Jack Sock has stumbled into an oasis after two whole seasons in the desert.
It looked slightly surreal at the time and looks even more so in retrospect, but at the end of the 2017 season, Sock was the No. 8 player in the world. He was a Paris Masters champ and runner-up at the ATP Finals; he hauled in three titles and $2.8 million. That was a weird time for the tour, hollowed out by injuries to top players—think Filip Krajinovic in a Masters final—but it seemed like this dude from Kansas with an eccentric, inimitable forehand was going to be a top 20 fixture for a good while. And, at age 25, perhaps also the top player in American men’s tennis for the near future.
Then Sock lost the thread. In the 2018 season, there were 15 tournaments where he lost his first match. He did not string together consecutive wins until October. He went 9–22 on the season and fell out of the top 100 in singles. But during this collapse, there was at least something in his game still clicking: He dominated in doubles, winning Wimbledon and the US Open. Sock’s backhand is plain, and his movement can be lacking, but just give him half the court to control with that wicked forehand and net game, and he’ll still be lethal. So despite all the singles dysfunction, Sock could hold on to some external validation that he was among the most gifted tennis players in the world. He still had the tools. “I think without the doubles success, I don’t know [what] I’d feel about the sport. I’ve been in some low places this year,” he said at the time.