Fantasy Tennis Insider: the old and the new

Published by Fantasy Tennis Insider

Denis Shapovalov and Rafael Nadal; Getty Images

Well, compadres, it’s the final week of the Fantasy Tennis season and it’s your last chance to climb in the rankings. The Game Week will be played over two actual weeks; the first is the Next Gen finals and the second is the ATP Finals in London.

So who should you pick? Let’s have a look…

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ATP: A healthy balance of old and new

As they have been all year, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are must-haves. It doesn’t matter that Nadal has never won the year-end event, he is still the No.1 player in the world in a weak field.

Alexander Zverev is another sensible choice. Given his age, the German’s body is probably more equipped to deal with the older Federer or sore Nadal. He is 7-4 on indoor hard courts in 2017.

Providing he qualifies (which is no sure thing), Juan Martin del Potro is the third best option. The Argentinian has barely missed a beat since his semifinal appearance at the US Open, and he is the only man who can defeat Nadal or Federer on any given night — except, for say, Nick Kyrgios, who is not competing.

Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov both have solid indoor hard court records, however, have been unable to defeat any of the top men all year (although Grigor did push Nadal to five sets in January at the Australian Open). If I had to pick one it would be Dimitrov, given his solid form in Stockholm recently.

In the Next Gen tournament in Milan, Denis Shapovalov, Andrey Rublev and Karen Kachanov are the best options, and all for different reasons: Shapovalov has performed well against the games elite, Rublev has gone the furthest in Grand Slams and Kachanov is probably the most consistent.

Rublev is 0-3 so far this year on indoor hard courts and 5-10 throughout his career, Shapovalov is around 50% and Kachanov is 6-13.

 

 

 

 

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