ATP Race Update: Ben Shelton rises after Stuttgart title as Medvedev and De Minaur miss key chance

The first week of competition in the grass swing has finished, and the top positions in the ATP Race to Turin remain unchanged, with Jannik Sinner firmly at the top, followed by Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev — recent Roland Garros champion. However, none of them competed in the opening week of the grass swing.

Zverev took second place in the Race after winning his first Grand Slam title and reduced the gap to Sinner, although he will still have to wait until Wimbledon to see whether he has chances of overtaking him. Meanwhile, the injured Alcaraz remains in third place without complications. The three names are virtually qualified for the ATP Finals in Turin.

However, things tighten from there onwards. Flavio Cobolli — Roland Garros finalist — rested for a week before returning to the courts, while Daniil Medvedev — who completes the top 5 — was surprised in the semifinals of s’Hertogenbosch by the surprise of the week, the Polish player Kamil Majchrzak — who recorded the biggest upward movement in the ATP Race.

Meanwhile, Ben Shelton managed to climb a couple of positions after winning the title at Stuttgart Open, defeating Taylor Fritz. The 29-year-old American, despite the final defeat, also managed to rise several positions and moves up to No. 28 in the Race.

It should be remembered that Fritz was out of competition for a couple of months due to injuries, but in his first tournament he quickly reached the final and can take positive conclusions heading into the rest of the grass swing, where he will try to recover ground after giving several months of advantage to his rivals.

The leading positions of the ATP Race remain without movement — and there will be no major changes until Wimbledon at least. Sinner remains comfortably in first place, although now with less than 1,000 points of advantage over Zverev. Further back in third place is the injured Alcaraz, who will not return to the courts until after Wimbledon, a key event, as several players with a deep run could overtake the Spaniard, who will start the hard-court swing with slightly more difficulty.

Meanwhile, Cobolli stayed in fourth place after his strong Roland Garros campaign up to the final and a first week of the grass swing without competing. This Monday he returned to the courts in Halle but was quickly eliminated in the first round. In any case, he will remain in the upper zone this week — and in the best-case scenario only Medvedev could slightly overtake him, although Cobolli will remain in the top 5 once this week is over.

The Russian precisely had a chance to climb positions in his participation in Stuttgart, but ended up eliminated in the semifinals by Majchrzak. He was not the only top-10 player who suffered against the Polish momentum, as Alex de Minaur (9th) and Félix Auger-Aliassime (10th) also lost to Majchrzak and wasted a good opportunity to climb positions in a tight Race.

Between 6th place (Shelton, 1930 points) and 15th place (Darderi, 1435 points), there is only about 500 points of difference, and this week there will be two ATP 500 tournaments in competition with several top names on court. While the first positions seem to be gradually securing their place in the ATP Finals, the last three spots will be highly contested until the very end, and the grass events will be key for those aiming to qualify for Turin.

While Shelton took 6th place after winning the title, he left Fils and Mensik slightly behind. While the Frenchman is injured, the Czech did not compete in the first week of grass and will return this week at Queen’s Club Championships. There is a tight battle for the top 8 involving De Minaur — runner-up at Libema Open — and Auger-Aliassime — eliminated in the quarterfinals — both affected by the surprise run of Majchrzak.

The Polish player was not even inside the top 100, but now moves up to No. 67 in the Race. He has shown he can be a name to consider on grass courts, and will again be competing this week at Queen’s in search of maintaining his recent form from the past weeks.