ATP Masters 1000: Rome

Tenez wrote:Djoko lacks clearly confidence....probably his wrist, like the elbow it is crucial in tennis!

I noticed. Even his legs look heavy as a result.
Winning TB, Raonic is hitting more freely and better now. Nole really knows how to make life difficult for himself...good hold there, though!

How did he manage to get broken back straight away.....suck it up Nole and get your hands dirty, stop blaming the shape of Roman clouds!

IDEMO MAJSTOREEEEE.

Btw...what an ugly match..

MAJSTOREEEEEE!!!!  

Rao tried to go for two unnecessarily big returns. That may have cost him the set.

He, he, I admit I'm spending most of the time behind the sofa....came out at 5:4.....
I reckon t's tougher to watch than to play TBs!

Is this it for Milos?

Not looking for excuses, but Serbia is under Biblical floods at the moment,dams are bursting, towns and villages disappearing, many dead. Quite disturbing to see the extent of damage.
Troicki and Tipsarevic are trying to help on the site, Nole raising help through his foundtion:

http://www.tennisworldusa.org/Novak-Djokovic-and-Nenad-Zimonjic-support-the-flood-victims-in-Serbia-articolo18025.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-27439139

Oh no. Another silly return.

Congrats Nole. Well done in the end.

Pleased with Rao's performance though; he has significantly improved since the last I saw him.

...and for tonight: Dimi

Just saw the last two points and the warm hug at the net...funny how they can do that.
I prefer the old-school handshake.

From what I saw this was more Nole playing poorly, than anything else.
Apart from tremendous serve, I can't warm up to Raonic's game at all.
I've noticed he has lost a bit of mobility and looked quite stiff at the net, his calves are enormous.
FH not bad when pressure-free, easy power.
To me he is just another Isner, except that Isner is a tougher competitor.

You must be wearing some strange spectacles when watching tennis!

bn: Did you watch any of the match?  Your man has improved by leaps and bounds.  If he had not messed up a couple of points in the 2nd set TB, he might have perhaps be in the final now.

Also, I heard him speak last year when he was commentating during I do not remember which of the tournaments.  He strikes me as both quite smart, and very mature for his age.

I still think his size will prevent him from being consistently at the very top, but he did impress me today.

Looking at the points various players collected during this pre-RG clay-court stretch.  If I am not mistaken, the order will be roughly like this:

[deleting the rest as I was very much mistaken ]

Yeah, but Rafa has already dropped more than usual, and I can see the frailties setting in.  I think we all can.  It's unlikely he will beat Dimitrov and Djokovic in succession playing like he has.

Mhmm...

summerblues wrote:Mhmm...

This was not a response to your post but rather my reaction to Dimi's opening service game.

summerblues wrote:Looking at the points various players collected during this pre-RG clay-court stretch.  If I am not mistaken, the order will be roughly like this:

1. Rafa.  No matter what happens, he will have collected more clay court points than anyone else - yet again.

2-3.  Dimi and Nole will be here.  If Nole wins tomorrow, he will be at 2, otherwise Dimi will be ahead of him

4. Raonic

5-6.  Wawrinka and Nishkori.  I see them as tied, but I may have miscalculated, so maybe one is slightly ahead of the other.

So, for the first time in many years, we are starting to see some more serious movement here - Dimi, Rao and Kei all doing well.  And while Rafa and Nole may yet come up #1 and 2, they are also not quite as dominant as before.

I don't know how Raonic can be ahead if Stan and Kei, Stan won MC and Kei played Madrid final.
What did Raonic win or which SF or F did he play on clay this season? Plus, Nole skipped Madrid.
He is not even in top 15 in the Race.

