The buzz barometer: Caroline Garcia is on fire

Who (or what) is hot and cold in the tennis world right now? Let’s break it down in the Asia swing edition of the Buzz Barometer!

Caroline Garcia

Sir Andy Murray called it first:

The girl sharapova is playing is going to be number one in the world one day caroline garcia, what a player u heard it here first

— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) May 26, 2011

At 17-years-young, it was probably a bit too much hype for the Frenchwoman to handle. She has hovered around the 30 mark in the world rankings for the last three years but now, at age 23, Garcia is hitting all kinds of fire. Since the US Open she is 15-2 with two consecutive titles in Wuhan and Beijing respectively. The China Open title is especially remarkable considering she reigned on the parade of new world No.1 Simona Halep and grabbed her first ever top ten ranking. Assuming Johanna Konta doesn’t win a title in Moscow, Garcia will qualify for the WTA Finals and, given her current form, she might just be the favourite.

Buzz barometer: Piping hot

David Goffin

The 2017 men’s tennis season has been riddled with injuries and usually when this happens the silver lining is that other players have a great chance to step up and stamp their name on the tour. So far, that hasn’t happened – but Belgium’s David Goffin is slowly staking a claim. It hasn’t been pretty but Goffin has won two titles on the trot; last week in Wuhan and this week in Tokyo. The world No.8 hasn’t exactly been beating ’95 Sampras–the best player he beat over the last fortnight is, wait for it, Diego Schwartzman–but he’s playing solid, consistent tennis (which, sadly, has been a rarity this year).

Buzz barometer: Warm

The seating structure at the China Open

Every time I watch tennis in a stadium I’m now going to be 30% more depressed because I’m not in my own little fenced-off pod…

Buzz barometer: Two flame emojis

Dominic ‘Two-Face’ Thiem

Are we sure Dominic Thiem is good? On clay, sure, but this hard court record would suggest otherwise:

With today's loss, Dominic Thiem officially has a losing career record on hard courts over best of 3 (54-55). That's… dreadful.

— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) October 3, 2017

Six of Thiem’s eight titles are on clay and his overall career record on the surface is 83-30 – which is really really good. With that in mind, I propose a new nickname for the world No.7: Two-Face Thiem. Who’s with me!?

Buzz barometer: Ice cold

Related: What’s going on with Dominic Thiem?

People saying Simona Halep doesn’t deserve to be No.1

Me: Wow, Simona’s going to be world No.1. That’s so great and a testament to her consistency.

Hater: Means nothing! Halep is a choker! Haha, you suck!

Me: But historically achieving the world No.1 ranking is almost twice as hard as winning a Grand Slam. Did you know that since the open era 46 women have won a major and only 26 have been world No.1?

Hater: Big deal! Halep crumbles under the big lights. She has 17 first or second-round bombs from 30 Grand Slams – that’s horrendous!

Me: Well that’s going to change. Simona’s going to prove you wrong by winning the China Open and legitimising her ranking. She’s playing dominant tennis right now, she’ll show you.

Simona Halep: Nope.

Me:

Buzz barometer: Lukewarm

The China Open title trophy (scroll up to see)

Way, way too big. Laughably so.

Buzz barometer: One snowflake emoji