Djoko fanny, Zverev and/or Medvedev at the top, Murray back: Our bets for the 2022 season

Maxime Battistella: Murray back in the Top 20

It is still a long way off. Before the Australian Open, Andy Murray is ranked 135th in the world and needs invitations to participate in the biggest tournaments, which also regularly earns him some criticism. But in my humble opinion, this situation will not last long for the good and simple reason that I see the former world number 1 make a spectacular rise in the rankings over the next few months.

During the second half of last season, he managed to chain the tournaments for the first time since his return from a major hip operation at the end of 2019. From Cincinnati to Stockholm, he chained no less than 11 tournaments in three months (Rennes Challenger included), playing 23 matches (12 wins, 11 losses) and no longer seeming to suffer excessively physically. As proof, during this period, he knocked down two Top 10 – Hubert Hurkacz in Vienna and Jannik Sinner in Stockholm – and distinguished himself with some choice performances not always rewarded, such as his epic defeat against Stefanos Tsitsipas in the 1st round. of the US Open.

Since he launched this crazy challenge to replay with a metal hip, Murray has regularly shown that he can be dangerous in a match. But he now seems able to repeat demanding matches more closely. I don’t see him returning to his very best level – he has also admitted to having changed rackets to partially compensate for his loss of speed -, but he is particularly determined to prove that he can still play the spoilsport.

Supported by a new coach, master tactician Jan de Witt, Murray did not hesitate to announce that 2022 would be a “key season” for him and that he hoped to offer himself at least one last Grand Slam breakthrough, why not until the semi-finals. Pious wish or achievable goal? Here is all the question. But when a champion of this stature sets this type of goal, it is because he considers himself capable of it. His new recent victory in Sydney against Nikoloz Basilashvili, 23rd in the world, is further proof of the power of his will. So Murray Top 20 at the end of the season, I believe it! This beautiful story deserves to be told.

Rémi Bourrières: Djokovic blocked at 20 major titles

Well, okay, in our bets for the year 2021, I had “announced” that he would not win more than one major title. I was miserably planted, I apologize for it and I leave here with the load with all the less confidence in my prediction.

But there are still things that make me think that this prophecy might not be so absurd. Of course, Novak Djokovic remains in my eyes the best player in the world, one would have to be solidly armed in bad faith to argue the contrary. When he is at the top of his form, the Serb seems unplayable, for any opponent. Except one, perhaps: the Covid…

The incredible misadventure of the world No. 1 in Australia has shown it: his reluctance to the vaccine seems incompatible with his job as a tennis player. And that’s just the beginning. Even if he is accepted at Roland-Garros, as the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu has hinted, it may once again be in difficult preparation conditions. And let’s not even talk about Wimbledon and the US Open.

Let’s be clear: if Novak Djokovic stays the course of non-vaccination, he will never again be able to practice his profession quietly, or everywhere. And if he resigns himself, it will mean for him to go to the still of his convictions whose power, as questionable as they are, are also his strength. So it will weaken a bit. No matter how hard we take her, her situation seems quite inextricable…

Honestly, I have no idea which option he will choose. On the one hand, I cannot believe that he gives up the race for records, which we know how important they are for him, for a question of extra-sporting principles. On the other hand, given the way he seems to set himself up as the leader of the “free world”, I don’t see him submitting. Of course, I trust his intelligence to find a way to overcome this crisis. But I’m afraid he’s leaving feathers there. And at almost 35 years old, it could be expensive…

Louis Gilles: Three French in the 2nd week at Roland

Gone is the zero point of last year at Roland! After the terrible shortage of the 2021 edition, there are hopes for better for 2022. Like Gaël Monfils and Arthur Rinderknech, winner for one and finalist for the other of the first tournaments of the season in Australia , the Tricolores are starting the year on their feet. Enough to hope for great performances at the Porte d’Auteuil next spring, and to hope to pass above the French average in the second week at Roland-Garros. Since 2000, it has been at 1.9.

The record bar of five French in the round of 16 crossed in 2008 and 2015 still seems unattainable this year. The certainties remain thin in the French clan, but the beautiful promises of the young shoots and the unpredictability of the female table can make believe the impossible. If Benoît Paire manages to succeed in his season on clay, if Gaël Monfils manages to avoid physical glitches, and if Ugo Humbert finally manages to tame his weaknesses on Parisian clay, the second week will no longer be a mirage. And we will quickly forget this sad Roland 2021 for our French.

