On Bencic's rebirth, Tsitsipas' title and Auger-Aliassime's run in Rio

While the older cats have been away this month, the young ones have continued to play—quite well, for the most part. They’ve also continued to establish, and in some cases re-establish, themselves on tour. That’s how it went again this weekend, when an 18-year-old Canadian reached his first ATP final; a 20-year-old Greek consolidated his breakthrough Slam run in Australia with his second title; and a Swiss woman who is still somehow only 21 had a full-fledged rebirth in Dubai.

Which of those events will prove to be the most significant when the older cats return in March? Here are three takeaways from another very full week of tennis.

“It’s unbelievable; it’s incredible. I mean, I still cannot believe it.”

That helpful explanation of the word “unbelievable” came from Belinda Bencic, after her 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 win over Petra Kvitova in the final of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Saturday. Bencic said that after winning her first two rounds, she and her team had said to each other, “Wow, what a great tournament.” Then the world No. 45 went ahead and won four straight three-set matches, against four Top 10 opponents: Aryna Sabalenka, Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina and Kvitova. Each win was more impressive than the last.

“I’m so happy about the consistency that I could back up my wins,” said Bencic, who spent much of the week trading looks of joy and disbelief with her coaching team. “After playing a tough match, I could mentally win another one. It’s very difficult.”

Difficult, but not unprecedented for Bencic. Her run to her third career title in Dubai came with a strong sense of déjà vu. That’s because she did much of the same thing at another Premier 5 event, as an 18-year-old in Toronto back in 2015. That week, Bencic beat six former Grand Slam champions or finalists, including Serena Williams. After that, in many of our minds, Bencic was sure to be a future No. 1 player and multiple major champ.

That’s not how it has worked out so far, obviously. A back injury in 2016 was the start of Bencic’s long slide into obscurity, which essentially lasted until this past week. Had we been wrong about her sky-high potential? Bencic, it seemed clear now, couldn’t match the power of Naomi Osaka, the athleticism of Sloane Stephens, or the gritty consistency of players like Halep and Angelique Kerber.

But with her brave wins in Dubai, she reminded us of what she can do better than any of those players: Take time away from her opponents. Nobody since her countrywoman and mentor, Martina Hingis, has shown such an instinctive knack for moving forward in the court to cut the ball off and send it back early than Bencic. The closer a match became in Dubai, the better Bencic became at taking over rallies with her court positioning. She saved six match points against Sabalenka, and ran away from Halep and Kvitova in the third set.

Bencic, who moves up to No. 23 this week, said she couldn’t believe it, but she played as if she could. Should we believe in her again?

“I lost the spark, and I was frustrated because it felt like I couldn’t find it again.”

Through the first three weeks of February, Stefanos Tsitsipas hadn’t followed up on his run to the Australian Open semifinals in quite the Federer-beating fashion we had expected. In Sofia, he had been outplayed by Gael Monfils, and in Rotterdam, he had been out-worked by Damir Dzumhur. Was Tsitsipas destined to have a letdown after Melbourne? Was he destined to be, like his Next Gen predecessor Alexander Zverev, a sporadic star? Or was he destined, like another next Genner his own age, Denis Shapovalov, someone who would shine brightly on the big stages, and go a little dimmer everywhere else?

Maybe not. There’s something in Tsitsipas’ all-business between-point strut that says he’s here to stay, and that he’s here to play his best every week. More important, there’s something in his game that most pros, of any age, can’t match. He showed both—his determination and his talent—last week in Marseille, where he won his second career title without dropping a set.

“This week I can say I’m really happy again because I felt this hunger back again,” Tsitsipas said. “Winning titles is the thing I’m working for...It’s the biggest satisfaction and the biggest joy in tennis.”

I’ll let two shots stand for all of the others from Tsitsipas last week, both of which came in the second-set tiebreaker of the final. His opponent, Mikhail Kukushkin, had played some of the best tennis of his life through the event, and looked at times like a man of title-winning destiny. But Tsitsipas found his way around Kukushkin by doing what great players do—something extra, and unmatchable.

Up 2-1 in the tiebreaker, he had a mid-court forehand that most players would have taken down the line, even if it meant going into his opponent’s stronger forehand. Not Tsitispas. He was agile enough to come around the ball and flip it inside-out, into Kukushkin’s slightly more vulnerable backhand. From there, he moved in and won the point.

Later, Tsitsipas fell behind 3-4, and the possibility of a third set loomed. Rather than playing it safe, though, Tsitsipas took his first forehand and charged in from behind the baseline; surprised and pressured, Kukushkin rushed his pass and hit it into the net. Tsitsipas snuck through from there for the title.

Both of those forehand approaches, in their creativity and daring, showed that Tsitsipas has that proverbial extra gear. I’m guessing he’ll only get better at finding it.

“It’s frustrating because I could have done better today, but it shows that I have to mature as a player and a person to give myself chances to win titles. There’s nothing wrong with that. It just proves I have to keep working and get better.”

Maturity doesn’t seem to be a big problem for Felix Auger-Aliassime. The 18-year-old Montreal native reached his first ATP final—and a 500-level final at that—at the Rio Open last week. Along the way, he beat Christian Garin, a Chilean dirtballer who had beaten him the previous week; survived a nervy final game to close out Fabio Fognini; and ground down one of the game’s most experienced grinders, Pablo Cuevas, in three sets. And while he came up short in the final against Laslo Djere, there was no mystery as to why: “It was my serve that fell apart today,” Auger-Aliassime said.

There are a lot of reasons, beyond this precocious result on a surface that probably isn’t his best, to like Auger-Aliassime’s future chances. He already plays with quiet poise; I’ve yet to see him argue a close call that has gone against him, or get overly frustrated over a missed shot. And his game is admirably textbook; no funky grips or unorthodox swings for him. Auger-Aliassime extends though the ball on both sides, in a natural yet disciplined way that seems destined to hold up under pressure. And while he doesn’t have an obvious go-to weapon, like Reilly Opelka’s serve or Karen Khachanov’s forehand, Auger-Aliassime also doesn’t have an obvious weakness, either. He seems to have the patience to look beyond the match of the day and keep his long-term plans in sight. Rio was a big first step to making those plans a reality.

And if Auger-Aliassime was going to lose to anyone, why not Djere? As the Serb told the Rio crowd afterward, he lost his mother seven years ago, and his father two months ago. (Watch Djere's runner-up speech in the above video.) Now the 23-year-old has won an ATP 500 title. Just when you think tennis can’t give us another story, another emotion, another player to follow, it caps the weekend with all three.

ATP/WTA Acapulco

• Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Juan Martin del Potro and Sloane Stephens headline the Abierto Mexicano Telcel. Watch live coverage on Tennis Channel Plus beginning Monday, 2/25 at 5:00 pm ET.

ATP Dubai

• Watch Roger Federer, Kei Nishikori, Marin Cilic and Karen Khachanov live from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship starting Monday, 2/25 at 5:00 am ET

ATP Sao Paulo

• Tennis Channel Plus features live coverage of the Brasil Open beginning Monday, 2/25 at 10:30 am ET