Jack Sock was a disappointing 13-16 in his last 29 matches going into the Rolex Paris Masters. It seemed like a certainty that he would end the season with a 13-17 record in his last 30 matches when he trailed Kyle Edmund 5-1 in the third set of their second-round contest.
Fast forward four days and Sock is now in the top 10 of the ATP rankings for the first time in his career and on his way to the World Tour Finals–also for the first time.
The American, who kick-started his run by storming back to stun Edmund 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5), capped off the week by getting the best of fellow surprise finalist Filip Krajinovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 in Sunday afternoon’s title match. Sock fired nine aces and broke Krajinovic six times before prevailing in one hour and 58 minutes.
Highlights:
“It definitely hasn’t sunk in yet,” the 25-year-old noted. “I don’t know when it will. Right now I want to enjoy it with my team. They’ve been with me through everything. I’m excited to see my family and just enjoy it with everyone.
“I’d be lying if I said that 18 months ago I was mentally prepared to win matches like this. It’s something I’ve worked really hard towards. It’s something that…if you put your nose down and keep fighting, good things will happen. Crazy things can happen. That’s sports and that’s why we play.”
Sock’s berth in the year-end championship is nothing short of crazy. He was all the way down at No. 23 in the 2017 race prior to this week. Obviously needing to go all the way in Paris if he wanted to steal the final qualifying spot from Pablo Carreno Busta, Sock picked up victories over Edmund, Lucas Pouille, Fernando Verdasco, Julien Benneteau, and Krajinkovic. Thus it is Sock who will be at the O2 Arena and Carreno Busta who is out.
“There have been a lot of firsts,” the 16th seed said during the trophy ceremony. “It started at the French Open with my first fourth round of a slam, now I’ve won my first Masters 1000 in Paris. This will be my first time in the top 10 and this will be the first time making the year-end finals.”
Sock will be joined in London by Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic, Grigor Dimitrov, and David Goffin.
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