Expected Points, my new short, daily podcast, highlights three numbers to illustrate stats, trends, and interesting trivia around the sport.
Up today: Marc Polmans and Ramkumar Ramanathan fight out an old-school Wimbledon marathon, an unlikely unseeded foursome remains in the Eastbourne women’s draw, and African tennis is alive in Brazzaville.
Scroll down for a transcript.
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Music: Love is the Chase by Admiral Bob (c) copyright 2021. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: Apoxode
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Rough transcript of today’s episode:
The first number is 212, the total net points played by Marc Polmans and Ramkumar Ramanathan in their final-round qualifying match at Wimbledon yesterday. Third-round qualifying at the Championships is played by main-draw rules, so Polmans and Ramanathan not only went five sets, they fought it out to 11-9 in the decider. Both men embraced the challenges of the surface, particularly Ramanathan. The 26-year-old Indian went to net 148 times in the contest’s 353 points, winning 61% of them. Polmans was more choosy, but still moved forward 64 times, winning nearly four in five. The Australian, ranked 154th, advanced to the Wimbledon main draw for the first time in four tries. He is a rare player with grass-court success outside of Europe, having won back-to-back Futures-level titles on turf in Australia three years ago. He hasn’t fully embraced the Aussie serve-and-volley tradition, but at least he had enough familiarity with the tactic to stop the relentless Ramanathan attack.
Our second number is 4, the number of different main-draw entry methods represented by the four semi-finalists at the WTA Eastbourne event. Earlier this week, I touted the strong women’s draw in Eastbourne, pointing to the five top-tenners in the draw. With Aryna Sabalenka’s exit yesterday, all five are gone, and the rest of seeds lost early, too. The top-ranked woman left standing is #27 Anett Kontaveit, who straight-setted 3rd seed Bianca Andreescu on Wednesday. She’s the only remaining play whose ranking earned her direct entry to the Eastbourne draw. Her semi-final opponent today, Camila Giorgi, had to qualify. The other semi pits wild card Jelena Ostapenko against Anastasija Sevastova, a late addition to the draw as a lucky loser. Ostapenko is ranked outside of the official top 40, but the Tennis Abstract grass-court Elo ratings remain a fan, placing her in the top 20, atop the Eastbourne final four. None of these women had reason to doubt they could hang with the best in the world on any given day, but it’s nice to get a reminder a few days before one of the biggest events of the year.
Today’s third and final number is 19, the number of countries playing Davis Cup this week. With the eyes of the tennis world on Britain and a handful of grass courts in Germany and Spain, stalwarts in Africa and the small countries of Europe are competing for national pride at the Davis Cup Group IV level. Countries in Group IV are impossibly far away from the international all-star contest that the Davis Cup Finals have become. Two winners each at the round-robin events in Skopje, North Macedonia and Brazzaville, Congo will be promoted to next year’s Group III, where they’ll face stiffer competition for a shot at Group II in 2023, and so on. The most encouraging squad in the African tournament is the side from Ivory Coast, playing its first Davis Cup ties since 2012. The West African nation has a winning record in their 28-year Davis Cup history. Led by Eliakim Coulibaly, a 19-year-old lefty with an ATP ranking of 757th, the Ivory Coasters have won 8 of 9 sets and are a near-lock for a place in one of tomorrow’s ties for promotion to Group III. Davis Cup Finals 2025, here we come.
