Notes from the tour - week 18...

Thursday 2nd May 2024

We have some big months of tennis coming up. The French Open is on the horizon at the end of May…

And after that, the summer brings not only Wimbledon, but also the Olympic tennis event in Paris. Followed by the US Open in New York…

With all that to come, now seems a good time to check in on the rankings progress of the 10 headline players named in this year’s Ones to Watch in 2024 Report…

Rankings Gains…

The list was published preseason, just before Christmas. The report contained the end-of-season rankings for each featured player. I’ve gone through the latest rankings today, and illustrated the places gained or lost by our 10 Ones to Watch men & women…

Comparing the 2023 End of Season #Ranking with the current 2024 Ranking:

Women – WTA Rankings

• Mirra Andreeva #57 >> 43

• Linda Noskova #41 >> 31

• Linda Fruhvirtova #92 << 146

• Diana Shnaider #93 >> 61

• Qinwen Zheng #15 >> 8 

Men – ATP Rankings

• Ben Shelton #17 >> 15 

• Holger Rune #8 << 12

• Arthur Fils #36 >> 32 

• Jack Draper #61 >> 43

• Sebastian Korda #24 << 26

Those numbers show that seven of our 10 featured Ones to Watch players have so far improved on their final 2023 ranking.

And if we tally the rankings up for all 10, the overall figure gives us a positive result thus far for Total Ranking Places Gained…

Overall ranking tallies:

• 2023 End = #444 >> 2024 To Date 417 

• Gain = 27 ranking places

Trophy chances…

If we look at trophy progress regarding those players…

So far this season, five of those 10 names have made it to finals…

• Diana Shnaider won WTA Hua Hin in February – collecting her first career title on the senior tour – at odds of 40/1…

• Qinwen Zheng reached a maiden Grand Slam final at January’s Australian Open – providing a half-the-odds Each Way payout from a starting price of 33/1…

• Ben Shelton won his first ever clay-court title, at ATP Houston – going off at odds of 9/2…

• Holger Rune made the ATP Brisbane final in January, finishing runner-up from a starting price of 4/1…

• Jack Draper was a runner-up at ATP Adelaide, at 7/1…

Plenty of encouraging signs there. And with the promise of sunnier days to come this spring and summer. With three of the year’s four Grand Slams still to be played – not to mention dozens of weekly ATP and WTA tournaments…

Not least the latest high-grade, ‘Masters’ 1000 event in Rome, which starts next week…

Now is a good time to re-familiarise yourself with the exciting young players listed in your free Ones to Watch in 2024 Report…

View the report here >>

P.S
And if you’re not a member of my full Ones to Watch service yet, don’t miss out on next week’s Rome picks – starting from Tuesday. Where last year we landed the 28/1 men’s winner, Daniil Medvedev… join up here.

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Ones to Watch