Three takeaways from shocking events in Doha, Rotterdam and New York

Surprise was the theme of the week in tennis. Shock, even.

In Rotterdam, 32-year-old Gael Monfils fended off a strong field to win his first title in 13 months. In Doha, Elise Mertens beat Kiki Bertens, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep to take home the biggest tournament victory of her career. And in New York, 21-year-old Reilly Opelka won his first career title.

Were those just blips on the game’s radar screen, destined to drop down the memory hole by the end of the year? Or were they signs of bigger things to come for these players? Here are three takeaways from an eye-popping, and potentially revelatory, weekend.

“Don’t tell me you saw this coming”

Those were the words of Tennis Channel commentator Russ Thaler as Gael Monfils reached championship point against Stan Wawrinka in Rotterdam on Sunday. No, as a matter of fact, I didn’t see a title coming for the 32-year-old, 33rd-ranked Frenchman, either at the start of the week, or the start of the third set against Wawrinka.

But Monfils has a new coach, Australia’s Liam Smith; a seemingly renewed determination to make another run up the rankings; and, most importantly, a healthy body. To reach the final in Rotterdam he won two matches that I would have picked him to lose, over David Goffin and Daniil Medvedev.

Still, when Stan won the second set of the final, 6-1, and went up 1-0, 15-30 on Monfils’ serve to start the third, I fully expected the Frenchman’s run to come to a rapid end. Wawrinka had played with his old competitive edge all week, and had won all the points that mattered in close wins over Milos Raonic, Denis Shapovalov, and Kei Nishikori.

Why couldn’t he do it this time? Because Monfils put himself in better positions to use his all-world athleticism than he typically does. For most of his career, Monfils has been content to launch long-range missiles from well behind the baseline; against Wawrinka, he served and volleyed and tried to move forward whenever possible, and he reaped the benefits. While Monfils will never remind anyone of John McEnroe at net—he hit one winning volley on Sunday with a two-handed forehand chop—he’s quick enough to come out on top of most cat-and-mouse rallies, and we know what he can do with an overhead.

This was Monfils’ second 500-level title. When he won the other one, at the Citi Open in 2016, he talked about how much it meant to him to win a tournament that Arthur Ashe had won. He said the same in Rotterdam. Which was fitting, because he won this one with an Ashe-like all-court attack. As with his countryman, and fellow 30-something, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Monfils’s flair doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.

“She was too good for me”

That’s what Elise Mertens said after her 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Simona Halep at last year’s French Open. The words had the ring of unvarnished truth; that day, Mertens didn’t have any answers for Halep’s superior speed and consistency; she couldn’t hit the ball past Halep, and she couldn’t keep the ball in play as long as her, either—that’s a recipe for a quick defeat.

Still, I remember being impressed by Mertens’ straightforward honesty that day. She didn’t try to excuse her defeat, or claim that it was out of the ordinary—which would have been difficult, considering that Halep had just beaten her 6-0, 6-3 in Madrid the month before. Instead, the 23-year-old Belgian, who broke into the Top 20 last year, took her lumps and learned from the experience.

“These are the matches you like, because she was too good,” Mertens said. “But it’s also very good for me, because it highlights what I have to improve on. I know that the Top 10 is another level; I’m almost there, at the global level, but not yet.”

Fast forward nine months and Mertens finds herself a step closer to that global level. Last week in Doha, she recorded three of the biggest wins of her career, over Kiki Bertens, Angelique Kerber and Halep, for the most important title of her career. This time, Mertens, who is working with veteran coach David Taylor, was up to the physical challenge that Halep poses. Most pleasing to Mertens was her ability to put together a string of victories against quality opponents.

“I was really happy the way I played this week,” Mertens told David Kane of wtatennis.com. “I’m happy about the process I made, starting out playing less well and then getting better every match.”

“Playing against those Top 10 players, which I back to back did this week, and especially also with the tennis I played, I think this one would be the nicest victory.”

Mertens is, above all else, a balanced player. She’s a baseliner with clean technique who takes the ball on the rise, and she’s won titles on hard courts and clay. Last year it was Bertens who had a career season and cracked the Top 10. Could it be her near-namesake who goes global in 2019?

“Move on”

That was the advice Reilly Opelka’s coach gave him after he missed an easy backhand on set point against Denis Istomin at the New York Open last week. The 21-year-old Opelka didn’t look like he wanted to move on: He was standing at the back of the court, hand on his hips, silently staring at his coach. Apparently, that’s what qualifies as boiling rage for this self-contained 7-footer from Florida.

Opelka obviously took his coach’s advice. He moved on to the quarterfinals when Istomin retired with a shoulder injury. He moved on against John Isner in the semifinals, in a three-tiebreaker epic that featured 81 aces, a record for a best-of-three-set match. And he moved on to his first career title by beating Brayden Schnur, 9-7 in a third-set tiebreaker. Opelka hit 43 aces in just 16 service games in the final, a rate of more than 2.5 per game.

We’ve been hearing about Opelka’s potential for what seems like years now; Brad Gilbert long ago tapped him as the player to watch from the next American men’s generation. And all you have to do is watch one of his service games to see why. As Isner has shown, if you can’t be broken, you’re going to be tough to beat. But Opelka appears to combine Isner’s serving capabilities with a more fluidly athletic baseline game.

In some ways, Opelka, who didn’t take up tennis until he was 13, is still discovering what he can do on a court, and how to put all of his skills together. This week in New York he found out a lot about himself, about how he can bounce back from adversity, and just how far his serve can take him.

“I was tough mentally,” said Opelka, who double-faulted on match point in the second set of the final, before hitting an ace to seal the title in the third. “Especially losing a lot of first sets this week, and my serve really helped me out. I was able to play clutch in those big moments.”

Great, I can hear the rest of the ATP tour groaning right now, just what we needed, Isner 2.0. Right now, it looks like Opelka could be destined for even greater heights.

ATP Rio De Janeiro

• Starting Monday 2/18, at 2:30 pm ET, catch live coverage of the Rio Open featuring Dominic Thiem, Fabio Fognini, and Diego Schwartzman.

WTA Dubai

• Watch Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova live from the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships starting Saturday, 2/16 at 3:00 am ET

WTA Budapest

• Tennis Channel Plus features live coverage of the Hungarian Ladies Open beginning Monday, 2/18 8:00 am ET

ATP Delray Beach

• Watch Juan Martin del Potro, John Isner and Frances Tiafoe live on Tennis Channel Plus beginning Tuesday, 2/19 at 12:30 am ET.

ATP Marseille

• See Karen Khachanov, Borna Coric and Stefanos Tsitsipas live on Tennis Channel Plus beginning Monday 2/18, 8:30 am ET