February's Tennis Player of the Month Featured in Winners and Losers
February is a transitional time when the tennis superstars rest from the rigors of the Australian Open and the upcoming Masters 1000 tournaments. Roger Federer was unable to play because of knee surgery, and Novak Djokovic’s 17 straight appearances in a tournament final came to an end.
Even without a full cast of stars, the consolation tennis was entertaining and significant. While the great Rafael Nadal plummeted on South American clay, Austrian sensation Dominic Thiem rose up for 13 wins.
There were clay-court titles from journeyman Pablo Cuevas and tremors from 18-year-old American Taylor Fritz. Stan Wawrinka and Nick Kyrgios even made tennis waves in the past two weeks.
Who was our choice for player of the month?
There were struggles in the WTA, which continued to see many of its favorite seeds swirl and disappear like chaff in the wind. What will this mean as bigger tournaments come into focus?
All of this and more in February’s final edition of “Winners and Losers,” where we offer our commentary for trending results and players in professional tennis.
Loser: Roger Federer's Delayed Return
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Roger Federer made the cautious call to withdraw from Indian Wells. The Swiss star has been rehabilitating from knee surgery following the Australian Open, but it was going to be difficult for competitive play so soon after hitting the practice courts.
“The rehab for my knee is going really well!” Federer said on his Facebook page (via ATP World Tour). “I have now had a lot of great practices on the court and in the gym. As it is a long year, I don't want to push it too hard and come back too soon.”
The 34-year-old has rarely had extended time off from injury in his career, but he will miss arguably the best non-major on the ATP tour. It’s a loss for the tournament, fans of tennis and those in the southwest United States planning for a glimpse of the Swiss legend.
He will return in April at the Monte Carlo Masters, which is not ideal for him given that the red clay is not his forte. By then, he just needs matches, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him add another tournament before the French Open.
It also begs the question why Federer would not target a return to competitive tennis at the sultry hard courts of the Miami Masters, which follows Indian Wells later in March. Perhaps it’s still too soon to test the injury and it would not be worth a trip across the Atlantic Ocean.
Winner: Marcos Baghdatis
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This will be a Marcos Baghdatis time warp. Ten years after making a splash all the way to the Australian Open and taking the first set from Roger Federer in the final, the Bag Man is reminding us of his once touted potential.
Always recognizable by his headband, swarthy features and sad eyes, the 30-year-old is no longer so nimble with his groundstokes and defense.
The past week, Baghdatis marched through a depleted Dubai bracket before bowing to Stan Wawrinka in the final. He was the underdog in every match, but defeated Viktor Troicki, Vasek Pospisil, Roberto Bautista Agut and Feliciano Lopez. Conspicuously absent from the top of the bracket was world No. 1 Novak Djokovic who had to withdraw in the Lopez match with an eye infection.
It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed when Baghdatis looked like one of the bright young stars of the ATP. He was a Wimbledon semifinalist and opponent of Andre Agassi’s epic comeback—and final career win—at the 2006 U.S. Open as documented in the American star's autobiography Open.
We’re not writing Baghdatis’ obituary, but sometimes we don’t notice when players quietly slip away. In 2006, he was an impact player, and he will always carry this reminder as he plays on in the twilight of his career.
Loser: Dubai's Star Power
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It was a disappointing year for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Although Cyprus native Marcos Baghdatis gave the Middle East a worthy run to the final, the main tennis attractions were unable to compete deep into the week.
The greatest disappointment was losing seven-time Dubai champion Roger Federer a few weeks ago to knee surgery. The Swiss is the tennis equivalent of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, but he was unable to compete this year.
There were two other huge disappointments by midweek. World No. 1 Novak Djokovic had to retire from his quarterfinal contest with Feliciano Lopez due to an infection in his eyes. It snapped his remarkable streak of 17 straight appearances in a tournament final. There's your classic anticlimax.
Then, Nick Kyrgios—playing the best tennis of his young career—retired from his showdown with Stan Wawrinka, because of a bad back. His track to superstardom will have to be put on hold for at least another week, as long as the hype machine can show restraint.
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Winner: Stan Wawrinka
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Long before Nick Kyrgios pulled out of their Dubai semifinal match, Stan Wawrinka was hammering his young, Australian antagonist.
If this were a boxing match, it would have been a second-round technical knockout with Wawrinka up 6-4, 3-0. For the Swiss, this result that must have been inwardly satisfying as well as the key step to his title.
Kyrgios was hampered with a bad back, winning only 14 of 38 service points. That’s not going to get it done at a local tennis club let alone against Wawrinka’s fine day of bashing tennis balls.
How much of this was a symbolic day of reckoning from Wawrinka to Kyrgios after their ugly affair at Canada last August when the Australian crossed the line with personal remarks about his opponent’s girlfriend?
“He’s a tennis player, I’m a tennis player,” Wawrinka said in Fox Sports. “We are not friends, for sure. We don’t go for dinner together. But there is nothing else. We see each other on the Tour every week almost. That’s it.”
Meanwhile, Wawrinka keeps winning. His championship win over Marcos Baghdatis was the ninth straight time winning in a final since 2014, a startling reversal after losing nine of his first 13 times in a final prior to 2014.
