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The Greek God Is GOATED : Tennis Insights

The Greek God Is GOATED : Tennis Insights

(April 7th - April 13th)

Courtside Tennis & Emmanuel Okosun
April 14, 2024

Redemption for Tsitsipas!

After winning the title in Monte Carlo, Stefanos Tsitsipas returns to the Top 10. But even more importantly, he creates history by becoming just the fifth player in the Open Era to win three or more Monte-Carlo titles, joining Rafael Nadal (11), Bjorn Borg (3), Thomas Muster (3) and Ilie Nastase (3).

We found the most interesting storylines of the week in tennis and put together a special 5-minute read for you.

We also missed last week, but thats because we are working on a special project for you all!

New Videos‼

Catch up on our latest uploads from last week; A deep dive on Frances Tiafoe who has just parted ways with his new coach Diego Moyano AND a recap of the first week of the clay season.

You can also expect a recap of Monte Carlo and a video on Grigor Dimitrov this week.

What Happened Last Week

Monte Carlo

It all went down in Monte Carlo. It’s now three Monte Carlo Masters 1000 titles in the last 4 years for Tsitsipas and only Rafael Nadal (92.4%) has a higher win percentage than the Greek (86.9%) in the tournament. But it wasn’t just about Stef.

Casper Ruud beat Novak Djokovic in the semifinals to get his FIRST EVER win against a top 3 player. He had previously lost all 25 sets against Top 3 players.

Jannik Sinner has now made it to the semifinals or better of every tournament he has played in the last 6 months. The only exception is the Paris Masters 1000 which he pulled out off after the first round due to fatigue.

Billie Jean Cup

The eight Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers ties were all settled on Saturday, with the winners advancing to November's Finals in Seville, Spain.

The Biggest Movers Of The Week

Rankings Watch: A return to the Top 10 for Stefanos Tsitsipas. Sumit Nagal and Ugo Humbert hit new career highs. No changes in the WTA ranking as the Billie Jean Cup took place last week.

Major Tournament Updates

Barcelona Open | Barcelona, Spain | 15 - 21 April, 2024

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz has been forced to withdraw from the ATP 500 due to a right arm injury. However, we've still got a star-studded lineup with the likes of Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex De Minaur, Karen Khachanov, and Ugo Humbert.

BMW Open | Munich, Germany | 15 - 21 April, 2024

Alexander Zverev leads the way as the Top seed, followed by defending champion Holger Rune. Taylor Fritz, Jan-Lennard Struff, Felix Auger Aliassime, Jack Draper, Dominik Koepfer, and Alexander Shevchenko make up the rest of the seeds.

Tiriac Open | Bucharest, Romania | 15 - 21 April, 2024

We have some big names among the tournament seeds; Stan Wawrinka, Denis Shapovalov, Francisco Cerundolo, Sebastian Korda, Tallon Griekspoor, Alejandro Tabilo, Miomir Kecmanovic, and Joao Fonseca.

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix | Stuttgart, Germany | 15 - 21 April, 2024

It’s the first WTA 500 event of the year on red clay and almost all of the biggest names on the tour will be present. Iga Swiatek won her second straight title here last year after defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-4 in the final. The draw is out and here’s how the top and bottom halves look like.

Top Half

Bottom half

Open de Rouen | Roeun, France | Apr 15 - Apr 21, 2024

Former World No. 1 Naomi Osaka received a wildcard entry into the main draw. Meanwhile, WTA #22 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova leads the field as the Top seed. The other seeds are Carolina Garcia, Anhelina Kalinina, Yuan Yue, Australian Open quarterfinalist Mirra Andreeva, Sloane Stephens, Clara Burel, and Anna Blinkova.

Watch Out For This Player

Sumit Nagal

Sumit Nagal made history in Monte Carlo by becoming the first Indian in the ATP to win a match at Masters on clay since 1990 after he came from a set down to defeat Matteo Arnaldi in their Round-of-64 clash. He then pushed Holger Rune to 3 sets in the following round.

Remember Nagal also beat Alexander Bublik at the Australian Open back in January. Now at a career high #80, Nagal may not have the variety or finesse of the very Top players but he has the raw power and tenacity which makes him capable of causing an upset every now and then. A Top 50 ceiling or even better for him?

HOT TAKE

Despite making it to the semifinal in Monte Carlo, Novak Djokovic still needs to figure out his energy levels during matches and he definitely still has plenty of work to do this clay season, but I’m backing him to defend his Roland Garros title. The GOAT isn’t done winning just yet, at least in my opinion.

Off The Court

Tiafoe & coach Moyano split

After less than 4 months of working together, Frances Tiafoe and coach Diego Moyano called it quits. The Argentine Moyano took to social media to share the news. What is going on with our man Tiafoe?