No, you goons – this is not a special edition for those who’ve contracted certain romance-related diseases. Rather, it’s a special Valentines Day edition of my weekly list detailing Who’s Achieved Their Career Highs (although some would call Valentines Day itself a romance-related disease. I abstain from comment on the grounds that it might incriminate me).
So what makes this Valentines Day edition so special? Nothing really. Only that’s it’s made with love and dedicated to you, dear reader. *gags on sappy sentiment* Also, I’ve added an “age” column. You’re welcome. You know the rules by now, right? Only those ranked #80-350 make my list, unless I’m feeling particularly in an inclusive mood (who knows? On Valentines Day, you may get lucky). For those Titans of the Top 80, you must confer with our friends over at Shank Tennis.
All right! Enough of this tomfoolery. Let’s get to this week’s WATCH List!
Player | Age | NATION | New High | Prev High | Why? |
Grigor Dimitrov | 19.75 | BULGARIA | 84 | 85 | Q’ed, R1 R’dam |
Benoit Paire | 21.75 | FRANCE | 120 | 136 | Q’ed, R2 R’dam |
Alexander Kudryavtsev | 25.25 | RUSSIA | 141 | 147 | SF Bergamo |
Tim Smyczek | 23.10 | USA | 158 | 168 | QF San Jose |
Matthias Bachinger | 23.90 | GERMANY | 161 | 163 | R2 Bergamo |
Robert Farah | 23.25 | COLOMBIA | 183 | 184 | Q’ed, R1 San Jose |
Jurgen Zopp | 22.90 | ESTONIA | 198 | 211 | SF Bergamo |
Sebastian Rieschick | 24.99 | GERMANY | 225 | 228 | R2 Quimper |
Facundo Bagnis | 20.95 | ARGENTINA | 231 | 238 | Q’ed, R1 Brazil |
Andres Molteni | 22.92 | ARGENTINA | 236 | 246 | QF Colombia F2 |
Alexander Lobkov | 20.33 | RUSSIA | 252 | 253 | Others lost points |
Fritz Wolmarans | 24.93 | S. AFRICA | 254 | 255 | Others lost points |
Amir Weintraub | 24.42 | ISRAEL | 255 | 259 | R2 Quimper |
Phillip Bester | 22.35 | CANADA | 260 | 268 | R2 Caloundra |
Clement Reix | 27.35 | FRANCE | 265 | 270 | R2 Quimper |
Karan Rastogi | 24.35 | INDIA | 284 | 328 | W Cambodia F2 |
Javier Marti | 19.10 | SPAIN | 295 | 308 | R2 Spain F5 |
Kenny de Schepper | 23.70 | FRANCE | 297 | 370 | F Quimper |
Ludovic Walter | 28.10 | FRANCE | 304 | 315 | R2 Quimper |
Notable things to note:
The average age of this week’s WATCHers is 23 years old and 4 months. The youngest player achieving a career high today is Javier Marti at 19 and 1 month, while the oldest is former Duke University standout (two-time ITA All-American) Ludovic Walter at 28 and 1 month (warning: all age numbers are achieved by rounding off, for the most part, and are thus approximations).
Ludovic Walter quimping it up at the Quimper Challenger in France
Walter is an interesting case, having not even achieved a pro ranking until after his college days were over in 2006 at age 23. I suspect that, with college ball being an increasingly viable route for top talents and the age of the Top 100 skewing ever older, we’ll start to see many more players in the “Ludovic Walter” mold in the future.
Anyway, congrats to all who’ve achieved career highs this week. And to all the rest of you, I hope you achieve various highs of your own on this Valentines Day.