The Swiss might not publicly speak his mind, but this Dubai title has to rank as one of his biggest five career accomplishments. Here’s our version of “Wawrinka's Greatest Hits” with key victories noted:
- 2015 French Open (defeated Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic)
- 2014 Australian Open (defeated Djokovic and Rafael Nadal)
- 2014 Monte Carlo Masters (defeated Federer)
- 2008 Olympics doubles gold with Roger Federer
- 2016 Dubai championship (defeated Kyrgios)
Loser: WTA Stars Struggle in Qatar
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The WTA tour continues to hemorrhage from poor performances from its top players, and these are just the players who are able (or willing) to show up and play. It’s been a forgettable February with the kind of burnout that should probably be more aligned with October or November.
This past week Qatar hosted the most competitive bracket of the week, but it was quickly smothered in flames.
Angelique Kerber, Simona Halep and Belinda Bencic did not win a match. Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitiva were gone before the semifinals.
Eventually Carla Suarez Navarro held up the trophy as the No. 8 seed.
Qatar’s lackluster tournament followed on the heels of horrifying results from Dubai in which none of the top eight seeds won a single match. Was Qatar merely progress, like climbing halfway out of a dark well?
We're not even going to mention that the 41-match winning streak from super doubles team Martina Hingis and Mirza Sania came to an end. OK, so we're not going to rub it in. Congratulations for their excellence stretching back to last August.
The women’s tour needs a healthy top 10 for Indian Wells, and they need some noteworthy matches from its stars.
Winner: Pablo Cuevas
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Call Pablo Cuevas a late-blooming clay-court specialist, but for the second straight week he is the king of Brazil and now the author of a nine-match winning streak.
Just over a week ago, the Uruguayan stood with three career titles, but he now has five after back-to-back weekly championships. All of his singles titles have occurred since July 2014, half a year from his 29th birthday.
The key was his victory over Rafael Nadal in last week’s semifinal, according to his comments in ATP World Tour after sweeping Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. This week he held up as a favorite in a draw without superstars, outlasting a competitive bracket with gritty South American and Spanish clay-courters.
Up to No. 25 in the ATP rankings, could Cuevas be a surprise winner on Europe’s red clay? He’s one of many pesky players who can grind with a big kick serve, slice, deal heavy topspin and create tough angles with his one-handed backhand.
For fans of doubles tennis, Cuevas was one half of the 2008 team to win the French Open. He’s as versatile as a potato and as skilled as an artisan, even if he will never have a superstar legacy.
Loser: Disappointments in Mexico
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There are typically more disappointments than success in tennis. Mathematically, it has to be this way with often 32-128 players in a draw and only one eventual winner.
Occasionally, lower-ranked players score successful runs with a few victories and no cigar, but for the superstars it’s usually championship or bust.
But a real disappointment is a talented or highly seeded player biting the dust in the early rounds of a tournament. At Mexico's hard courts this past week, four players flopped.
- No. 1 David Ferrer losing his second match to dangerous Alexandr Dolgopolov, 6-4, 6-4.
- No. 2 Kei Nishikori overpowered 6-4, 6-3 by resurgent Sam Querrey in his second match.
- No. 3 Marin Cilic out in the first round to newly ranked No. 168 Ryan Harrison.
- No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov losing to younger Austrian sensation Dominic Thiem. This was mostly expected, but underscores the continued underachieving play of the Bulgarian talent. He took out his frustrations by spiking a defenseless racket.
Such is life on the ATP tour where the grinding and winning are a rare combination. It serves all the more to appreciate just how grueling it was for Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal to summon up the strength to dominate on clay for one decade.
Winner: Dominic Thiem
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Our player of the month is Austrian sensation Dominic Thiem. He’s showing himself to be a strong, resilient fighter with heavy groundstrokes and a lot of desire.
While other top stars sat out February, Thiem shone in Latin America. He wins our acclaim over Brazilian king Pablo Cuevas and the tournaments in the Old World, which lost Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Here is Thiem’s February resume:
- A 13-1 record gives him 18 wins in only two months. He had a 36-28 record for all of 2015.
- Semifinal win on Argentine clay against Rafael Nadal, catalyst for his fourth title on clay since May.
- Crushed David Ferrer before his semifinal loss in torrential wind and rain at Rio de Janeiro.
- Outplayed a fine field on Mexico’s level-500 tournament, his first title on hard courts. Defeated Grigor Dimitrov, hot Sam Querrey and a driven Bernard Tomic.
- Moved his ranking to No. 14, and is now just 155 points from No. 11. He’s closing in on the top 10 and could get it with a semifinal appearance at Indian Wells.
But for all of his excellent progress, Thiem is still unproven as a legitimate contender for the biggest titles. Can he knock back players like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer on a Masters 1000 setting? Will he be able to expand his clay-court success at Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome.
Those will be the earmarks to determine if the 22-year-old will be a threat for Novak Djokovic’s French Open quest. For now, he delivered some rousing backhand winners, powerful groundstrokes and developing sense for how to attack and defend. It could be just the beginning.
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