Race to London:

1 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) 3,865 3 9
2 Wawrinka, Stanislas (SUI) 3,545 -1 7
3 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) 3,050 -1 7
4 Federer, Roger (SUI) 2,920 -1 8
5 Berdych, Tomas (CZE) 2,465 0 10
6 Nishikori, Kei (JPN) 2,125 0 9
7 Ferrer, David (ESP) 1,800 0 11
8 Dimitrov, Grigor (BUL) 1,445 0 9
9 Fognini, Fabio (ITA) 1,310 0 12
10 Dolgopolov, Alexandr (UKR) 1,220 0 13
11 Cilic, Marin (CRO) 1,215 0 11
12 Gulbis, Ernests (LAT) 1,170 1 10
13 Murray, Andy (GBR) 1,155 -1 8
14 Anderson, Kevin (RSA) 910 0 9
15 Bautista Agut, Roberto (ESP) 905 11 11

noleisthebest wrote:I don't know how Raonic can be ahead if Stan and Kei, Stan won MC and Kei played Madrid final.
What did Raonic win or which SF or F did he play on clay this season?

Well, it is easily explained:  I got it all wrong.

I accidentally gave him (and some others - e.g., Dimi) some points they did not win.  So let's just ignore my little sidenote there - I will delete most of it.

Don't delete it!
We'll just keep it as a proof that you are a blinkered fanboy!

noleisthebest wrote:Don't delete it!
We'll just keep it as a proof that you are a blinkered fanboy!

Good point.

Luckily, it is saved for posterity in your reply.  I am still deleting it from my original lest someone takes my numbers seriously.

I just started watching, nice hold from Dimi. He looks fired up!

If this match continues like it started, I will be happy tomorrow that it is Nole and not Rao in the final.

That went fast, I only saw one game! (and the set point)
What happened?

Linesmen have been shocking in Rome this year!

Dimi looks upset and spent already. It's beyond me why he is so far behind the baseline....

As soon as he stands closer, he is hitting great FH winners.
His BH is struggling with the spin, though, needs to go down the line it or run around it, or else he's doomed.

Come on Dimi, show some teeth and grit!!!!!

Dimi unable to trouble Nadal at all tonight.  Hopefully Nole can win tomorrow but based on what I have seen from Rafa and Nole today, I am not all that sure about it.

I'm glad Dimi held his service game, it should soften the trauma of tonight's beating.
At times, you could see disbelief on his eyes, he kept looking at his box...
He played a much closer match in AO, it would be really interesting to know how he would compare AO to tonight's version of Nadal.

summerblues wrote:Hopefully Nole can win tomorrow but based on what I have seen from Rafa and Nole today, I am not all that sure about it.

Yes, Nole has not played well in Rome, bit if his wrist/arm is OK, there is no reason why he shouldn't beat Nadal tomorrow.
He's done well to get to the final, under the circumstances.
The eye is on the big prize, and that's RG.
Tomorrow changes nothing for either player.

Very disappointing this night match. Glad I only saw the last few games.

Nadal is going to form...and Djoko was poor today....Should be an interesting final tomorrow.

I'll be watching that one!

Well we know one thing ....that Nadal despite being very fit....will play with fear tomorrow!

The final is at 3 PM UK time.

Tenez wrote:Well we know one thing ....that Nadal despite being very fit....will play with fear tomorrow!

Definitely.
I'm really disappointed with Dim though.  I didn't see it, he must have had a really bad game?

I certainly expected Nadal to feel it a bit after his 3 successive days of 3 setters, but it looks like he was as fresh as a daisy today!

I also saw only a few games, but couldn't believe how fresh and physical he was.
Mind you, Dimi looked like a junior in that contest, he was not up to the challenge on any level, esp not physical, and Nadal could obviously see it straight away.
I almost feel he draws all his confidence from seeing his opponent not being able to stand up to him, so from that point of view it's going to be interesting to see role reversal tomorrow....and how long it lasts...

Anybody brave enough to predict Rome 2014 champion?

Despite the workout and battering Nole's wrist took from Ferrer and Raonic, I'll go for Nole, in three gory sets.

The reason it is difficult to predict, besides the fact we don't know Djoko's form, is that I want him to win so I might not be too objective.
 
From what I saw yesterday, Djoko does not seem confident to hit winners and this is so normal when the wrist (or elblow) hurts. There is nothing that will make you lose your edge more than a wrist or elbow pain.
 
