What Grega Zemlja Can Tell Us About American Tennis
Last week, virtually unknown Slovenian qualifier Grega Zemlja reached the final in Vienna. Like many players–Eastern Europeans in particular–in the back half of the top 100, he has finally established...
View ArticleWho Takes Advantage of Wild Cards?
Yesterday, we saw that ATP tour-level wild cards are the privilege of just a small subset of top pros. If you play for a Grand Slam-hosting country, or you are a major junior prospect, you’ll get...
View ArticleWhich Tournaments Award Competitive Wild Cards?
For the last two days, we’ve looked at tour-level wild cards from various angles. Many top players never received any; others have gotten plenty but never taken much advantage. Still others have...
View ArticleHow Much Do Wild Cards Matter?
Last week, I presented a lot of data that demonstrated how American (and to a lesser extent, French, Australian, and British) players receive the bulk of ATP wild cards, mostly because there are so...
View ArticleDodig’s Consistency, IBM’s Offensive, and Hopeless Wild Cards
Ivan Dodig just missed out on a seeding at this year’s US Open. Ranked 37th when seeds were assigned, he had ascended as high as #35, largely on the strength of his fourth-round showing at Wimbledon....
View ArticleRegulations for Returning Rule-Breakers
Italian translation at settesei.it Next month, Maria Sharapova will complete her 15-month doping ban and return to the WTA tour in Stuttgart, where she has been granted a wild card. It’s no surprise...
View ArticlePodcast Episode 2: Doubles, Wild Cards, and Megastars
In the second episode of the Tennis Abstract Podcast, Carl Bialik and I give some much-deserved top billing to doubles, especially new ATP No. 1 Henri Kontinen and Elo doubles favorite Jack Sock. We...
View ArticleWhy Maria Sharapova Should Get a French Open Wild Card
Italian translation at settesei.it Maria Sharapova has returned from a 15-month doping suspension and hardly missed a step, advancing to the semifinals of her first tournament back, in the WTA Premier...
View ArticleSebastian Ofner and ATP Debuts
This is a guest post by Peter Wetz. Sebastian Ofner, the still relatively young Austrian, received some media attention this June when he qualified for the Wimbledon main draw at his first attempt and...
View ArticleShould Serena Be Seeded?
Italian translation at settesei.it Serena Williams returned to professional tennis this month after more than a year of pregnancy, childbirth, and recovery. She took wild cards into both Indian Wells...
View ArticleHouston and the Swarm of American Men
Italian translation at settesei.it Of the 28 men in the ATP Houston main draw this week, 15 have a “USA” next to their names. The Americans include three of the top four seeds (John Isner, Sam Querrey,...
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