The Forgotten Race

With the 2012 tennis circus virtually coming to a close apart from the Tennis Masters Cup in which the final 8 was even more predictable than long balls from Stoke City or West Ham and the Davis Cup final next week. This post isn't going to be a season review, that will come after the Davis Cup final which hopefully the Czechs will be winning.

Huge surprise the ATP have shown their brilliance in organisation by scheduling TMS Paris week before the Masters. Can see why they want to shorten the season, they should have made it a non mandatory TMS but we already have the unique situation with Monte Carlo, Forget wants the event to move to February to keep it's TMS status, then we aren't dealing with a competent organisation.

Jerzy Janowicz was the star of the week that's as obvious as Nadal taking too much time in between points. Janowicz started the year ranked 221 playing the Sheffield and Wirral Futures which are the lowest level of events on the ATP and now finishes the season ranked 26 which will get him a seeding at the Australian Open.


Jerzy Janowicz

Not even Janowicz's family would have thought by the end of the year that he would be ranked this highly. As for his game, well he has something that is lacking in tennis today some variety. Yes, he has a massive serve but not a semi western forehand which is unusual, He has great touch for a big man, though not quite to Magnus Larsson's level but he definitely moves better.

While Janowicz has already secured his direct entry spot into the Australian Open . At the end of the season this race is inherently more interesting than the one for the Masters for the reasons there are more players with something to play for unlike the guys say from 20-90 who are already thinking about their holidays, rest and then preparations for the next year.

Forgotten Race

At the lower end of the tennis tree where points tight and the finances tighter, direct entry into a Slam is beneficial for these players especially with the long trip to Melbourne which will pay off for them financially. If they don't make the cutoff, unlike the other Slams then they have to think about the financial realities of making the expensive trip to Melbourne for qualies, this is the reason why the cutoff for the qualies is lower than the other Slams.

Ranking from 95-112

Rank	Player	Points
95.	Horacio Zeballos (ARG)	554
96.	Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP)	547
97.	Joao Sousa (POR)	546
98.	Andreas Haider Maurer (AUT)	542
99.	Blaz Kavcic (SLO)	540
100.	Dudi Sela (ISR)	540
101.	Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR)	538
102.	Ivo Karlovic (CRO)	536
103.	Michael Russell (USA)	531
104.	Nicolas Mahut (FRA)	530
105.	Matthew Ebden (AUS)	529
106.	Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)	529
107.	Philipp Petzschner (GER)	527
108.	Matthias Bachinger (GER)	527
109.	Jan Hajek (CZE)	527
110.	Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ)	526
111.	Adrian Ungur (ROU)	515
112.	Rajeev Ram (USA)	512

There are 3 weeks of Challengers for the fringe players to reach Melbourne. Horacio "The Bolivian" Zeballos with his win in Montevideo moved up 24 places to 95. If he could play 53 weeks a year he would, plus he always plays singles and doubles. For those who don't know the Slams are made up of 16 qualifiers, 8 wildcards and 104 players including Protected Ranking (PR) which is something players apply for when they're out for 6 months or longer due to injuries or illness. The PR is taken after the last tournament played and can be used to enter events. Tommy Robredo will use his PR to enter the Aus Open, ideally finishing the year at 100 or 101 will get the player into the main draw.

Since the Australian Open is the Slam that I do to go, there will be even more bias than usual with who I'd like to make the trip. With Grega Žemlja and Aljaž Bedene already in the tournament barring injuries, it would be fitting that Blaž Kavčič makes it as it will create history in Slovenian tennis with 3 men in the main draw of a Slam.


Blaž Kavčič

Sergiy Stakhovksy who manages to infuritate WTA apologists with his forthright comments, plus he doesn't want to miss the important player meeting in Melbourne which should be even more fiery than usual. Of course then there is Mikey Russell, one of the great guys in the sport who has had so many injuries plus he has quads of steel and has to walk through doors sideways because of the size of the thighs.


Sergiy Stakhovsky

Ivo Karlovic well because my Croatian mate will be pissed off if he doesn't make it, then there is the comedy factor which leads into Petzschner. He of the fun game but brittle temperament who was almost on the way to a triple bagel of Lukáš Rosol leading 6-0 6-0 4-0 before he let Rosol get 2 games and he gets extra points for the compression socks.


Phillipp Petzschner

Dudi Sela is on the edge as well, he is one of these guys who performs better on the big stage and struggles to get motivated when playing Challengers, then again shotmakers aren't usually the epitome of consistency. Adrian Ungur who has been in a slump has a chance at Sao Leopoldo to get himself closer to direct entry.

As there are 6 Challengers this week as the forgotten race really heats up. It's called that because it's something that is rarely spoken about since in tennis especially for the vast majority it's all about the top 4 and nothing exists outside this group. Sure, there are fleeting mentions to other activities besides whether Rafael Nadal had breakfast, Federer wants more appearance money for Basel, Murray whether he is miserable or is Djokovic sleeping in the egg.

Challengers are tough places to play at the best of times, even better at this time of the year when there is so much on the line for players who are overlooked in the tennis circus but are needed for the circuit to function. Though there are enough clowns who want a top 4 exhibition tour for the whole year, lucky they haven't reached the head of the ATP or ITF yet.

Please follow FootSoldiersofT here Foot Soldiers of Tennis and on Twitter who has been doing excellent updates on the forgotten race to 103.