Monday Mini-Break 2/20: Roger is back on top.

Musings on the week that was and the week ahead in the world of tennis.

Roger Federer is my dad.

What's old is what's new.Roger Federer is again world number one after winning his 97th career title on Sunday in Rotterdam, besting noted-sack-of-trash Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-2 in the final. There's a long list of incredible stats that go along with his return to the top of the ATP charts. It's been 14 years since his first stint as world number one in 2004. He's the oldest world number one, man or woman, ever. He's adding to his already record 302 weeks as world number one, he has set the record for the longest gap between stints on top of the world, and a whole bunch of other stuff.The real story though is just how much better he is than the rest of the non-Rafael Nadal world.Grigor Dimitrov, it bears repeating, is world number three. Federer punked him in a 500 level final. That's staggering.Federer has now won twelve straight matches to start his 2018 campaign, and he's won 10 of those in straights. As far as we know, Nadal is still on track to come back at Acapulco in a few weeks, but the injury he picked up in Melbourne could well be lingering. It wouldn't be a big surprise to see Federer's winning streak continue to climb before the clay season starts.

American men's tennis is a trash can.

Hoooooo, boy, this was not a good week for American tennis.It all starts with Ryan Harrison and Donald Young. There aren't a whole lot of details regarding what may or may not have been said during their first round match on Long Island this past week. What we do know is Young is accusing Harrison of racial abuse, Harrison is categorically denying those charges, and the ATP is investigating. It's hard to give Harrison much benefit of the doubt at all, given his long history of contentious moments with his opponents. It's a gross moment and story, and everything else pales in comparison.That caveat made, the on-court performance wasn't much to write home about either.Harrison, after beating Young, was put down 6-4, 6-4 by decrepit servebot, Ivo Karlovic, in the second round. Steve Johnson, who got a seed in the New York Open, lost in the first round to a qualifier. John Isner got a bye and then lost his first match Radu Albot, a fringe top-100 player.The two positives of the week even came with asterisks. Francis Tiafoe made a quarterfinal in an ATP level tournament, which is good. He also dropped a set to a literal child, Sebastian Korda, in the first round and was given a cushy second-round matchup against Dudi Sela in the second round. Taking a set of Kyle Anderson is something worth celebrating for Tiafoe, it must be said.Sam Querrey found his way into the final in New York, took the first set, dropped the second, then got curb stomped in a third-set tiebreak. Querrey is going to want that match back in a big, big way.

Petra Kvitova is cooking with gas.

Petra Kvitova's start to 2018 wasn't exactly awe-inspiring. Losing to Camila Giorgi in the second round of Sydney was bad and getting dumped by Andrea Petkovic in the first round of the Australian Open was worse. Since then? She's been unconscious.The big-serving Czech has now rattled off thirteen wins in a row, claiming titles in St. Petersburg and Qatar on either side of a Fed Cup sweep. Most impressively, she's beaten nearly all the big names.To win her last two titles, she's had to beat four top-ten players (#6 Jelena Ostapenko, #4  Evina Svitolina, #3 Gabriñe Mugurza, #1 Caroline Wozniacki) and six top-fifteen players (#14 Kristina Mladenovic and #11 Julia Goerges twice). Wozniacki and Simona Halep rightly took all the major headlines after Melbourne, but Kvitova's perfect month of February has her positioned to be the player to beat as we turn towards the big events of the spring.

Odds and Ends

• Dominic Thiem is as good on clay as he is garbage on hard court. He won in Argentina going away to claim another title, smoking Monfils 6-2, 6-1 in the semis and Bedene 6-2, 6-4 in the finals.
• Stan Wawrinka is decidedly not healthy. Losing to Mirza Basic in Sofia is one thing, but getting bounced in the first round by someone who's outside the top-200 (Tallon Griekspoor) is really alarming. Maybe Stan rushed himself back a little too soon?
• Kei Nishikori isn't all the way back, but he's getting himself there. His forehand went all kinds of crooked in his semifinal match in New York against Kevin Anderson, but there are more positives than negatives to take away from his performance. I hope he can reassert himself as a factor on tour sooner rather than later.
• David Goffin got hit in the eye by a tennis ball against Grigor Dimitrov and is now missing a week because nothing can go right for too long for David Goffin.
• Another week, another impressive performance from the young Russians. Karen Khachanov losing to Phillip Kohlschriber was a bit of a surprise, but Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev both made quarterfinal runs in Rotterdam.
• Gael Monfils has a title and a semifinal appearance in three events this year and I am still mad over that match he played against Novak Djokovic on the surface of the sun.
• In Challenger action, German youngster Maximillian Marterer won all ten sets he played in Cherbourg to claim the title. Aussie, Jordan Thompson, held off Yuki Bhambri to claim a title in Chennai. Marterer is a name worth remembering in the future, as he's got some serious game. Thompson is very bad.

Looking Ahead

Two more "big" tournaments are on the schedule this week, with a 500 level event on the ATP Tour in Brazil and a Premier level WTA event in Dubai. We've also got a pair of 250 events in Delray Beach and Marseilles to keep an eye on, a WTA International in Budapest, and a big ol' handful of Challenger action.

• Monfils vs. Marin Cilic is lurking as a potential second-round matchup in Rio de Janeiro, which could be all kinds of fun. I will continue to ride this Monfils train until I die.
• Nick Kyrgios, unfortunately, pulled out of Delray Beach. The good news is that there's still plenty of firepower in that tournament, probably more so than the bigger event of the week. The big three Americans of Jack Sock, Isner, and Querrey will all be there, as will Juan Martin Del Potro, Kevin Anderson, and Melbourne sensation, Hyeon Chung. Lots of good matches are on deck.
• Canadian wunderkind, Felix Auger-Aliassime, will make his second career ATP main draw appearance in Marseilles when he squares off against Thomas Fabbiano. Auger-Aliassime has a lot to get straightened out before we can even consider talking about him stringing matches together at the ATP level, but he is the youngest player to crack the top 200 since Rafael Nadal. That's some good company to be in.
• Kiki Mladenovic is a really weird player. It wasn't that long ago that she lost fifteen straight singles matches. Then she turns it around and goes to the final in St. Petersburg and single-handedly pulls France through their Fed Cup match by winning both her singles matches and the doubles rubber. She'll have the 8th seed in Dubai and could match up with Kvitova, who beat her in the final in St. Peterburg, in the second round.
• This week's Spoonerism Of The Week is Flirsten Kipkens.

SHAPO UPDATE

The sweet boy, the gregarious child, the young don, Denis Shapovalov, didn't play last week, but he is back. His draw isn't the tastiest or the most exciting, it will be a good challenge for Denis, who still badly needs some control in his game.His first-round opponent is Karlovic, who will undoubtedly put pressure on the Canadian's occasionally shaky return of serve. Adrian Mannarino in the second-round could be an interesting match, as would Querrey in the quarters. I think Denis makes a run at this tournament. Semifinals sounds a little too much, but I think he gets two wins.