Good/Bad Week: Maria shines bright

Who (or what) is hot and cold in the tennis world right now? Let’s break it down with Good Week/Bad Week!

Rafael Nadal’s knee

It turns out playing the US Open, the Laver Cup, the China Open and the Shanghai Masters back-to-back-to-back-back isn’t great for one’s knees. It’s even worse if you’ve got a history of knee injuries. It’s even worse if the courts you are playing on are incredibly fast and cause significant wear and tear on your joints.

Nadal wasn’t just exhausted in the final against Federer, he was in pain. He tweeted ‘This isn’t over, let’s keep going!” but when asked about playing in Basel in his post-match presser, he was very non-committal.

Hot/cold: Tear-emoji-that-could-be-balling-my-eyes-out-emoji-if-MRI-on-knee-is-positive

Woodbridge: Who is the player of the year?

Shanghai Rolex Masters’ Twitter game

Apparently we switched to the old ‘Last Game Wins’ rules mid-match….

Nadal wins 2nd set 1-0

— SH Rolex Masters (@SH_RolexMasters) October 15, 2017

Hot/cold: Unintentionally hot

Maria Sharapova

The former world No.1 won her first WTA title since 2015. True, she didn’t beat a pedigreed opponent, but she won every match in straight sets and demonstrated a level of agility and power that many thought she had lost:

Best point of the match! @MariaSharapova (????@WTA) pic.twitter.com/gKAX7vuayR

— doublefault28 (@doublefault28) October 14, 2017

Hot/cold: Warm

Related: Sharapova’s comeback continues in Tianjin

Roger Federer

With a fortnight’s rest, this was Roger’s road to his 94th ATP title:

Schwartzman > Dolgopolov > Gasquet > del Potro > (an injured and playing his 500th match in two weeks) Nadal.

Not exactly the Goblet of Fire. Still, a title’s a title.

Hot/cold: Warm

Grigor Dimitrov’s filthy drop shots

Baby Fed might’ve lost in the quarters but he was the hot shots MVP with this…

…And this:

Hot/cold: Sizzling

Caroline Garcia

The Frenchwoman rounds out Good/Bad Week with her second straight appearance. Garcia didn’t play during the week but managed to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore with Jo Konta bowing out of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow–the Brit’s only chance to leapfrog Garcia–due to injury.

Coming off the back of the Wuhan-Beijing double and winning 17 of her last 20 matches, Garcia is in no way making up the numbers. In fact, she is currently the fifth favourite to win the year-end tournament, ahead of Venus Williams, Jelena Ostapenko and Caroline Wozniacki.

Hot/cold: Hot