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Name me some top 100 players who are notorious point vultures

8K views 99 replies 52 participants last post by  Sophitia36 
#1 · (Edited)
You know what I'm talking about, guys like Ferrer, delPo, Lu, Chardy, Felo, who go around the tour playing in events where the field is extremely weak and basically a shoe-in for free points and a title. And the worst is that these guys do it all year round.

Good examples this year,
-This week, Feliciano Lopez, ranked 17 is playing a Challenger in Colombia, lol. Point whore. He's top 20 player playing in a challenger with only a handful of top 100 players lol and the rest are mugs.

-Ferrer plays in MM events like Auckland, Buenos Aires, Acapulco and so on. What a vulture. He's too good for those events.

-Lu, a top 100 player, is the worst. He's like a top 70 player and only plays challengers throughout the year and outclasses everyone to get easy points. His yearly schedule consists of Slams+Masters Series and challengers lol.
 
#2 ·
You know what I'm talking about, guys like Ferrer, delPo, Lu, Felo, who go around the tour playing in events where the field is extremely weak and basically a shoe-in for free points and a title. And the worst is that these guys do it all year round.
First name that sprang to my mind too. Auckland, Buenos Aires, Acapulco and 's-Hertogenbosch alone this year. :spit:

That being said, QF - SF - QF at the slams on top of these results more than cements his place in the top 10.
 
#3 ·
Raonic, plays the likes of Chennai, San Jose, Memphis, Newport to get MM points and then can't do anything is slams. Only 225 of he points comes from slams, points whore:eek:
 
#9 ·
I foresee Milos following Janko's trajectory from last year.

Getting a bunch of 250s one year then doing better and getting more favorable draws at Masters and GS the following year.

Too bad he doesn't have a fellow #1 countryman to tank WTF and Madrid for him, though ..
 
#4 ·
Ferrer and Monaco
 
#5 ·
I think it is a good thing that some of the better names participate in these tournaments. Tennis is not just about the slams. I am sure some Colombians will have enjoyed seeing an accomplished player like Lopez, and several South Americans will have enjoyed seeing an established top player like Ferrer.
 
#6 ·
Verdasco ranked 16th played a challenger in Prostejov and lost to a guy ranked # 1166 or something around there :haha: I guess that is a failed attempt at point vulturing.
 
#8 ·
Lorenzi, Falla and Lu for sure. Muller comes to mind too. I wouldn't include Lopez and Verdasco since they do that rarely, though Feli is playing Bogota again and that's facepalm worthy of course :p

Ito, Soeda and Klizan have their current rankings mainly due to Challenger success but let's wait and see how they handle themselves from now on.
 
#10 ·
I don't understand the whole concept of vulturing. Ferrer seems to be the first name that springs to peoples' minds when discussing this topic. However anyone with a shred of common sense would see its obvious why Ferrer plays the 250s and 500s he chooses to.

Pre Aussie Open, Auckland and Chennai generally have the weakest fields out of the 5 events, yet they all offer the same amount of points. Prize money is only significantly higher in Doha, but that event typically attracts Federer, Nadal, Murray and Tsonga who would all be a massive threat to Ferrer on hardcourt. Why increase the risk of going out in a QF when your chances of winning a title (and same number of rankings points) is increased by taking part in another event?

Same applies to Ferrer playing in South America rather than Europe/Asia post Aussie Open. Fields in Rotterdam and Dubai are generally stacked, plus they are also on hardcourts, not clay where Ferrer feels most comfortable.

Queen's & Halle are also stacked WRT to draw, whereas Rosmalen is relatively much weaker, yet offers the same number of ranking points.

Also, if none of the top players played these weaker field events, they may aswell stick the events on the Challenger tour and only hold one tourney a week on the ATP tour.
 
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#11 ·
Bingo. That's exactly why Ferrer is a vulture, because he enters tournaments with weak fields, often in the same week where top players are battling it out ie. 8 of the top 10 players went to Dubai (Nadal didn't play that week) and Ferrer to Acapulco to prey on a week field.

It is a smart choice ranking point wise, but one that only a point vulture would make.
 
#17 ·
keeping in mind that like 80% of the events on the tour are atp 250's i guess that makes anyone who plays alot of them a vulture.

you cant call ferrer a point vulture because while he does play in alot of these small tournaments he also does very well in the bigger events, usually he'll live up to his seeding.
 
#18 ·
I was discussing this with one may call a Ferrer-tard today.

He is playing two 250s between this week and next, off the back of Wimbledon.

As a top 30 commitment player he has already maxed out his other tournaments as far as 250s go, he can only gain 25 points by winning one or both the tournaments. Add to that it'll fall off anyway if he does any damage at the olympics, it is baffling.

I think he is less a points whore and more a player on the wrong side of thirtry trying to win as many tournaments as he can before his body gives up.
 
#19 ·
What about Almagro playing Nice days before RG? And Ferrer playing Den Bosch right before Wimbledon?

