US Open 2018: An analysis of the title-winning chances of the top ATP players
After a rather long time, comes a season when all the Grand Slam winners since 2006 are healthy and up at it to battle it out on the biggest stages for the rest of the year. It is very much looking like it is going to be like old times again.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Juan Martin del Potro are 4 of the 5 leaders in the race to the year end number 1 ranking. And that itself makes the US Open very exciting.
Having known that, let's break down the US Open Series here:
The potential group of contenders remains, and their ATP ranking points alongside the US Open Series defense points.
Rafael Nadal - 9310 (2270)
Roger Federer - 7080 (960)
Alexander Zverev - 5665 (1550)
Juan Martin del Potro - 5395 (900)
Novak Djokovic - 3355 (0)
Stan Wawrinka - 290 (0)
Andy Murray - 20 (0)
Stan Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray skipped the second half of the season last year as the wave of injuries hit them. Many thought it was the wave of a tennis generation transition.
But they were wrong. They look healthy and hungry now after recovering from their respective injuries. Wawrinka looked much like his older self in a great match against Dimitrov in the first round at the All England Club.
Andy Murray, who possibly will be back to his best with enough match play, bagged his first victory in almost a year in Eastbourne against Stan. And Novak Djokovic showed the world that he is very much back after winning the title at SW19.
Federer had been in imperious form at Wimbledon, except for the one match where he needed it the most, resulting in a massive upset to Kevin Anderson in the last-8. However, he is still likely to remain a favourite.
Having withdrawn from the Roger's Cup, Federer loses 600 points at the beginning of the US Open Series. He will be back at the Cincinnati Masters (where he has 0 points to defend), with his points tally being 6480.
Nadal managed to carry his clay season form into the grass and reminded everybody he isn't just a clay-court specialist, despite being humbled by the eventual champion in the last-4.
The Canadian Masters defending champion, Sascha Zverev is yet to display his current healthy form after his injury led to defeats in the last two Slams. Juan Martin del Potro, not unlike the other players I talked about, is playing the tennis of his life. With the Big 3 picking the first 3 Slams like apples, the US Open is going to be interesting.