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My crystal ball tells me 2018 will be a year of disruptions in tennis
What a year it’s been in men’s tennis, and it ended up with yet another surprise at the ATP World Tour finals in London. After a year dominated by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who finished ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, neither appeared in the tour’s own championship final. Instead, two players who had never even qualified for the tournament before met for the trophy, with Grigor Dimitrov snatching the win from David Goffin.
You can’t be blamed for wondering what on earth can 2018 have in store. Here are some of my predictions for the coming year:
Grand Slams will produce four different champions
It’s going to be one of those years, you have so many players on the rise and some of them have even reached top 8 to play at the ATP World Tour finals in 2017. Federer and Nadal may have divvied up the four majors in 2017, but that’s unlikely to happen again.
Face it, Federer is 36. He has a history of back trouble, which forced him to alter his schedule and pull out of a number of events this year. He’ll take good care of himself, limit his appearances and have a few great runs (Wimbledon, anyone?). But the consistency he had in 2017 will be impossible to maintain.
Struggling Murray will continue
We all know Andy Murray went through his surgery and is going through the rehabilitation process, he should be ready for the Australian Open but may not be at his 2016-esque form. Years of effort and frustration finally bore fruit in his remarkable 2016 season, when he locked down the year-end No.1 ranking in the final match of the ATP year. It had the feel of a career-capping performance.
Also, Murray is a two-time Wimbledon champ and two-time Olympic singles gold medalist. The 30-year-old Scot already is on the short list for being the greatest British athlete of all time. All of which suggests he might be done with the heavy lifting in his career. Another hint: He recently parted ways with the coach who engineered his greatest triumphs, Ivan Lendl.
Murray always has been slow to find his A-game.
Distrupters will continue to threaten
Goffin, who turns 27 in December, may not have all the weapons in the world to win a Grand Slam in 2018, however he has shown some perseverance which caused many upsets in 2018. He and a number of other players in their mid-20s will make life very difficult for the marquee names, especially if the Grand Slams decide to cut back to 16 seeds (from the present 32).
Dimitrov, Jack Sock, Dominic Thiem, Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and others have all been held back by the Big Four and Stan Wawrinka. All of them have improved while patiently awaiting their turn.
Nishikori and Raonic, both Grand Slam finalists, missed a lot of tennis at the end of the year due to injuries. Expect both of them to mount a big push. Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Lucas Pouille and Nick Kyrgios are all 24 or under.
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