Where will Jarry be in the ATP rankings after Mannarino’s surprise victory?

A dream start to the season is to have Adrien Mannarino. The French tennis player arrived at the Australian Open in 20th position in the world rankings. From now on, with their qualification for the round of 16, they will no longer only have to face the defending champion and big favorite, Novak Djokovic but also rose to 17th place in the rankings, the best position of his career.

One of the big surprises of this start of the season is the 35-year-old Frenchman, who He closes the year 2023 by being crowned champion of the Sofia Open. Now, the experienced tennis player appears to be going full throttle at the Australian Open.

This had already made noise in the media after having eliminated in the first round one of the most popular players on the circuit, the Swiss Stan Wawrinka (56th) (6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3 and 6-0). Already in the second round and also in five sets, He left out the Spaniard Jaume Munar, currently 82nd in the world rankings.

However, the real challenge came in the next match, when he had to face one of the players who finished in the best state of grace last season, the American Ben Shelton (16th). The match itself was a veritable five-set battle that lasted nearly five hours.

Only the first set already gave us an idea of ​​what the match would be like, since the French He needed to reach the tie-break (7-4) to take the advantage. In the second round, the American considerably raised his level and It was a resounding 1-6 in less than 40 minutes. The third set was the longest of the match at one hour and 14 minutes, However, Shelton asserted his favorite card and won in the tiebreaker (2-7).

Already one set away from elimination and two consecutive five-set matches , the prospects did not look good for the experienced player. However, he had a positive energy that helped him show his best tennis and winning the fourth set 6-4, extending the match to the final.

Although the score suggests that the final phase was relatively easy for Mannarino, who won 6-4, the truth is that it was quite the opposite, since Not only was it the second longest of the match at one hour and eight minutes, but when he was serving to stay in the argument, Shelton showed his pride and broke his serve, adding even more suspense.

With this result and access to the fourth round, He will have to face the world number one, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who has just beaten the Argentine Tomás Etcheverry in three sets.

But that’s not all, he reached 17th place in the ATP rankings, the best position of his career and incidentally displacing the Chilean Nicolás Jarry, relegating him to 19th place in the live ranking and could drop further if Ugo Humbert beats Hubert Hurkacz in the third round.

After eliminating her compatriot Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton came through with a clear display of character in the match against Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of last year’s US Open.

Even though the match went to the Serbian in three sets the young man, 20 years old at the time, displayed his rebellion, repeatedly causing sparks between the two tennis players. The strongest rally came at the end of the first set, when Shelton broke his serve and glared defiantly at the 24-time Grand Slam champion, with the excitement of a crowd claiming his court.

Ultimately, it would be a victory for the Serbian by partials of 3-6, 2-6 and 6-7, which He celebrated by making the gesture of hanging up a phone (same celebration as Shelton when winning his matches).

After the argument, the 36-year-old tennis player justified his provocative celebration. “It was a reaction against him, he did not behave correctly, with respect, on the pitch and before the match (…). If someone places themselves in the unsportsmanlike “zone”, I react.” he concluded.

Already during the post-match press conference, Shelton had words to express the actions of the world number one. “I only saw him after the match. I don’t like it when I’m on social media and I see people telling me how I can celebrate or not. I think if you win the match, you deserve to do what you want. As a child, I was always taught that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so that’s all I have to say on the matter.” further triggering the controversy.