Cyril Morin: Medvedev will win at least two Majors

Where Novak Djokovic is bathed in uncertainty, Daniil Medvedev is surfing on a wave of insurance that risks turning into a tsunami as 2022 progresses in time. Like Alexander Zverev, he ended 2021 with a bang. But, unlike the German, he has taken the big step forward that can change everything: finally lifting a Grand Slam trophy. In New York, probably where the Medvedev phenomenon was revealed to the general public in 2019, the Russian has definitely changed in dimension. Enough to make him the man who will collect the most Majors this season, starting with Melbourne. History of taking power for the first time… and never letting go?

Not so daring? Without a doubt. On hard, in the best of three sets, he still seems ahead of the competition, Novak Djokovic apart. The fate of the Serb, for the moment dependent on the evolution of the pandemic on a global scale and on his vaccination status, opens a little more a door already largely forced from New York. But on clay and grass, the dynamic is quite different. So, can he really be the one who wins the most Majors? Yes, because Medvedev is systematically improving.

On this land he hates so much, he had reached the quarter-finals last year, after breaking some mental locks. On grass, his natural qualities, real weapons on this surface, will eventually take over when he has solved this little complex. Enough to make him a cador in the four main tournaments, a minimum challenger in Paris and London, a favorite in Melbourne and New York. And the man of the year 2022.

Laurent Vergne: 2022 will be the Zverev year

A year ago, I brilliantly predicted in these same bets of the season that Dominic Thiem would become world number one during the year. It was particularly well seen. Scalded Cat probably fears cold water, but I still tried my luck with a similar bet for the other German-speaking men’s tennis star, Alexander Zverev. Yes, I believe that 2022 will be the year when the great German jig opens its capital charts and settles, at one point or another, on the throne of the ATP rankings.

However, Zverev goes even further than Thiem. He is world No. 3, the Austrian was No. 2. The latter had already won a Grand Slam, which was not the case for the German. But this is precisely an argument in favor of Zverev. He is hungry and now feels very close to the tennis Grail. Thiem, he, regardless of his injury, experienced a terrible drop in tension after finally winning his first Grand Slam.

Yes, I believe that Zverev can surpass a Daniil Medvedev, against whom he may have twisted this tactical complex that he nurtured by beating him in the last Masters. This title in Turin to conclude 2021, with chained successes against Djokovic and Medvedev, could set the tone for what awaits us in 2022. Since his Olympic title in Tokyo, the German is no longer the same player. There are fewer and fewer weaknesses in his game, and more and more certainties in his head. So, it’s true, all his great conquests so far have been in straight sets. It remains for him to cross the course in Grand Slam. But there are still good reasons to think that his time has come.

Sébastien Petit: Humbert in the World Top 10

Finally, a note of optimism for French tennis. The year 2021 had been black for the tricolor clan, the year 2022 will be blue. And I don’t say that for the rhyme, but for Ugo Humbert. And I see him entering the Top 10 this season. OK, last year, I could say the same thing… A year that he finished injured and during which the unpredictable Nick Kirgios had twice made him swallow his good intentions in Grand Slam. But there are reasons to believe it, again: apart from Djokovic, Humbert has already managed to beat those who follow the Serb in the world Top 5, namely Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev. And that, not everyone can say the same.

If we wanted to broaden the line, we would say that the Frenchman is even undefeated against the Russian, current world No. 2, beaten twice in as many games, but obviously that’s not everything. That said, his victory at the start of the year put a coin in the hope machine: it was the first time that the Frenchman had beaten a player ranked in the World Top 3! (the first time, Medvedev was 5th) For a player who had not played an official match since the end of September 2021 and who was not supposed to play the ATP Cup, the surprise effect was significant! Especially since the Russian led a set, a break before being knocked down. This ended up convincing me that 2022 would be, for him, the year of the much better.

The birth of Arthur Rinderknech and the breakthrough of Hugo Gaston in the Top 100 will give additional appeal to this season and a boost in the tricolor clan where Gaël Monfils still holds the helm just as firmly. A kind of whirlwind where everyone pulls themselves up. The latter is 19th in the world and is capable of anything. Humbert is 31st, with a breakthrough to 25th in 2021 and a fairly clear margin for improvement. Despite a rather disappointing year in general, he still won the Halle tournament, an ATP 500 on grass, a surface where he signed his best Grand Slam run with an eighth-final at Wimbledon in 2019. Until then , he will only have points to take.