I understand why they do that (more Ferrer than Almagro) but i still think it´s unfair to the other players. Just compare what Haas had to do to win Halle and what Ferrer had to do to win his grass title.

It´s absurd. I think.
 
#20 ·
That's why it is smart of them to opt for the so called weaker draws. If these weaker 250s only offered Challenger points and prize money, then guys like Ferrer and Almagro wouldn't play them.

There are a lot of anomalies on the ATP tour WRT the status of tournaments. I understand some of the such as Queen's and Halle only being 250s is down to prize money on offer, so they would for the time being not be 500 events, no matter how strong the draws are. Maybe an intermediate 375 level needs to be created to create a clear distinction between traditionally weaker 250 fields, and those that are slightly stronger.

So for example:

250: Chennai, Auckland, Zagreb, Delray Beach, Newport etc.
375: Doha, Marseille, Queen's etc.
500: As now, although how Memphis is a 500 event... :eek:

I guess ATP 375 is nowhere near as catchy as ATP 250 or 500 though.
 
#25 ·
You know what I'm talking about, guys like Ferrer, delPo, Lu, Chardy, Felo, who go around the tour playing in events where the field is extremely weak and basically a shoe-in for free points and a title. And the worst is that these guys do it all year round.
Nole, Rafa, Tsonga, Ferrer to play Beijing 2012
:eek:
 
#27 ·
Del Potro a vulture :tape:?
 
#29 ·
He may have been last year, but that was solely to accelerate his ascent up the rankings to somewhere near his true ranking.

This year he has played all the events that Federer has played plus Marseille which was pretty strong for a 250.
 
#28 ·
Because playing challengers is good to try your new tactics. it trains you mentally as well knowing that you can practice drills and still has a chance to lose. sometimes this pros do not have the money to pay a good hitting partner so they go to this challengers get some practice
 
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#31 ·
You mean 2008? He went on a tear winning four tournaments in a row in the summer, climbing up to the top 15. Even then, he beats guys like Gasquet and Roddick, not exactly mugs.

It was a magical run, his breakthrough, but it was so sad when he lost that close one to Murray in USO :sad:
 
#37 ·
Technically, you're right, realisticly, not at all. Btw, is Baker the only top100 player that has futers points in his rankings points?

Edit: He's not, I just saw Jaziri played 1 futers in Kazakhstan last year... There you go, It's Jaziri :D
 
#35 ·
You know what I'm talking about, guys like Ferrer, delPo...
Stop it right there.

You had a legit issue to discuss..... but then you sneaked sideways on a playa-hating detour.

Delpo is not vulturing now, and was not vulturing in the past either (what he did the previous season is completely legitimate path to take for someone who was coming back from a heinous injury that not only almost destroyed his career & put him out of the circuit for what seemed like an eternity; it also knocked him out of the top 100 (your own criteria in this thread).

In other words, starting from scratch - from ground zero hell, and making a measured, methodical, step-by-step comeback to the top, is not vulturing.
 
#38 ·
Ferrer. I mean come on, he's a solid top 30 player but has no business in the top 10. He's never a danger to the big 3 and hardly threatening in big tournaments. This is simply because he doesn't have the weapons to challenge or top honors however his pusher tactics adequate vs lower league players. Ferrer makes the most of his limitations and takes advantage of the ranking system. I cant stand the guy and general rate him as a shit player but what can you do.
 
#41 ·
Yeah cause he didn't reach the quarters of Aussie and Wimbledon and Semis of French Open. His so not a top 10 player, for being consistently good on slams.
 
#48 ·
Truer words had never been spoken. You're one of my favorite posters here already :yeah:

Watch him win Bastaad against a Challenger level field this week again to keep securing his inflated ranking :zzz:
 
#87 ·
Well, Del Potro has met Ferrer twice in a Slam - and lost. So, when they meet in a Slam, Ferrer wins. Del Potro can't get past him. Berdych, we don't know, but the win-loss record suggests Ferrer would be the winner.
Tsonga has beaten Ferrer once in a slam, but their rankings position is almost equal.

So in conclusion, I was not talking about how far any of them can go, I was talking about getting past Ferrer if they met in a slam. DelPo, so far, is not up to the task.
No, you said that if these guys wanted to win a Slam, first they had to get past Ferrer, which is clearly false. Each of them is far more likely than Ferrer to win a Slam than Ferrer despite being ranked below him at the moment.
 
#39 ·
dont think Monaco much of a vulture he has only played one weak events that is Chile. For people saying why play Acapulco and not Dubai because they prefer clay over hardcourts. And i dont think Acpaulco has a weak field the field is for 500's, its just Dubai's field is for Masters. How about Seppi who has played like 18 events already, Kohli and Simon with 16. Didn't del Potro play Sydney with a weak field and lost, he also played Estoril. And i also think the only player that doesn't really vulture are the top 4. Specially Djokovic. The others have played at least one weak tournament.

For me the only two main vultures are Almagro and Verdasco, they always take wild cards in 250 events.
 
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