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What comes next for Jack Sock?

By Keshav Gopalan

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 03: Jack Sock of The United States returns against Matteo Berrettini of Italy during their Men's Singles first round match on day two of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 03: Jack Sock of The United States returns against Matteo Berrettini of Italy during their Men's Singles first round match on day two of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 3, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) /
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Jack Sock has had a very poor 2018 season. Perhaps one of his worst seasons to date, Sock has managed to win only 5 matches this season with 13 losses marking the end of the first half of his season. With an attitude problem, recurring fitness and injury issues, we take a look at what comes next.

Slams, Qualifying loss and more

Jack Sock has also had an abysmal performance in slams, losing the 1st round of all three slams he’s contested this year. He’s won only one match over a top 50 opponent this year (w. David Ferrer), with his rock bottom being a loss to Daniel Brands of Germany, a player ranked outside the top 300 at the time of their match in the qualifying of Eastbourne.

Yes, that’s correct. Jack Sock lost in the first round of qualifying in Eastbourne, which he had to play only because he didn’t enter the tournament in time, which some people anticipated as being something good to allow to build some rhythm going into Wimbledon.

Not only that but Sock had a spat with his first round opponent in Wimbledon, Matteo Berrettini, who he lost to in a 5 setter. At the net after his loss, Sock lamented “Your coach is a piece of sh*t by the way”, leaving very quickly and not even attending his post-match press conference, for which he was fined $5000.

What’s the root cause of this and what can he do?

As far as we know, there isn’t anything specific that can be pointed to as the sole root cause. There were rumours of a relationship problem, but that doesn’t seem very likely. Fitness seems to be an issue, while motivation might be a prime problem as well, especially in this crescendo in his doubles form, where there might be consideration of focusing more, at least temporarily, on his thriving career.

Perhaps that’s a valid solution. Play in doubles while taking some time away from singles, figuring out what he should do to tackle the issue in hand. Or perhaps it’s an outlandish one which will only be bad news for him.

Conclusion

Whatever the cause of this abysmal performance is, Jack Sock needs to tackle the issue head-on and realise that there’s a lot more he can do when he’s focused. He reached a career high of #8, won a masters title and reached the semifinals of the ATP world tour finals, which is nothing to slouch about. If he regains his focus, there’s a good chance he can make a comeback.

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