Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud, brace or nothing in the US Open final.
After the fantastic game between Carlos Alcaraz Y Sinner Jannik it was believed that nothing better could happen Flushing Mews. However, the belief was just a wrong belief. The best, without a doubt, is yet to come in this US Open. The Spaniard, already installed in the final after eliminating the local favorite Francesca Tiafè, can become the world’s youngest number one in history. But the Norwegian can also keep this immense privilege Casper Ruudwho has also passed the semifinals and if he wins on Sunday he will be the first tennis player in his country to reach the top of the standings. Better ending, impossible. The champion and the world champion at stake in the same match.
The “Pandemic effect” It has turned the world upside down and, of course, the competition and ranking system in tennis, which is only now being accepted (both in the top positions and in all the others). The most likely – although now only a guess remains – is that if this had not happened (cancellations, rescheduling, anti-vaccine disputes, etc.) Novak Djokovic would have reigned with a certain serenity for a while longer …
Half a century ago, tennis was an innovative sport, revolutionary in every respect. A new professional concept, the transformation into mass attraction and its organization of competitions. One chapter of that transformation was his classification system, applied among men by the players’ association (ATP) since the early 1970s, and which had James Scott Connors – number 1 since 1974 and for several years – the dominant name.
However, and as in all beginnings, the ranking did not at that moment have the “glamor” that the years gave it. It was a simple player order, and some leagues (mainly Wimbledon) ignored it directly, pre-ranking participants based on their own concept.
Nor did the system applied to qualify the players have the rigor and category that the years and technical progress have conferred on them. Guillermo Vilas was then left as a “victim” of that moment. There is no doubt that his outstanding 1977 season (with records to date unmatched, such as 16 titles and a streak of 46 consecutive victories, two Grand Slam crowns and the final in another) would have given him the ” number 1. “The controversial system of that time did not give it to him. And it was so absurd that the system had to be adapted and modernized so that this injustice did not happen again.
The “crusade” undertaken by the journalist Edward Puppo with other more recent scholars he indicated that, in reality and even with the systems of the 70s, Vilas would have enjoyed “number 1” for a few weeks … in 1975. In short, stories that are difficult to go back to today. At that moment, having become one of the leading tennis players in the world, Vilas sought his glory in the field that corresponded to him and that marked his traditions: the great titles. Not even in that unforgettable 77 there was much talk of the ranking, nor was Vilas obsessed with the weekly ATP ranking. This came much later.
Circumstances arose in such a way that players like the Chilean Marcelo Rios, without winning any of the big tournaments, they enjoyed that condition for a few weeks. But they were isolated cases. In general, since the 1990s, there weren’t so many discussions. And especially with this unrivaled “era of the Big 3” (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) there were no injustices and everyone had their time of reign, depending on their real results.
Today the door is wide open. Still Djokovic or Nadal (if they give him the physique and the accounts) want to continue in the fight, Medvedev and Zverev (stopped only by a serious injury) and these new names that emerge with all speed, power and audacity (Alcaraz is a real phenomenon among them and it could be the earliest) give tennis close-ups a central and vital element of attraction.
luigi vinker
Source: Clarin
