AsgerHO
Rookie
I´m just watching Lukas Lacko against Mikhail Youzhny, and I came to think about Lackos developement, and how he´s a good example of a player who has indeed experienced up and downs.
I don´t know if there is much to discuss, I just thought that looking at his results and ranking breakdown from the last couple of years is quite interesting.
To start off Lacko is currently ranked 60, with 3 QF´s at ATP events already in 2010. He´s 22 years old now.
If we go back to 2007, where he would be 19-20 years old, he started the year ranked as 231. He reached several challenger QF´s, 2 finals and won the challenger in Kolding in Denmark, where I watched him. He also made the maindraw of the Australian Open, and the Qualies finals in the USO.
He ended 2007 ranked 132, which is more or less a 100 places jump. I know it´s easier going from the 200´s and up, than it is going from the 100´s and up, but still an impressive year taking his age into consideration.
Short summary of his best results in 2007:
- Maindraw AO
- QF´s in Challengers in: Cherbourg, Karlsruhe, Furth, Brasov
- 1/2´s in Challengers in: Noumea
- Runner-up in Challengers in: Rijeka, Istanbul
- Won Challenger in: Kolding
- Climbed 99 spots from 231 to 132
The interesting thing comes when we look at 2008, where there was obviously more focus and attention drawn to him.
But compared to 2007, he made "only" 3 QF´s appearences on Challenger level, and lost no less than 5 1st round qualies and 12 (!) 1st round matches on Challenger level. He dumped from 132 to 324, and I think it´s extremely interesting too see how much spotlight and focus can affect a player, assuming this is what happened. That could be one of the reasons in my opinion.
Summary of best results in 2008:
- Main draw AO
- QF´s in Challengers in: Cherbourg, Athens, Binghamton
- Dumped from 132 to 324
Then moving on to 2009 he started off playing mostly futures in order to improve his ranking making him able to enter Challengers without having to go trhough qualies. It probably has also been to get a boost of confidence after a dissapointing 2008. After looking at his 2008 I shall be happy to admit that I thought that was it for another great talent, but luckely he prooved me wrong. One other interesting point to be made is that injuries has not affected much of his seasons and he has been paying steadily throughout both years.
Within 4 months he won 4 future events and shorly after won the challenger in Uzbekistan in May.
After that he made the 2nd round of Halle after going through qualies, and shorly after made the MD of Wimbledon. That was followed by 2 QF´s and a semifinal in Challengers which moved him to 155, close to his carreer high at that point. He finished the year with yet another QF, 2 semis and a win in Korea, finishing the year within top-100.
And well, 2010 has looked pretty good for Lacko, playing nothing else than ATP events, beating likes of Lu, Istomin, Ljubicic, Leo Mayer and Chardy and is before the Dubai tournament ranked 60.
I hope it was not just way too much about nothing, but I thought I´d share it, as I find it pretty interesting, and a good example of a talent who actually makes it back to carreer high after almost being out and gone.
Feel free to comment
I don´t know if there is much to discuss, I just thought that looking at his results and ranking breakdown from the last couple of years is quite interesting.
To start off Lacko is currently ranked 60, with 3 QF´s at ATP events already in 2010. He´s 22 years old now.
If we go back to 2007, where he would be 19-20 years old, he started the year ranked as 231. He reached several challenger QF´s, 2 finals and won the challenger in Kolding in Denmark, where I watched him. He also made the maindraw of the Australian Open, and the Qualies finals in the USO.
He ended 2007 ranked 132, which is more or less a 100 places jump. I know it´s easier going from the 200´s and up, than it is going from the 100´s and up, but still an impressive year taking his age into consideration.
Short summary of his best results in 2007:
- Maindraw AO
- QF´s in Challengers in: Cherbourg, Karlsruhe, Furth, Brasov
- 1/2´s in Challengers in: Noumea
- Runner-up in Challengers in: Rijeka, Istanbul
- Won Challenger in: Kolding
- Climbed 99 spots from 231 to 132
The interesting thing comes when we look at 2008, where there was obviously more focus and attention drawn to him.
But compared to 2007, he made "only" 3 QF´s appearences on Challenger level, and lost no less than 5 1st round qualies and 12 (!) 1st round matches on Challenger level. He dumped from 132 to 324, and I think it´s extremely interesting too see how much spotlight and focus can affect a player, assuming this is what happened. That could be one of the reasons in my opinion.
Summary of best results in 2008:
- Main draw AO
- QF´s in Challengers in: Cherbourg, Athens, Binghamton
- Dumped from 132 to 324
Then moving on to 2009 he started off playing mostly futures in order to improve his ranking making him able to enter Challengers without having to go trhough qualies. It probably has also been to get a boost of confidence after a dissapointing 2008. After looking at his 2008 I shall be happy to admit that I thought that was it for another great talent, but luckely he prooved me wrong. One other interesting point to be made is that injuries has not affected much of his seasons and he has been paying steadily throughout both years.
Within 4 months he won 4 future events and shorly after won the challenger in Uzbekistan in May.
After that he made the 2nd round of Halle after going through qualies, and shorly after made the MD of Wimbledon. That was followed by 2 QF´s and a semifinal in Challengers which moved him to 155, close to his carreer high at that point. He finished the year with yet another QF, 2 semis and a win in Korea, finishing the year within top-100.
And well, 2010 has looked pretty good for Lacko, playing nothing else than ATP events, beating likes of Lu, Istomin, Ljubicic, Leo Mayer and Chardy and is before the Dubai tournament ranked 60.
I hope it was not just way too much about nothing, but I thought I´d share it, as I find it pretty interesting, and a good example of a talent who actually makes it back to carreer high after almost being out and gone.
Feel free to comment
