2026 ATP General News

[Murat B.]

Alcaraz is treating the injury identified as a 'Muscle Edema in his pronator teres" and an inflammed tendon sheath, he has been in a immbolizing right wrist cast and using anti- inflammatory treatment
BTW 'the pronator teres main function is to pronate ( turn down the palm downward) and flex the forearm at the elbow

Thank you for the info. I hope he takes his time and heals it properly.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Thank you for the info. I hope he takes his time and heals it properly.

No worries, agree, he needs time to heal and he has youth on his side, he is only 22 yo and has a lot of tennis to look forward to., another positive factor is there isnt a tear, which is great news

 

[El Dude]

Sinner just needs to stay healthy and he can coast to the year-end #1, and probably a Roland Garros title. This is rather devastating for Carlos. Hopefully not for the long-run, but certainly for this year. He's not able to defend 3000 points, and then he has to come back and defend 1800 at Queen's Club and Wimbledon.

That aside, who has the best chance of upsetting Jannik at Roland Garros? Bold prediction: He faces off against Vacherot or Fils in the final.

 

[kskate2]

If Fils can continue to play w/ controlled aggression, he's got the best shot on home dirt.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Sinner just needs to stay healthy and he can coast to the year-end #1, and probably a Roland Garros title. This is rather devastating for Carlos. Hopefully not for the long-run, but certainly for this year. He's not able to defend 3000 points, and then he has to come back and defend 1800 at Queen's Club and Wimbledon.

That aside, who has the best chance of upsetting Jannik at Roland Garros? Bold prediction: He faces off against Vacherot or Fils in the final.

Latest news from Alcaraz camp is that the goal is to come back at Queens, then Wimbledon if all goes well

 

[El Dude]

Latest news from Alcaraz camp is that the goal is to come back at Queens, then Wimbledon if all goes well

That's what I figured. Could be challenging, to say the least. He'll have to scrape through some rust.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

After a few years in Saudi Arabia, the APT NEXT GEN Finals event will be returning to Italy this year.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

That aside, who has the best chance of upsetting Jannik at Roland Garros? Bold prediction: He faces off against Vacherot or Fils in the final.

What do you think is Vacherot's ceiling? Despite him being much older, do you think he can have a comparable career to Fonseca or Mensik?

 

[El Dude]

What do you think is Vacherot's ceiling? Despite him being much older, do you think he can have a comparable career to Fonseca or Mensik?

No. He's interesting, because he's such a late breakout player, with no real path of development beforehand. He finished 2024 ranked #140 at 26 years old, #31 at the end of 2025. That's the type of rise you see from good players in their early 20s, and great players around 18-20. But to see that rise from age 26 to 27 is exceedingly rare.

There's been lots of random Masters winners in Open Era history, but I can't think of any that were his age (26, almost 27) when they won their first, and had spend their entire career on the Challenger circuit. Even "lesser randos" like Albert Portas and Andrei Pavel were established top 100 journeymen for a few years.

What makes Vacherot interesting and hard to project is not only his late rise, but the fact that he's pretty much held a high level of play for half a year now. He's #21 in the race rankings...meaning, he didn't just win Shanghai and then vanish (Those race ranking points don't include Shanghai).

I think the best-case scenario is that he's a top 20 guy for a few years, maybe sniffs the top 10. He's the type of player who could seize an opportunity and sneak into a Slam final, but I think it highly unlikely he wins one, at least as long as one of Sincaraz are there to meet him.

As far as comparing him to Fonzie and Mensik, the age difference is huge. There's just not that much room to grow for a 27-year old, compared to a 19-20 year old. Exceptions happen, but even the great outlier, Stan Wawrinka, was almost 28 when he won his first Slam and he didn't really get any better than he was when he won that first one. And really, Stan is a bit overrated in that while he was able to play at a Big Four beating level, it was only for a brief spell, and really only a handful of tournaments.

I suspect what we're seeing is peak Vacherot right now, which is surprisingly good and a bonafide top 20 type - sort of on the level of prime Robert Bautista Agut or Gilles Simon. But I don't think he'll get much, if any, better.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Rome Masters 1000 update:
OUT: Fritz, Majchrzak, Spizzirri
IN: Medjedovic, Svajda, Bautista Agut

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

With more than 30 years on the ATP tour and over 8,000 matches officiated, Carlos Bernades closed the chapter of his career at the ATP finals in Turin in 2024.
Now living in Bergamo, he has taken on new responsibilities as a tournament director on the ATP Challenger Tour.
While he no longer sits in the umpire's chair Berandes admits it is not the officiating he misses most." Not the umpiring itself" he said with a laugh " but the people.I met some colleagues here that I havent seen in more than 10 years.That's really nice".

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Grigor Dimitrov will play qualifying at RG
The entry lists for the qualifying are out

+bit.ly/EntryListsRG/#RolandGarros

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Jack Draper will miss Rome and Roland Garros due to the knee tendon issue that kept him out since Barcelona
He is aiming to come back at the beginning of the grass season
Draper will likely fall out of the top 100 post RG after being ranked #4 last June.

 

[El Dude]

Jodar reminds us that top talent can seemingly come out of nowhere. But Jodar's rise is rather astonishing.

According to Tennis Abstract, he first played in an M15 event in 2023. M15 is the lowest ITF event, with prize money of $15K. He played a few more such events in 2024, including a couple Challengers. 2025 saw him play a relatively full Challenger schedule in which he went 41-13, including three Challenger titles. He probably was first recognized by most (including myself) when he beat Tien and Landaluce at the Next Gen Finals, losing to Kjaer.

So there were signs he was good in 2025 as he did very well on his first full round on the Challenger circuit. He finished the year #168.

He started 2026 by losing to Blockx in the Canberra Challenger event. He then made it through the AO qualifiers, losing in the 2nd round. Since then he's played only ATP events and has risen quickly up the rankings; he's #34 in the live rankings and #18 in the race rankings. In other words, he's been the 18th best player so far year in his first full ATP season. I can't remember a time when that happened.

Age-wise he's about a year behind Alcaraz's trajectory. His current level is about equivalent to Alcaraz in 2021 (though his continued rise could make his season better), when Carlos turned 18 and finished #32. Carlos did finish that year with a 2021 Elo, 6th best - so by the end of the year he was getting close to elite levels. And his rise and playing time from 2020 (#141) to 2021 (#32) was similar so far. But I think what is surprising is that it took Carlos the full year to get to #32 - he didn't breach the top 50 until September while Jodar reached it in April (thought a year plus older).

A side note. Some of you might remember a "benchmarks to greatness" piece I wrote years ago. The first was reaching the top 100 before a player's 19th birthday - a factor that every all-time great of the Open Era still shares (including Alcaraz and Sinner). Jodar was 19. I don't think that precludes him from possible all-time greatness, but it is worth noting. On one hand, caution should be considered, as we don't yet know how good he'll become...he could cap out more in the top 10 range of player. But if he becomes a great, he sets a new precedent.

 

[PhiEaglesfan712]

He started 2026 by losing to Blockx in the Canberra Challenger event. He then made it through the AO qualifiers, losing in the 2nd round. Since then he's played only ATP events and has risen quickly up the rankings; he's #34 in the live rankings and #18 in the race rankings. In other words, he's been the 18th best player so far year in his first full ATP season. I can't remember a time when that happened.

Jannik Sinner in 2021, but on a technicality. 2020 should have been his first full season, but it was screwed up by the pandemic. Sinner finished his 'first full season' in 2021 ranked #10, but he was already 20 years old by the end of it.