tennis gut

There’s not really a favourite for this tournament – which feels a bit weird, since Iga Swiatek has won it four of the last five years.   She’s also been #1 much of that time, but as of today is ranked only #5.   In her absence, Aryna Sabalenka has been entrenching herself at the top with multiple finals played this year, winning three of them.   The six clay tournaments since Miami have seen six different winners, so the answers are not clear cut.   Maybe Jasmine Paolini who won last week in Rome, in conditions very similar to Paris, should be regarded as the first horse.   She was indeed runner-up in the City of Lights last year.   Top Quarter Aryna Sabalenka has been burning up the tour this year. The top seed has opened her lead at #1 to nearly 4000 points.   Other than wobbly performances in Doha and Dubai, she has been a factor in every tournament she’s played.   Impressively, she’s 11-2 on clay.   It’s hard not to regard her a...

It appears that Jannik Sinner will be allowed to play the Australian Open and, knowing that his playing time might be restricted this year, he will be eager to make the most of it.  The defending champion is on a 14-match win streak on hard courts and went 53-3 on the surface last year, so he is certainly the favourite to defend his AO title. But there are other strong contenders, not least of whom is Novak Djokovic, 10-time champion at the event. And there’s also Carlos Alcaraz who beat Sinner three times last year, world #2 Alexander Zverev, and Daniill Medvedev who’s been in three of the last four finals in Melbourne.   Can any of them, or one of the young up-and-comers, stop Sinner?   Top Quarter Jannik Sinner (1) is the top seed and has a potentially tricky opening against Nicolas Jarry who has a career-high rank of 16 and has won three ATP titles. Sinner’s countryman, Matteo Berrettini , was a Wimbledon finalist in 2021, and has been ranked at #6.  ...