Ranking the Most Unpredictable Tennis Players Today

Unpredictability can be both a blessing and a curse in tennis.

For spectators, we are perpetually longing for a shock to partly reaffirm our devotion to the game. We come for the likes of Novak Djokovic, but we stay for the likes of Gael Monfils.

Nick Kyrgios is another who falls into Monfils' category: a wonderfully inventive player capable of both winning a Grand Slam and losing to an unheralded unknown.

The following slides will rank the most unpredictable players in the game, from both the ATP and WTA tours. 

5. Fabio Fognini

Thibault Camus/Associated Press

Fabio Fognini has beaten Rafael Nadal twice this year. He has also gone out in the second round or earlier in nine of his 13 tournaments. Work that one out.

The Italian reached the final in Rio, beating Nadal 1-6, 6-2, 7-5, but lost to David Ferrer. A bit of Spanish retribution, if you will.

It makes it all the more staggering that he should lose to 107th-ranked Alejandro Gonzalez in the first round at the Australian Open. 

Fognini also lost to Benoit Paire at Roland Garros in straight sets, but he beat Grigor Dimitrov on the way to the R16 at the Rome Masters.

Fabio, you're a conundrum. A great entertainer, but, right now, that's all you are.

4. Grigor Dimitrov

Felice Calabro'/Associated Press

It can't be easy to live with the pressure of fulfilling expectation.

Just ask Grigor Dimitrov.

He is a sponsor's dream; if only his results were a little more consistent.

An excellent result against Stan Wawrinka in Madrid was exactly the type of win we were expecting from Dimitrov. Or, as so many have called him, Baby Fed.

He might rue the day that slightly trite nickname was given life, predominantly because of results like the one he suffered against Ryan Harrison in Acapulco. He lost one set 6-0 to the American on the way to an unexpected defeat.

Jack Sock beat him in straight sets in Paris to further shake his foundations. The question is: Will those foundations eventually give way? Will potential go perennially unfulfilled?  

3. Nick Kyrgios

David Vincent/Associated Press

Nick Kyrgios is more than a showman. 

This is a player who, like Dimitrov, can be anything he has designs to be. 

He's already somewhat of a cult hero for his expressive tennis and unexpected win over Rafa Nadal at Wimbledon last year.

Kyrgios could do with Wimbledon being the setting for another storming performance.

Andy Murray was simply too good at Roland Garros. There is no shame in that. However, losing to 192nd-ranked Elias Ymer in Barcelona is the sort of result that brings people back to Earth with a bump and a couple of scratches.

Kyrgios is bold enough to shrug it off. But, right now, he can't escape the fact that we simply have no idea what he's going to do next. That, it should be said, isn't all bad.

For this reason, he is placed higher than Dimitrov and Fognini in this ranking.

2. Petra Kvitova

Thibault Camus/Associated Press

A two-time Wimbledon winner, Petra Kvitova has proven more than once her ability.

It's just that she has a habit of making us wonder where it's hidden.

Not for the first time this year, we peered through our fingers at the French Open wondering how she was contriving to thud into a surmountable hurdle.

Timea Bacsinszky beat her in the round of 16, even winning the second set 6-0. This is not the Kvitova who crushed Eugenie Bouchard, at the time hardly a wilting flower, more a thorny rose, at Wimbledon.

Madison Brengle beat her in Stuttgart, too, but Serena Williams was among Kvitova's victims in her Madrid title win.

Such is Kvitova's inconsistency, it would be little surprise to see her walk Wimbledon again. This Grand Slam success makes her unpredictability all the more startling, and places her above Kyrgios, Dimitrov and Fognini in this particular ranking. 

1. Gael Monfils

David Vincent/Associated Press

As noted with Kyrgios earlier, unpredictability can be a good thing.

Gael Monfils is the living embodiment. Kyrgios squared, if you will.

With a raucous Court Philippe Chatrier behind him he is charged to an almost unstoppable level. The adoring French crowd and the willing performer is a powerful fusion.

It's a shame for Monfils he can't have that backing every week. If he had, he would probably be a Grand Slam winner.

He shouldn't change his style or his temperament, not that anyone would be able to convince him. He is the unpredictable star that tennis needs. Like I said, that need be no bad thing.