Tsitsipas wins in Lyon his 7th title, Ruud in Geneva his 2nd and rises from 15 to 13 in the JFB Ranking

23Mai
von Jürgen Fritz

By Jürgen Fritz, Sun 23 Mai 2021, Cover picture: © JFB

In Geneva, Norwegian Casper Ruud won the E tournament (ATP 250) with a victory in the final over Denis Shapovalov, in Lyon (E) Stefanos Tsitsipas won his seventh ATP title with a final victory over Cameron Norrie. In the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking Ruud rises from 15 to 13, Shapovalov from 19 to 18 and Norrie from 30 to 25.

Ruud wins his second ATP title in Geneva

Both are 22 years old. Both are among the top 20 in the world, on their way to the top ten. Both had won an ATP tournament so far. In this respect, the final in Geneva (E category) on Saturday was very interesting. Who would be able to prevail against the other? Denis Shapovalov from Canada, who is four months younger, has clearly been traded higher than the Norwegian Casper Ruud in recent years. Shapovalov was also in the top ten for a short time, but could not establish himself there. And in the last twelve to 18 months, Ruud has gradually moved past the Canadian.

In the final, as in the last few months, it became clear that Ruud simply plays more consistently than Shapovalov, who keeps hammering out incredible balls, but is also very error-prone and fluctuates in his performances. That is why this title rightly goes to Ruud, who beat Shapovalov 7-66, 6-4 and can now call two ATP tournament victories his own.

The Norwegian also seems to have established himself in the Top 15. In the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking he climbs from 15 to 13, Shapovalov from 19 to 18. The newly crowned Geneva champion can also be counted on for the French Open (A), which starts in a week’s time. He himself said he wanted to reach the second week there, i.e. at least the last 16 in the 128-player main draw. That should be possible in any case. With a bit of luck, depending on how the tournament goes, maybe even the quarter-finals. Ruud is definitely a very strong player on clay, and in my opinion he is already one of the ten best players in the world on this surface.

Lyon: Seventh tournament win for Tsitsipas

On Sunday, 22-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas won his seventh ATP title at the other E tournament in Lyon. In the final he met Cameron Norrie from Great Britain, whom he defeated 6-3, 6-3. And the Greek should definitely make at least the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, if not more. Actually, he belongs at least in the semi-finals in Paris.

Tsitsipas is already leading the 2021 ATP Race, so he is the most successful player in the world in 2021 so far (ahead of Djokovic, Rublev, Zverev, Medvedev and Nadal). With his successes in Lyon this week, he is even extending his lead a little further. In the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking, Tsitsipas remains at 6, but with the 10 points for winning the tournament, he has now drawn level with Zverev in terms of points.

Tsitsipas, who won his first C tournament in Monte Carlo in April, is really fired up for Roland Garros, wants a really big title now, you can feel it. Lyon is just the prelude for him.

But for now, congratulations to Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitspas for their great performances and the well-deserved tournament wins in Geneva and Lyon!

Tournament wins of the top seven plus Federer

With his seventh ATP tournament win, Tsitsipas also moves closer to Rublev and Medved in career titles. Here is an overview of how many tournaments the top seven and Federer have won in their careers so far:

A tournaments: the four Grand Slam events – B tournaments: the Olympic Games and the ATP Finals – C tournaments: the nine Masters 1000 – D tournaments: the 13 ATP 500s – E tournaments: the 40 or so ATP 250s

  1. Roger Federer (39 years): 103 tournament wins ==> 20 – 6 – 28 – 24 – 25
  2. Rafael Nadal (34): 88 tournament wins ==> 20 – 1 – 36 – 22 – 9
  3. Novak Djokovic (34): 82 tournament wins ==> 18 – 5 – 36 – 14 – 9
  4. Dominic Thiem (27): 17 tournament wins ==> 1 – 0 – 1 – 5 – 10
  5. Alexander Zverev (24): 15 tournament wins ==> 0 – 1 – 4 – 3 – 7
  6. Daniil Medvedev (25): 10 tournament wins ==> 0 – 1 – 3 – 1 – 5
  7. Andrey Rublev (23): 8 tournament wins ==> 0 – 0 – 0 – 4 – 4
  8. Stefanos Tsitsipas (22): 7 tournament wins ==> 0 – 1 – 1 – 0 – 5

Tsitsipas, who is the youngest of this super eight, has one tournament win less than Rublev, but has already won the ATP Finals (B) and a Masters 1000 (C) in Monte Carlo, while Rublev has only won ATP 500s (D) and ATP 250s (E).

Career single titles by weighting

If we award 1 point for an E tournament win (ATP 250), 2 points for a D tournament win (ATP 500), 4 points for wins at a Masters 1000 (C), 6 points for an ATP Finals champion (B), 7 points for an Olympic gold medal (B) in singles and 10 points for a Grand Slam triumph (A), we arrive at the following points:

  1. Roger Federer (39 years): 421
  2. Rafael Nadal (34): 404
  3. Novak Djokovic (34): 391
  4. Alexander Zverev (24): 35
  5. Dominic Thiem (27): 34
  6. Daniil Medvedev (25): 25
  7. Stefanos Tsitsipas (22): 15
  8. Andrey Rublev (23): 12

The JFB 52 Week Tennis World Rankings as of 24 May 2021

And here’s how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Rankings look after Geneva and Lyon:

2021-05-24-A

2021-05-24-B

(c) JFB

As you can see, the top seven are playing in a league of their own. They all have about two to three times as many points as number eight. Tsitsipas is now tied on points with Zverev after his tournament win in Lyon. However, the German needed fewer tournaments to reach the same number of points.

Novak Djokovic, who was disqualified at the US Open (A), who did not compete in Paris-Bercy (C), Rotterdam (D), Dubai or Acapulco (D), Miami (C) and Madrid (C), who was eliminated early in Monte Carlo (C) and Serbia Open (E) and could not defend his title in Rome (C), had dropped from 1 to 2 in the 52-week ranking. He will compete in the Belgrade Open (E) this week (23.05. to 29.05.2021), which has a very weak field (no other top 30 player competing). Should he reach the final in this tournament, for which he would then receive 6 points, he will overtake Daniil Medvedev and be the world No. 1 again in the JFB 52 Week Ranking.

Here you can read how the JFB 52 Week Tennis World Ranking works.

*

Active support: Jürgen Fritz Blog (JFB) is completely independent and free of charge (no paywall). However, it costs money, time and a lot of work to be able to offer articles at this level regularly and permanently. If you would like to honour my work accordingly, you can do so by classic bank transfer to:

Jürgen Fritz, IBAN: DE44 5001 0060 0170 9226 04, BIC: PBNKDEFF, reason for payment: JFB. Or via  PayPal – 3 EUR – 5 EUR – 10 EUR – 20 EUR – 50 EUR – 100 EUR