Madrid 2019

Draw: https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/madrid/1536/draws?matchtype=singles

Act 2 of the 2019 clay court season ready to start, with the protagonist finally entering the stage after we have seen the two main villains and a host of minor characters in Act 1.

Cupcake draw for Nole, harder for Rafa and Federer.  Especially Federer as he is the one who gets Thiem in QF.

Projected QF:

Djokovic - Delpo
Federer - Thiem
Zverev - Tsitsipas
Nadal - Nishi

Shapo and FAA meet in the first round, with the winner playing Rafa in Rd2.  I would be quite interested how FAA can handle Rafa.  I think FAA has potential to be good on clay in the long run.

Proper lineup of players.

Tsi just won Estoril and beat Goff barely.

Davidovich Fokina (who I have never heard of and is apparently not yet 20) just served an underarm serve.  He even won the point.  I would really like to see players try it more frequently.

Kyrgios did one just now, and lost it badly, heck he lost the first set too to Struff.

And that is it for Kyrgios. I do not expect much from him on clay, so that's ok. He is really trying those underarm serves. But he lost a couple, which shows they are risky. One needs to play them only when the opponent stands far back and one needs to have a plan on what to do when the opponent reaches them.

FAA vs Shapo later today could be interesting. Ordinarily I would prefer Shapo but I am quite interested in what FAA vs Rafa would look like.

I have no idea what FAA is like on clay but overall he is the better player out of the two and being tall and possessing a solid DHBH I would think he'd be a bigger threat to Nadal. 

Really hope Djokovic loses.

I think FAA is ok on clay. Did he not make the final of some 500 tournament in spring? He hits with a lot of spin, which also tends to work on clay. I also read somewhere that he - unlike many North American kids - specifically made sure to play enough on clay as he felt it would be good for his overall development.

Not sure I agree with your comment about him being overall a better player. I think Shapo has a lot of raw potential, perhaps more than FAA.

I think Shapo is more flashy and can pull off more spectacular winners. However, FAA from what I have seen is more consistent and has a wider array of shots. Transitions well to the forecourt and not afraid to volley. He moves well for such a big guy but given he is still only 18 any further growth and bulk may hamper that. 

I've read somewhere that FAA was dominating Shapo in juniors despite being a couple of years younger - of course that rarely translates to success in the seniors.

Shapo's game would/should take longer to mature. And to be where he is with his type of game is testimony of his talent. 

What is questionable is his mental side. He might turn into a super Gasquet.

Tsi reminds me of Noah. He has the same athleticism. very good coverage of the court. And like Noah Tsi has not got a smooth game....

Neither FAA or Shapo is playing near decent levels. It's a match full of UEs...probably due to altitude.

Shapo is weaker on clay than Felix, guess clay don't suite him much or at least not this year so far.

Jahu wrote:Shapo is weaker on clay than Felix, guess clay don't suite him much or at least not this year so far.

Difficult to say on a single match, especially with the way they both played, today (very badly).

Shapo better shot maker, but wild too.

Felix more consistent but boring and wins.

Guess shotmaking is not important on tennis anymore, just hit the ball over the net and a win will come, suckssss

Jahu wrote:Shapo better shot maker, but wild too.

Felix more consistent but boring and wins.

Guess shotmaking is not important on tennis anymore, just hit the ball over the net and a win will come, suckssss

Disagree about this  'not anymore'. It never was to be precise. Had it been, then bonus points should have been awarded for a clean winner. But tennis rules don't have any such clause. Every point is worth the same.

Good match Dimi-Fritz, Fritz reminds me of when Dimi was 21y old and we had hopes for him, till Sharapova fuked him up for life...

Nadal seems a little off https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1123433/Rafael-Nadal-Madrid-Open-press-conference-postponed-illness

What's up with Nadal?
Is he playing Madrid or what?

Come on Fritz, chop himmmmm

Stan wins nicely.

