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The first Grand Slam of the year is well underway and there have already been some shocks at the Australian Open. Here, though, we’ve asked our experts to look into their crystal balls and make their predictions about the 2020 season as a whole.
Here to give their view – TVA Sports’ Marie-Eve Pelletier, Sportsnet’s Arash Madani and Caroline Cameron, as well as TSN’s Mark Masters and Mark Roe.
There’s a strong consensus among the group when it comes to their pick for year-end No. 1 on the ATP Tour. All of our experts have gone for Novak Djokovic. The Serbian is currently ranked No. 2, just behind Rafael Nadal, but our panel sees him pipping the Spaniard to top spot this year.
Elsewhere, four out of five of our experts expect a player outside of the “Big 3” to claim a Grand Slam title. Only Mark Masters thinks that won’t happen, while the rest are all hyping up Daniil Medvedev to win his first major having come so close at the US Open in 2019.
Up next, four of our experts agree on their pick for which Canadian will finish the year with the highest ranking. Marie-Eve, Arash, Mark Masters and Mark Roe have all selected Bianca Andreescu. Meanwhile, only Caroline has gone for teenager Félix Auger-Aliassime from Montreal.
Three of our panel think Andreescu will replicate her biggest achievement of 2019 by winning another Grand Slam singles title in 2020. The 19-year-old was forced to pull out of the Australian Open due to injury but Marie-Eve, Mark Masters and Mark Roe all expect her to win either the French Open, Wimbledon or retain the US Open.
And finally – three of our experts all agree that Denis Shapovalov will break into the ATP Tour’s top 10 for the first time this year. The 20-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ontario is currently ranked No. 13 in the world following a strong start to the season at the inaugural ATP Cup.
