Welcome to Tennis Elbow, the column that looks back on the week that was in the world of tennis. This week, Charles Blouin-Gascon recaps the predictions he had made at the start of this season.
Remember our outlandish predictions?
All the way back to the beginning of this interminable tennis season, we had looked ahead and tried—really poorly, probably—to predict what we might see over the course of 10 or so months on both the ATP and WTA.
We made 19 combined predictions and, since this 2019 season is now officially over, let’s see how we fared in predicting the future. Were we better at this than we have traditionally been re: draw previews? Let’s hope so.
Novak Djokovic catches Rafael Nadal on the Grand Slam list: NAY
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic entered this past season with tallies of 17 and 14 Grand Slam titles respectively and, as things stand today in 2019 they’re up to 19 and 16 majors each. So no, Djokovic did not catch the Spaniard.
And finishes the season at No. 1 once again: NAY
Here again, we’re wrong—by a mere 840 points.
Venus Williams retires: NAY
If Venus Williams has announced she was retiring, we missed the announcement.
So does Serena Williams: NAY
Ditto.
Because she grabs career Grand Slam title No. 25: NAY
The logic for the previous prediction was actually pretty sound. We just hadn’t counted on the great Serena Williams missing out not once but twice on the elusive 25th Grand Slam title.
And so does Maria Sharapova: NAY
Has anyone heard much of anything from the great Maria Sharapova? She’s not retired retired formally but, like, kind of officiously no?
Andy Murray is done: YAY
Finally, we’ve got one undeniably right as the great Andy Murray started the 2019 season by basically waving a white flag. There might have been some highlights along the way but yeah, the man is done.
Denis Shapovalov makes a Grand Slam semifinal: NAY
Yeah no, this didn’t happen.
Nick Kyrgios barely gives a damn, plays left handed for at least one game: YAY
While Nick Kyrgios did not in fact play left-handed for a game, we’ll rule this one in our favour. While we’re not here to pass judgement on the Australian, the fact of the matter is that his results have not lined up with his immense talent. It doesn’t have to mean anything but the fact that we were right with this prediction.
Here are Nick Kyrgios’ last 17 slam results:
R3
R4
R1
R3
R3
R4
R3
R2
R2
R1
R1
R4
R3
R3
R1
R2
R3He’s 24 years old and hasn’t made a quarter-final since January 2015.
He’s a horrible person and not a great tennis player either.
Stop overrating him. Enough is enough.
— Jason (@Certinfy) September 1, 2019
Alexander Zverev drops out of the Top 10: NAY
Alexander Zverev has fallen to his lowest ranking in almost two years, and he hasn’t been especially productive on the sport’s biggest stage, but he’s still as high as No. 7. So we’re wrong here again.
Simona Halep makes the four Grand Slam finals, or better: NAY
Nope, not close either. While Simona Halep did add to her career tally of Grand Slam titles with a Wimbledon win, she only
The summer of Naomi Osaka continues, but can’t overtake Halep at No. 1: NAY
We were right for the first half of this sentence, but wrong for the second half. Oops.
Eugenie Bouchard falls out of the top 150: YAY
And thus concludes the crazy story of ex-Canadian superstar Eugenie Bouchard, who’s now ranked all the way down to…. No. 183? Dang.
Aryna Sabalenka crashes the WTA party: YAY
Even under the rosiest of rose-colored glasses, it’s probably a little bit of a stretch to say that Aryna Sabalenka crashed the WTA party… but what the hell, let’s wear those glasses since we make the rules.
Kei Nishikori wins the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals: NAY
Not only did Kei Nishikori not win the 2019 Nitto ATP Finals, he wasn’t invited to the party to begin with.
The men’s top 10 rankings get younger in a hurry: YAY
While the trio atop the rankings has remained the same, there’s a definite youth movement that’s finally knocking on the glass ceiling: no fewer than half of the members of the Top 10 are no older than 26.
The 2019 Davis Cup will be just fine: YAY
Not only was the 2019 Davis Cup just fine, it actually thrived.
The eight Grand Slam titles come from only four different players: NAY
Nope, we missed on this one as well.
Unless, they instead come from eight different players: NAY
Over the course of the 2019 season, six players—two men and four women—lifted a Grand Slam trophy. So we split the difference between this and the previous prediction right down the middle. Meh.
All in all, that gives us something like 6 correct predictions out of 19 total ones—or about 32 per cent. LOL
Follow Charles Blouin-Gascon on Twitter @RealCBG
