into that town like a tornado and swept away with the title, after he saved three match points to defeat Rafael Nadal in a head-spinning round of 16 encounter.
Kyrgios created an interesting energy during the tournament, he spent most of the evening out with his buddies having fun in the Mexican resort town, and he played and acted like a man possessed. Kyrgios is one of the few players out there who NEEDS a little chaos to thrive. He likes a bit of humor, a bit of drama and a bit of unpredictability, and during this breakthrough week in Mexico he seemed to stumble upon some sort of magic formula.
He was playful. He was sublime. He was far from perfect (did you see him chuck that water bottle into the umpire’s chair and then claim, jokingly, that it slipped out of his hands?). He was kid-like, and spent hours playing ping-pong with kids in the player’s lounge before his matches. But in the end one thing stood out about Kyrgios’ run at the Citi Open: He did it on his terms, and when Kyrgios creates the energy he likes to have swirling around him when he plays, it motivates him and takes his game to that next level that we all crave.
Can't think of anybody else this approach would work for, but it does--clearly--work for Nick.
That’s what we saw on Saturday when he saved a match point to defeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in an epic semi-final (and delivered the Aussie’s shoes to him rather comically in the process), and that’s what we saw in the final when he struggled with back tightness yet still had the wherewithal and the sheer firepower to take down tricky Daniil Medvedev.
All three of Kyrgios’ 500-level titles have been magnificent, and each time he has proven to the tennis community what we all believed, but weren’t really sure about: He’s one of the best players in the sport when he’s motivated.
The question now becomes: Can he keep creating the motivation consistently, and—naturally—can he do it at the Masters 1000 and Grand Slam level?
Personally I have believed that it was unlikely, even after that brilliant title in Acapulco, but now that Kyrgios has caught lightning in a bottle twice in a five-month span, I’m inclined to think that the Kyrgios is evolving in the right way. He has a unique, some would say nutso way of doing things, but the fact that he is creating a winning environment for himself out on court bodes well for his future.
Sure he teeters on the edge a bit much, and we saw him do this against Tsitsipas in the second set of the pair’s semi-final on Saturday where Kyrgios let the crowd get to him and started to react childishly to what he perceived to be improper reactions from fans. But Kyrgios is getting closer to finding that magical muse of his on a regular basis, and the more he can connect with this rare and raw energy, the more he’ll be a player that plays to his potential.
But be warned: There will be turbulence on this flight, so buckle in and enjoy the ride.
Zheng Saisai Emerges
Over on the other coast, the left coast as it is called by Americans, China’s Zheng Saisai was putting on a veritable clinic in San Jose. She reeled off wins against four seeded players and put on display some of the finest defense and counterpunching that I’ve seen in a long time. Great (MAIDEN) title for Zheng, and she’s now officially a player to watch for the rest of the hardcourt season. I was most impressed by her movement and her ability to track down balls with relative ease. She prolonged so many points in her victory over Aryna Sabalenka and took down a world-class talent to win the title.
Thiem and Schwartzman Show their Class
It was great to see Dominic Thiem finally win his hometown title at Kitzbuhel. It was a title that Thiem had wanted to win for a long time and yet somehow he kept having difficulty doing it. Of course it’s never easy playing clay-court tennis after Wimbledon, even for a clay guru like Thiem. The body can be weary after a long summer spent switching surfaces and Thiem could use some rest for sure. That’s why it’s even more impressive, what the Austrian has done. He can win even when he’s fatigued, or not playing his best tennis these days. He’s confident. He’s proven. He’s going to be a factor on hardcourts as well—once he gets some rest.
Also: Kudos to Diego Schwartzman for winning his first hardcourt title. Watch out for this guy at any tournament in South America. And for those who didn’t tune into Los Cabos this year, rest assured that Schwartzman played with the same vitality and passion that he always does, and he took down a very talented player in Taylor Fritz to claim the title (he also beat the red-hot Guido Pella in the semis).
Fritz has also been in good form as well. The American has reached three finals in his last four events and rises to No.25 in the world today—he’ll be a player to watch for the rest of this season.
Doubles at Citi Open? More, Please...
It was great to see the first edition of the Citi Open in the Mark Ein era. The savvy entrepreneur and owner of the WTT’s Washington Kastles took over management rights of the event this year and he introduced some big changes. The doubles event was magnificent, as Ein played a role in bringing Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kyrgios together, while he also landed the Murray Brothers. Neither team made a deep run, but the energy of the first few days of the tournament was elevated considerably thanks to these two spectacles.
And how about the packed house out on John Harris Court for the women's doubles final on Saturday? That was special.
This should be the first of many changes at the Citi Open and we look forward to what Ein can do to transform and elevate an event that has shown great potential, but needed a bit of prodding to really get across to fans on a global scale.
Anisimova in Tears
One of the most stunning moments of the week in tennis was watching Amanda Anisimova battle, and lose, to China’s Zheng Saisai in three sets in the quarter-finals at San Jose.
I’m not sure if there’s a point to be made about the difficulties that teenagers face on tour, because we’ve seen plenty of older women crying and experiencing great emotional and physical duress on court. So maybe let's not use Anisimova's tears as a pro age eligibility argument, but we digress...
Anisimova was clearly suffering in this match, feeling ill or unwell, and she was bawling during the changeover between the second and third sets. At the time I remember thinking to myself: "I’m not even going to Tweet about this directly because I feel for the poor kid."
A WTA Trainer came out and covered Anisimova’s head with a towel to keep cameras away, and the American soldiered on, battling fatigue and an in-form Zheng before falling in three sets and two hours and 52 minutes.
It was strange watching Anisimova, usually so stoic, struggle so outwardly. But I was really impressed with the fact that she never quit. Anisimova very nearly won that match against the woman who would come away with the title a few days later. It was a valiant effort and one that further solidifies this writer’s belief in the competitive fire that the rising Anisimova possesses.
Speaking of American Women, There’s More.. .
17-year-old Anisimova might be the crème de la crème of the American WTA teenagers right now, but boy what excitement we saw in San Jose where 15-year-old Coco Gauff qualified for the draw, while 17-year-old Caty McNally reached the semis. There was also 17-year-old Hailey Baptiste, a homegrown D.C. product and potential star, who stunned Madison Keys in the first round.
And let us not forget the doubles tandem of McCoco—Gauff and McNally—who won the U.S. Open juniors title last year as a team. This year they are large and in charge on the senior tour, as they won the doubles title in D.C.
And after all that went down, Jessie Pegula stormed to her first WTA title at the Citi Open, defeating Camila Giorgi in the final.
There are currently seven American women in the Top 50, and 23 in the Top 150—that’s wildly impressive from a depth standpoint.