It’s Monday, and you know what that means: another W.A.T.C.H. List! So let’s see Who’s Achieved Their Career Highs this week*:
| Player | NATIONALITY | Age | New High |
| Edouard Roger-Vasselin | FRA | 29 | 64 |
| Pablo Carreno-Busta | ESP | 22 | 66 |
| Kenny de Schepper | FRA | 26 | 67 |
| Joao Sousa | POR | 24 | 77 |
| Jack Sock | USA | 20 | 79 |
| Julian Reister | GER | 27 | 92 |
| Alejandro Gonzalez | COL | 24 | 108 |
| Diego Sebastian Schwartzman | ARG | 21 | 112 |
| Oleksandr Nedovyesov | UKR | 26 | 116 |
| Dominic Thiem | AUT | 20 | 150 |
| Guilherme Clezar | BRA | 20 | 177 |
| Renzo Olivo | ARG | 21 | 180 |
| Kristijan Mesaros | CRO | 25 | 193 |
| Gerald Melzer | AUT | 23 | 197 |
| Pierre Hugues-Herbert | FRA | 22 | 199 |
| Blaz Rola | SLO | 22 | 202 |
| Mirza Basic | BIH | 22 | 204 |
| Norbert Gombos | SVK | 23 | 214 |
| Marton Fucsovics | HUN | 21 | 230 |
| Valery Rudnev | RUS | 25 | 263 |
| Shuichi Sekiguchi | JPN | 22 | 265 |
| Patricio Heras | ARG | 24 | 269 |
| Hiroki Kondo | JPN | 30 | 279 |
| Kimmer Coppejans | BEL | 19 | 289 |
| Victor Baluda | RUS | 20 | 290 |
| Mikhail Biryukov | RUS | 21 | 294 |
| Bjorn Fratangelo | USA | 20 | 296 |
| Alexander Rumyantsev | RUS | 21 | 297 |
A week ago, there was this idiot banging the doom drums re: the lack of young Americans achieving career high rankings post-US Open. Well that’s because no one was playing in those weeks, idiot! This week sees two young Americans, Jack Sock and Bjorn Fratangelo, charting career highs — they each made the semis of the Kaohsiung and Campinas Challengers, respectively. Hopefully this will shut that guy up!
Jack Sock – Challenger Tennis’s Original Mascot
Meanwhile, the rise of the young Argentinians continues, seemingly unrelentingly. I wonder, though, what kind of ceiling 5′ 7” (1.70 meters) Diego Schwartzman will have.** I’ve been very impressed with his game and the power he can generate with his small frame, but we’ve seen players of similar heights struggle to move up the rankings before (Ricardas Berankis and Olivier Rochus are the first ones who come to mind). On the other hand, there’s Michael Chang and, more recently, David Ferrer. So time will tell if the Schwartzman’s height limitation will also limit his height on the rankings ladder.
May The Schwartz Be With You
Either way, you just know that the second David Nalbandian – whose lifelong tennistical goal has been to win the Davis Cup for his country – retires, this contingent of young Argies will probably win it. Maybe Nalby (who, incidentally, fell 8 spots to #232 in this week’s rankings) will at least get to be coach if/when that happens.
This weekend saw some big results for guys who played collegiately in the US: Oleksandr Nedovyesov, winner of the Sczecin Challenger and former All American/ITA Player of the Year for Oklahoma State, is up 34 spots. While Ohio State’s 2012 NCAA doubles champion and 2013 NCAA singles champ, Blaz Rola, rolled on up 23 spots to #202, courtesy of his semifinal showing at the Kenitra Challenger. As if we needed more evidence, it’s clearly looking more increasingly viable for college players to make a smooth transition to the pros — I really don’t think John Isner will be college athletics’ one-hit wonder***.
Rola Rollin’
Apropos of absolutely nothing, two of my favorite tennis names made it onto this week’s List: Norbert Gombos and Marton Fucsovics. Long may they rise!
Finally, Filip Peliwo, who some morons were saying only has a 14% change of making the Top 200 while he’s still in his teens (aka another 4ish months), won the $15,000 Markham F9 Futures in Canadia, and the 27 ATPts he takes from there will zoom him up to ~250th when his points are added next week (Futures points aren’t usually added until 8 days after its final is played). He now needs ~51 pts to make the Top 200, so 2 more comparable victories can get him there.
Oh, and in case you didn’t click either of those links above, the “idiot” and “moron” I referred to was me in both instances. *bows theatrically*
*ranked between #60 and 300, that is
**here’s where a less classy writer would make a “at least there’s plenty of room under the ceiling at that height” joke. But I would never. Not even in the footnotes.
*** why yes, I am trying to make a joke about his serve ending most points.
