Five inconsequential tournaments crystallized men's tennis in 2018
The week after a slam is never that interesting.After the grind-fest of Roland Garros, most of the biggest names on tour found it prudent to take the week off. Rafael Nadal was nowhere to be found, nor were other top-ten players Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin Del Potro, Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, David Goffin, and John Isner. The only top-ten player playing in a tournament this week was Roger Federer, fresh off another skipped clay season.The ATP's non-existant middle class was a feature of French Open coverage (mostly by people who probably don't actually pay attention to the sport and definitely shouldn't be paid to write about it). On some level it makes sense. I, for one, have written a lot of words about how Grigor Dimitrov, who is supposed to be good, is actually trash. I'm not going to spend any more time discussing the notion that men's tennis is bad or boring, because it's dumb, and if you can't appreciate the Thiem-Del Po-Zverev tier of the ATP, maybe just don't watch the sport.What is still undeniable is that the tour is in a transitional phase.The best players are sticking around longer than they should and the young players are showing a lot of promise just below the surface level of the tournament. It requires effort to find those stories. They aren't the ones streaming at NBC on 10 AM, but they are there. This past week served as yet another reminder.The two "biggest" tournaments of the week don't really matter. Only 250 ranking points were available at Hertogenbasch and Stuttgart. 250 level events don't really serve much purpose other than to move the schedule along towards a bigger event and to help out some players lower in the ATP rankings get more of a foothold on the tour.In Hertogenbasch, your seeds were Adrian Mannarino, Andreas Seppi, Yuichi Sugita, Robin Haase, Fernando Verdasco, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Richard Gasquet. None of those players will matter at Wimbledon. It was Gasquet who took the title, and while Bernard Tomic making the semifinals is interesting, the tournament wasn't. Gasquet is 31 years old and is mega-washed. There are lots of words about Gasquet not reaching his incredibly high potential he showed as one of the best juniors players tennis has ever seen (he also has 16.3 million in prize money). But what he is in 2018 is an old player who probably shouldn't be winning titles anymore. If you want to talk about evidence of the tour's demographics being messed up, Gasquet would be a strong example.The other 250 event of the week, Stuttgart, featured the crown prince of the "old players shouldn't be this good still" movement himself, Roger Federer. Federer had to come back from a set down against both Mischa Zverev and Nick Kyrgios before claiming the title over Milos Raonic. Federer is once again world number one, and him winning a title after months away from the tour is no joke. Remember that he lost to the mummified remains of Tommy Haas in the same tournament last year. People bemoaning the current state of the tour would probably be disappointed that Ranoic (27) couldn't win a title on his best surface or that Kyrgios (23) evaporated in the deciding set tiebreak after going up a mini-break. Federer is 36 and rusty. Surely a healthy tour could provide some stiffer competition.If that's your take after this week, you're not digging deep enough. Consider, if you will, the Challenger Tour.Lots of times, the Challenger Tour pretty much sucks. This is the world that freaking Vasek Pospisil dominates. But it is also the part of the tour where the youngest and most exciting talents spend most of their time. Sure, some weeks you have career grinders like Dudi Sela or Paolo Lorenzi win some random title, but look long enough and you'll find the good stuff.Three Challenger events were played this past week and all three of the winners are people you should know.In Nottingham, Alex de Minaur (19) earned a title on grass. His counterpunching game is a joy to watch and he's already had himself a pretty good year on the ATP level, making runs in Brisbane and Sydney back in the winter. His ranking is up to a career high 78.In Caltanissetta, Jaume Munar won his second title in is many weeks. Munar looks the part of the next young Spaniard to make an impact on the tour, especially on clay. His 2018 French Open included a win over David Ferrer, another one of the "too old to still be here" crew. He also took it to Novak Djokovic, who is rapidly approaching the "why are you still here" crew, despite a straight sets loss. Munar has broken into top 100 himself and only just turned 21.Felix Auger-Aliassime won a title Lyon, becoming the youngest player to defend a Challenger level title. Auger-Aliassime is, by some margin, the brightest of this young group. He now has three Challenger level wins and won his first ATP level match this year. He became the youngest player in the top 200 since Rafael Nadal last year and is the youngest player to win multiple Challenger events since Gasquet. His cameo on the ATP this year showed that he has a long way to go, but he's getting closer in every event.In a sport that is inherently dominated by the four capstone events of the year, the narrative of the sport is malleable. In a sport where everyone who's smacked a forehand into the back wall of a court thinks themselves an expert, that narrative can get told by people who probably shouldn't be telling it. It's very possible that Wimbledon will be controlled by the aging class of the tour, just like the 250 events were this week. But the other players are here too, just waiting to break through. Whether or not you choose to pay attention is a personal decision.
