The comeback of Roger Federer (39), the breakthrough of Jannik Sinner (19). And new tournaments.
It is difficult to make predictions for the tennis year 2021, the shadows of the pandemic are still hanging over the tour like dark clouds. After the tournament calendar was severely curtailed in the previous year and a number of competitions had to be canceled without replacement, something like normality should now return. The top priority: safeguarding jobs, i.e. organizing events. The players’ associations ATP and WTA are busy and good news was announced before the first serve in Australia. For those women who were in tough quarantine and couldn’t train for two weeks, a tournament was unceremoniously created from the ground in order to create as equal opportunities as possible.
For the time after the Australian Open, the plan for the women is initially until June (Wimbledon), for the men the ATP has already published a calendar until the end of the year, which provides for some changes. For example, new one-year licenses have been awarded to some of the organizers, which means that Singapore, Marbella and Belgrade (instead of Budapest) will play in 2021. In existing tournaments, the grids for main competitions and qualifications were partially expanded to allow more players to take part. As in previous years, two Austrian tournaments appear on the ATP calendar: Kitzbühel (from July 26th) is to take place parallel to the Olympics, Vienna is planned from October 25th.
In terms of sport, a number of questions will arise in 2021. Dominic Thiem broke a phalanx with his last year’s triumph at the US Open. For the first time since Stan Wawrinka (US Open 2016) and 13 Grand Slams in a row, the winner was not Novak Djoković, Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer. In addition to Djoković and Nadal, Thiem is also the first contender for a Grand Slam success in 2021, he now knows what it takes on the biggest stage, so he has a small advantage over the other competition.
Men to Watch. The said other competition, however, has grown tremendously. Daniil Medvedev (ATP Finals winner), Alexander Zverev (US Open finalist) and Stefanos Tsitsipas all have the skills to be crowned Grand Slam champion in 2021. Another advance is expected from the Russian Andrej Rublew, currently number eight in the world rankings. The young Canadians Denis Shapovalov (No. 13) and Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 21) should also take the next step, but still have some catching up to do in the battle for major trophies.
The Italian Jannik Sinner (No. 36) has already indicated his enormous potential. The South Tyrolean, 19, is the only teenager in the Top 100, this year he should make the breakthrough into the extended world elite. And then the tennis world is waiting eagerly for the comeback of Roger Federer, 39. He has been on a break for a year now.
(“Die Presse”, print edition, January 31, 2021)
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