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Thanks to the United Cup and a couple of 250 events last week, it’s fair to say that the ATP Tour is back in full swing. To be specific, the two 250 events held last week were the Adelaide International and the Tata Open in India. Since the Australian Open is so close, many of the game’s biggest names were involved in the action last week. This is true for the two 250 tournaments as well as the United Cup.
And if you tuned in for the action in any of these tournaments, you’d have been treated to some fantastic tennis. Djokovic once again showed us why he is still at the top of the game. The USA demonstrated unreal team spirit to take home the United Cup. Then Tallon Griekspoor managed to capture the title in India to enjoy a huge rise in his ranking ahead of the 2023 Australian Open.
Given that this is the first ATP rankings update since the start of December, there has been quite a bit of movement to report on. Therefore, without wasting any more time, let me get into the meat of these updates.
Week Commencing January 9th – ATP Rankings Updates
Contents
In case this is the first time that you are checking out these updates, let me quickly give you the scoop. Each week throughout the ATP season, I will be reporting the biggest stories concerning increases/decreases in the rankings for players inside the top 100. I also concentrate on the single biggest news story relating to the ATP rankings at the end of each update.
This way, I can be confident that I’ve covered all of the main information that you should know for these weekly updates. But of course, here I will be discussing the main stories for the ATP rankings updates as of January 9th. So here we go:
The Week’s Biggest Climbers
As you’ve probably gathered from the title of the article, there are two guys that have absolutely killed it this week. These two guys are Benjamin Bonzi of France and Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands. As it happens, both of these guys played in the 250 event in India. Since Griekspoor edged out Bonzi in the final, he gained the most points this week. And as a result, he has moved from 95 in the rankings up to 61 – a jump of 34 places, which is epic for him.
As for Benjamin Bonzi, his performance in Tata has also served his ATP ranking very well. He has enjoyed a 10-place rise from number 60 to 50. Once again, I’d like to remind you that this is huge for their Australian Open campaign in just a week’s time. However, there is one other guy who has been quietly grinding away over the last 7 days. Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics has posted a 14-place rise this week too.
The reason I say that this has been ‘quiet’ is because Fucsovics choose to play a Challenger instead of the 250 events. As you’ve probably guessed, he won the Challenger that he played in Canberra, jumping to number 73 in the ATP rankings as a result. Then again, Fucsovics is a guy that has been right at the top of the game in the past. So I can’t say that it is entirely surprising to see him getting back up there.
I just hope he keeps this kind of form going into the 2023 Australian Open as he’s a very exciting player to watch.
The Week’s Biggest Fallers
If you turn your attention to the dark side of the coin, so to speak, a few players haven’t exactly jumped out of the blocks quickly. In fact, there is one guy who has fallen far harder than any other player in the top 100 this week. Unfortunately, that man is the very entertaining Frenchman, Gael Monfils. Sadly for Monfils, as well as his fans, he is still struggling with injury and unable to compete.
Because of this, Monfils has slipped by 31 places this week to a new ranking of 83. Again, this isn’t due to poor performances, it’s simply down to a lack of competition. And the other guy who has posted a pretty drastic decline this week is Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak. He is also suffering from injury, and he hasn’t actually competed since October 2022. Yet since the ATP rankings are based on rolling points, he has lost points this week and subsequently fallen by 19 spots to number 96.
At this point, it’s looking likely that he will fall outside of the top 100 too, which is a shame. As for the biggest fallers higher up the rankings, Bautista-Agut is the guy that has dropped off this week. Since he only made the round of 16 in Adelaide, despite losing to the finalist, he has lost points too. This has resulted in a drop of 5 spots for the Spaniard, putting him into his new place of number 26.
Top Rankings Stories
Given his unbelievable rankings rise over the previous week, the main story for me has to be the fairytale of Tallon Griekspoor. This victory in the Tata Open was actually the first ATP title that Griekspoor has won in his career. For many people, this may come as a bit of a surprise since he is 26 years of age. And on top of that, Griekspoor has been one of the most successful players of all time when you look at the Challenger Circuit.
Yet like many players, it’s been a struggle for him to really break through on the ATP Tour. But as you can see, that’s exactly what Griekspoor has done this week by capturing the 250 title in India. However, perhaps more interestingly, his new ranking of 61 isn’t his career high. He has been as high as 44 in the world back in August 2022. Yet, to be honest, I am sure that he would prefer a tournament victory and a new ranking of 61 over having a ranking of 44 without a tournament win.
Of course, this bodes well for Griekspoor when looking ahead to the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne.
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