The 5 best Masters 1000 performers in the 2019 ATP season
The 2019 ATP season drew to a close with the conclusion of the revamped 'Davis Cup' Finals at the Caja Magica in Madrid. And there were a number of standout performances from players old and new throughout the year.
While the Big 3 of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer continued their Grand Slam stranglehold for the third straight season, the winds of change were beginning to blow across the horizon in the next two categories of events on the tennis calendar.
The season-ending ATP Finals saw the crowning of a brand-new champion in tournament debutant Stefanos Tsitsipas, while the Masters 1000 Series saw five different winners in the first five events of the year for the first time since 2003. Three players - Dominic Thiem (Indian Wells), Fabio Fognini (Monte Carlo) and Daniil Medvedev (Cincinnati, Shanghai) picked up their first titles in the category during the season.
The old guard, however, stamped their mark on another Masters 1000 season as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic became the first three players (in that order) to contest a staggering 50 Masters 1000 finals.
Also read: Deconstructing Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic's 50 Masters 1000 finals
Let us now look at the standout Masters 1000 performers in 2019, in terms of win%.
#5 Dominic Thiem (Won - Indian Wells)
Long considered a clay-court specialist due to his exploits on the slowest surface of the game, it was on hardcourt that Dominic Thiem made his Masters 1000 breakthrough.
Playing his third career Masters 1000 final at the season's first Masters 1000 tournament of the season at Indian Wells, Thiem recovered from the loss of the first set to deny Roger Federer a record-breaking 6th title at the tournament by triumphing 7-5 in the third. In the process, Thiem became the 67th different player to lift a Masters 1000 title and the first since Karen Khachanov (2018 Paris).
The Austrian failed to build on his momentum as he fell in the first hurdle at the next Masters 1000 stop in Miami (lost to Hubert Hurkacz) and in the second round at Monte Carlo (lost to Dusan Lajovic). He returned to a third-straight Madrid Masters semifinal where he lost to eventual winner Novak Djokovic in straight sets, before losing to Fernando Verdasco in the opening round in Rome.
Back on hardcourt, Thiem made back-to-back quarterfinals at Montreal (lost to Daniil Medvedev) and Shanghai (lost to Matteo Berrettini) before ending his Masters 1000 campaign for the season with a third-round appearance in Paris (lost to Grigor Dimitrov).
With a 15-7 win-loss record in Masters 1000 tournaments in 2019, Thiem recorded a higher success rate (68%) in 2019 compared to his career success rate of 58% in the tournament category.