1

Can one quietly start a season 18-3? Cameron Norrie can. Amidst all the love shed on Carlos Alcaraz’s return, Norrie has been the model of consistency to start the new season. The Brit has made three finals and finally got the break through win in Rio against Alcaraz this past week. Yes, Alcaraz was physically compromised by the time the match was done, but how many times have we seen players fail to take advantage of those situations? A week after losing in straights to Alcaraz on clay in Buenos Aires, he exacted his revenge 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to win his 5th career ATP singles title. Norrie moved up to 12th in the rankings as he heads to Acapulco this week where he’s defending runner-up points from 2022. Three finals out of four tournaments played isn’t too shabby and let’s not forget he started the year with a sweep of Alex de Minaur, Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz at the United Cup.

2

Unfortunately, it’s all about injuries this week. It starts with Carlos Alcaraz who appeared to have reaggravated the thigh injury that kept him out of the Australian swing to start 2023. The Spaniard traveled to Mexico where he is scheduled to play the Abierto Mexicano Telcel as the top seed. He was set to have a MRI on the thigh, but there has been no word yet on those results. From an outsider’s perspective, everyone thinks it’s wise for him to skip Acapulco in order to be ready for Indian Wells and/or Miami where he has big points to defend. We’re still waiting. On top of that in Acapulco, you have Holger Rune coming in with some lingering pain in his wrist from that Australian Open fall. He got through his round one match, but it seems like it might be a day-to-day thing until proven otherwise. Then there is Taylor Fritz who came to Acapulco fresh off a title run in Delray Beach. He too was taken to three sets in round one where he overcome John Isner for a win on Monday. Fritz appeared to be hampered by a knee issue early on though, so the question may also stick around for him this week as to how healthy he is right now. The draw in Acapulco will be one to watch if for nothing else than to see how those three guys are headed toward the Sunshine Double in March.

3

Daniil Medvedev is now on a ten match win streak after taking his opener in Dubai today. The Russian backed up his Rotterdam title with another in Doha last week. He has two wins over Felix Auger-Aliassime in that stretch and Jannik Sinner, so he’s not just building confidence beating lower ranked guys he should beat. The big test comes in Dubai this week where he has not fared well in the past. Meddy’s win today was just his second in three runs at the tournament. He has a chance this week to build even more on this recent streak with the potential to play Djokovic in the semifinals if both make it. The recent hot streak has Medvedev back up to 7th in the latest rankings.

4

An update on where everyone stands in doubles after last week because who else is going to tell you? Not the ATP or WTA who continue to bury doubles to the best of their abilities outside of the feigned excitement for another mixed doubles announcement. This one for the weirdly placed mid-season Hopman Cup that will come and go with the usual coverage for mixed doubles. As far as the week guys and ladies grinding it out, we saw the continued rise of Bopanna-Ebden who won their first title as a pair in Doha. The two vets make the final in Rotterdam the week prior and had won seven of their last eight heading to Dubai this week. They got knocked out in their opener, a rough matchup against Mektic-Pavic. Still, it’s been a good stretch for the duo who actually fell a couple of spots to number ten in the live rankings. Santiago Gonzalez and Eduoard Roger-Vasselin captured the titles in Marseille. It was a big week for a duo that had not won consecutive matchs in any of the four tournaments they had played to start 2023. Finally, in Rio it was Maximo Gonzalez and Andreas Molteni taking home the biggest prize of the week at the ATP 500 event. That has them in the number three spot in the rankings as they head to Santiago this week to continue their mastery of clay that has seen them go 10-1 with a pair of titles so far in 2023.

The big prize on the WTA side went to a newer pairing that had struggled to get going in the new year. Veronika Kudermetova and Ludmilla Samsonova won the doubles titles over the Chans in Dubai. Their five wins last week surpassed their total from the previous three tournaments played in 2023. They’re now slotted into the 5th spot in the rankings that are still led by Australian Open champs Krejcikova-Siniakova. Pegula-Gauff still hold a slight edge for the 2nd spot ahead of Aoyama-Shibahara.

5

Novak Djokovic is now the GOAT without a doubt, according to the facts. The Serb passed Steffi Graf as the tennis player with the most number of weeks at #1 in their career as he entered his 378th week at the top spot. Djokovic has spent 378 of the last 587 weeks since he first hit the #1 spot in July 2011 as the number one player in the world. Here’s a list of the top ten as far as the most weeks spent at number one, male or female:

378: Novak Djokovic
377: Steffi Graf
332: Martina Navratilova
319: Serena Williams
310: Roger Federer
286: Pete Sampras
270: Ivan Lendl
268: Jimmy Connors
260: Chris Evert
209: Rafael Nadal, Martina Hingis

6

March is upon us and as a sports fan in the United States, this is one of the best times of year bar none. As a HUGE college basketball fan, March Madness is just around the corner and that’s always awesome. It became a tradition for me and my Dad to go to the closest in-state hosting site over the years to watch games in person. The only site close this year is Houston, host site of the Final Four. Unfortunately tickets are impossible to come by without spending a chunk of your life’s savings. With Dad’s recent health issues, we would not have been able to go any way. The plus is that Dad is getting better every day and I’m heading down to see him the first week of the NCAA Tournament so we can watch in luxury from the couch this time for our yearly tradition. I’ll take that every year.

It’s also the month where baseball Spring Training kicks in to wet your appettite and of course, the two biggest Masters 1000 events of the Spring in Indian Wells and Miami take place as well. It’s a great month to be a sports fan.

GOOD KIT/BAD KIT OF THE WEEK

Andy Murray’s kit isn’t fancy, but it is simplistic with nice, clean lines and colors. Less is often more in my opinion with player kits and Murray’s is no exception. Soon-woo Kwon however falls into the too much, too busy category for me. I don’t mind the pink combination with the shoes, but the double 1970s couch pattern shirt and shorts is not my style. I’d probably not give this kit another look if he had solid colored shorts with the couch top or a solid colored shirt with the couch bottoms. But the double dose is invoking the gag reflex as the very bad kit of the week.

DOG PIC OF THE WEEK

This is my OG, Miguel. He passed a few years back, but every March this picture always comes back as a reminder of his greatness. Cute as a button and the dog who taught me how to be a dog dad. I miss this little guy very much, but damn it if this picture isn’t the gold at the end of the rainbow.