That might not be too bad as Djoko might be forced to build points instead. I think he does handle Nadal's balls well...
 
For some reasons Nadal being Nadal and his luck...I fancy him winning today sadly.

Just remembered, Nadal is on a 3 match losing streak to Nole, last one the demolition in Miami.
So, despite the physical confidence he is clearly basking in at the moment, he's bound to start timid like he did against Murray.

If Nole wins the toss, he'll opt to serve, and winning that game will be  crucial as Nadal will do everything to break at the start.

Tenez wrote:The reason it is difficult to predict, besides the fact we don't know Djoko's form, is that I want him to win so I might not be too objective.
 
From what I saw yesterday, Djoko does not seem confident to hit winners and this is so normal when the wrist (or elblow) hurts. There is nothing that will make you lose your edge more than a wrist or elbow pain. That might not be too bad as Djoko might be forced to build points instead. I think he does handle Nadal's balls well...
For some reasons Nadal being Nadal and his luck...I fancy him winning today sadly.

That's the logical thing to conclude, however, Nole has this crazy, irrational confidence when he plays Nadal and that doesn't seem to be affected by anything, he simply does not fear him.

The wrist can't be 100%, at best it's quite tired from last two matches. He was sparing his arm a lot against Raonic yesterday, so that was a dead giveaway he was hurting.
The match against Ferrer did all the damage as it was very physical.
With Nadal, he'll have more time on the ball than against Ferrer...until Nadal sees (and hopefully it somehow does not happen) the green light and starts playing "confidently".
My heart wants to believe Nole will deny him that privilege.

Having said all this, I am genuinely not bothered if he loses today, it will take a lot of pressure off him for RG, and that's the one he/we (coooo, I'm beginning to sound like Toni ) want.

Before their Miami match I was quite confident of a Nole win. I am much less so here - when I watched them yesterday, Nole looked worse than in Miami and Rafa looked better.

I still think that Nole has all the keys in this match up, so I will pick him, but I have been disappointed often enough after 2011 to not be very sure about it.

Nitb, I am not sure this match does not matter, the pattern of the last couple of years has been that whoever between the two was winning the less important matches was also winning slams. I think it would be quite beneficial if Nole can win today.

I agree this match is very important....especially for Nadal as he is extremely sensitive to losses to Djoko. If he knows he can't beat a not 100% Djoko he will enter the FO depressed. Whereas Joko might still think he has another week to recover from his wrist injury.

As Nadal was losing earlier in the clay court season, I was starting to think that maybe multiple players will have a chance to take him out at RG. But now it very much looks like it will again be either Nole or nobody.

summerblues wrote:As Nadal was losing earlier in the clay court season, I was starting to think that maybe multiple players will have a chance to take him out at RG.  But now it very much looks like it will again be either Nole or nobody.

He still struggled v Simon, lost a set v Youzhny under terribly windy conds and could have easily lost to Murray....He played well yesterday but I think Dimi presented no weapons strangely enough.

We have to assess Nadal when someone has something to hurt him. However having said that over 5 sets.....sure I cannot see who besides Djko can stop him at the French. Especially since Babolat will make sure to provide the tournament with teddy bear balls.

If Nole loses this match it won't affect him in the least for RG. I am 100% sure of that.
If Nadal loses it, it will further dent his confidence, and give Nole a slight advantage should they meet in RG final.
But because it's best of 5, that advantage will only last first two sets.
If Nole wins both, then he will have capitalised on that advantage, if not it's down to physical endurance, and there, they will be on even keel, but depending on the conditions (dry or humid) again, that balance could change.

As the match is getting closer and adrenaline rising,  I am feeling more positive about the outcome.

Nole will have a huge bit of extra motivation for the win today as he will want to cheer up and dedicate it to people in Serbia who have been suffering and struggling a lot in the last week due to unprecedented, devastating floods.
Patriotic pressure has always lifted him up and given him wings.

IDEMO NOLE MAJSTORE!!!!!

I'll never understand why Nadal has to jump up and down like a baboon at the net before the match...What a strange thing to be doing....

Is it windy today? That is going to be key.