Goff goes home.

Well Fritz folds like a baby, 3-4 good games from him, thats all.

FedExpress in 53 min. Looked quite good, but Gasket was a bit poor after 6 months from operation.

yes Gasquet was poor.

Nadal enjoying his game versus his younger version. 

FAA must be thinking "it's easy to beat Nadal, I just need better legs and lungs which I will have in a few years like my other idol Djokovic".

Yes, FAA can't wait to be 32 

I would have preferred to see Shapo than a poor version of Nadal's game. 

Nadal look good today. His BH has really improved.

Saying good bye to Ferrer ceremony, I won't miss him on court, but a great fighter and a well behaved gentlemen. Enjoy retirement.

Good of you. I did not even bother. he made the most of his game....but yes there was very little spark from his game. But a couple other players with even less excitement in their games won 32 slams between them!!!!

Haha, he still sucked $31.5m on tournies ffs! + same I bet on endorsements, not a bad retirement, good looking wife, a son, not a bad finish,

Jahu wrote:Haha, he still sucked $31.5m on tournies ffs! + same I bet on endorsements, not a bad retirement, good looking wife, a son, not a bad finish,

Good looking wife is an achievement?

Who said that?

Well in that case a good looking wife sure it aint't a failure, but a smarter one is better than a beautiful one.

Jahu wrote:Who said that?

Well in that case a good looking wife sure it aint't a failure, but a smarter one is better than a beautiful one.

You haven't dealt with a smarter woman, have you? You wouldn't say this for sure.

I slept with them, does that count? 

raiders_of_the_lost_ark wrote:

Jahu wrote:Haha, he still sucked $31.5m on tournies ffs! + same I bet on endorsements, not a bad retirement, good looking wife, a son, not a bad finish,

Good looking wife is an achievement?

Of course it is.
What would we do without beauty?

It's a gift just like good brains.

Sure, it doesn't take you far without the beautiful mind (not to mention beautiful soul), but hey, let's not be unnecessarily hard on pretty girls. Imagine the world without them!

Nerve wracking from Fed.

Watched Stan/Nishi from 4:0 for Fed as it seemed Fed will wrap this in 45 min, and in 20 min back to Fed he lost Set 2, went 0:3 or 0:4 in third set, saved crazy 2 MP, into TB and much better.

Hope he feels better agasint Thiem as at this level Thiem will send him home in under 60 min.

yes it was windy but Fed is so slow taking off on clay. he simply was late on every shot.

Who is the Amazon Prime commentator on the Zverev-Hurkacz match? I wish she would say less and think a bit more. Where is Frew when you need him?

Google is your friend, the answer must be Catherine Whitaker.

Why what happened?

I have the feeling that tomorrow:

Stan will beat Nadal (no it is not wishful thinking only)
Tsi will beat Zverev
Fed could beat Thiem.....though I was not impressed by Fed today. 
Djoko will beat Cilic...(That;s a certainty unfortunately)!

Weird score in Fed's match.  Did not see any of it.

Pretty rough draw for him too.  Potential path to the title is Monfils - Thiem - Nole - Rafa.  Cannot have much harder than that.

Cilic gives up due to food poising, bs.

Not a bad set from Fed, 30 min 6:3.

Come on Fed, take this in 2!!

Quite unlucky again...3 love up in the TB.

Fed gets so close once again...yet fails ...another match lost where he had MPs...he has had so many of them.

THiem is the new moonballer king!

Just like at Indian Wells, Thiem weathers the storm and grinds out a win.  At Indian Wells Thiem's tactics improved so it was not merely attritional.  I don't know what's happening, I'm just following the scores.

Fed tired

Break nowwwww

Tenez wrote:Fed gets so close once again...yet fails ...another match lost where he had MPs...he has had so many of them.

Well he’s had so many matches and has had mps in so many of them that against the 1200 he turned into wins there’s bound to be some he loses.