Italian Open - The Fight Is Real
The Italian Open has been going on for almost a week and the surprises are not missing. It's an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event, which means all the big names should be present as points count a lot. Nadal knows best as he's in a difficult position but more about that later.
The Italian Open is an old tournament on clay, started 91 years ago, in 1930. The current title holder is none other than ATP No. 1, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, he won the title last year. Looks like this tournament was lucky as last year, especially in the first half of the year most of the tournaments were cancelled due to covid.
If you look at the records, the Spanish Rafael Nadal holds the most of them. Most titles 9, most finals 11, most consecutive titles 3, most matches played 73, most matches won 66, most consecutive matches won 17. He is considered king of the clay and not without a reason.
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This year the seeds board looks kind of like the same as almost every seed board of ATP Tour Masters 1000, almost the same ranking, with the usual suspects. The best on the top of the list, followed by the rest.
This year was full of surprises so I'm expecting this tournament to be the same. The new generation is breaking out and the old ones have to put up a fight to stay at the top of the list, but the thing is, it's getting harder and harder. In each tournament top seed players are eliminated and this is not any different. But let's see what's happened so far.
The third day was already full of surprises. The Hubert Hurkacz vs
Lorenzo Musetti match was a walkover, so Musetti qualified to the next round after playing only one set. It happens, not his fault, and I hope Hurkacz can recover from whatever injury has caused the walkover.
Marin Čilić was able to win against Alexander Bublik. The Armenian had a really good evolution in the last tournament but it looks like Čilić was too much for him as he could not defeat him.
Gianluca Mager vs Alex de Minaur (6-4)(6-3)! If this is not shocking, then nothing is. De Minaur, who was able to defeat Bublik in Barcelona was sent home a couple of days ago by a player I haven't even heard of, before he could reach the quarter finals.
Lorenzo Musetti wasn't able to beat the American Reilly Opelka and had to go home as well after round 32. Shocking.
The young Italian, Lorenzo Sonego is continuing his evolution and was able to win against 14th seed Gaël Monfils. Monfils is a good player but he's fluctuating, sometimes he's good, other times he's less good and the truth is, he's heading towards the end of his career and most likely it's difficult for him to keep up with the younger generation.
Wednesday was the day for the big name to join the party. Jannik Sinner had the misfortune to meet Rafael Nadal and the Spanish was in a good state of mind as he won the match to (5-7) (4-6). Very soon the table will turn and the (now teenager) Italian is going to win against Nadal. Mark my word.
Dominic Thiem vs Márton Fucsovics, holy heaven! (3-6)(7-6)(6-0). Poor Ficsovics has no luck at all. He meets the best players too early and even though he usually manages to win the first set, the rest is not up to him anymore. As the result shows, the third set was disastrous for him, losing to 6-0 is not something to write home about, the second set that ended in tie-break must have taken out everything of him. I'm following his evolution but just can't see him evolving. His career is stagnating, if not going backwards.
Roberto Bautista Agut also had the misfortune to meat a top level player too soon, none other than the Russian Andrey Rublev and got defeated to (4-6) (4-6). Not surprising at all as Rublev is very good.
Dominic Thiem vs Lorenzo Sonego (4-6)(7-6)(6-7) here's the other surprise or should I call it shocking news? Call it as you like, the result is the same, Sonego beat Thiem. It is shocking as the two players are not at the same level but somehow understandable and expected as well. Thiem has just got back into playing these tournaments and also just finished the other tournament. He is not ready yet I suppose, while Sonego is great. No worries, this is not the end of the world, better luck next time.
Matteo Berrettini, who played the final against Zverev in Madrid, met the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, 5th seed and (6-7)(2-6). It's not easy to win against a top 5 player and that showed. The first set ended with a tie-break, which means it could have gone either way but the Greek was better. The second set was crystal clear. Tsitsipas said he has a lot of self confidence and it shows.
Today was not any better as all we got was shocking news. Zverev got beaten by Nadal and I'm not happy about it at all, not one bit.
The Novak Djokovic vs Stefanos Tsitsipas match got suspended earlier due to the rain and I don't see it to continue today. It will be resumed tomorrow most likely.
The Lorenzo Sonego vs Andrey Rublev match should start in 75 minutes but who knows if it's going to start or will be postponed. I'd love to watch it as it looks very promising. They are both talented, but Rublev has more experience, so it is expected to win, but nothing can be taken for granted as history shows.
I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. At the time of writing there's only one match planned, Reilly Opelka vs Rafael Nadal and I'm not interested in this one.
We may see another one as two matches are not finished yet but if the Djokovic - Tsitsipas match is not resumed today, it's going to be tomorrow.
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And Nadal got his revenge against Zverev with a great performance, will he get his 10th?
Will be looking forward for the match btw Djokovic and Tsitsipas. It's gonna be an entertaining one
I don't know what's going to happen, I prefer not to watch Nadal playing, so if he gets into the finals, I am going to listen to the match 😂 , Can't stand the guy and now Zverev is on the list too, after what he did in Madrid.
I'm also curious to see Djokovic and Tsitsipas.
!ENGAGE 20
What you going on with Nadal? :-). Same here
I'm afraid I don't understand the question.
I mean, you seem not to be a fan of Nadal
Lol, I am definitely not!
:-) thought as much
Can you guess why? 😁
not good at guessing. but does it have anything to do with Federer?
He does that annoying ritual before serving every single time, I can't watch it.
Why Federer?
Oh I see that can be really. That can be really annoying
Thought it was about the comparison. You know most fans of Federer dislike Nadal
Well, there's a huge difference between the two, that's for sure and I'd prefer Federer FBI were to choose, any day, but Federer is history unfortunately. I don't think he can catch up. My guess is that he's going to retire at the end of the year.
However, there are so many good players among the young generation.
Same here, Federer it is for me . I think so about his retirement. It's right about time.
Yh. Many young exciting talents coming up
ENGAGEtokens.