Internazionali BNL d'Italia- Rome ATP1000 - 14th May to 21st May

[Moxie]

Now he's pissing in his shorts about Thiem and Zverev.

That's you and your one-day attention span dreaming. What happened to the rejuvenated Novak, eh?

 

[atttomole]

Congrats to Sasha! I haven't seen it yet, but from what I hear, "he won it!".

Who knows, Sasha may start dreaming about winning a grand slam title.

 

[Carol]

Believe me, I don't think Rafa is very worry about his lost in Roma at all

 

[the AntiPusher]

News!!!!! Novak after the final loss said in the presss conference that he has decided to work with Agassi for the RG

Agassi will probably get Gil Reyes to whipped Novak back into cardio shape, and Gilbert as a technical consultant

 

[the AntiPusher]

Believe me, I don't think Rafa is very worry about his lost in Roma at all

Don't let El Dude bait ya..Rafa game is in good form, he doesn't have to live up to El Dude or Fronts standards..we are good..time to go back to fishing

 

[El Dude]

You folks are too easy.

On a serious note, Rafa remains the far and away favorite for Roland Garros. But Rome made things a tad more interesting: Thiem took a step forward, Zverev a giant leap forward, Novak two steps forward, one step back.

 

[Busted]

Novak, great returner, didn't have a break point all match.

I didn't see the match and just saw the results and stats. I'm not exactly surprised that Djokovic lost, but damn, the dude's head is really jacked up these days - but that's just the tip of the iceberg. He all but double bagel's Thiem and the next day he win 9 of 45 return points? God bless for him trying to hire Agassi to help get his head right, but let's face it - this goes beyond more than the mental. This is very similar to what Nadal went through for 2 years where his game just wasn't good enough because physically his style of play took a toll on him mentally. To my mind Djokovic isn't going to get his "mojo" back unless he starts shortening the points. He'll be 30 on Monday and similar to Murray, who also just turned 30, they're finding out the same thing Roger found out at 30 - and Nadal at 28 - the game gets harder and the major wins not as frequent. At least they don't have to live the severe scrutiny of their games that Federer did. I can't remember how many, "What's wrong with Federer\He'll Never win another Slam" articles I slogged through from 2011-2017. What's wrong with Djokovic is the same thing that was wrong with Federer, Nadal, Sampras, Agassi, McEnroe, Lendl, Becker, Edberg, Wilander, etc, etc., - AGE. Getting old's a beeyotch.

 

[Busted]

List of masters 1000 titlists this year so far:

Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Alexander Zverev

Surprised?

Surprising...not really. I thought either Zverev, Thiem or Kyrgios would win a Masters this year but I didn't think Zverev's would be on clay. Maybe his win will spur Kyrgios to get his head out of his butt and start taking his tennis seriously. Zverev is 2 years younger and just passed him into the Top 10 and will be #9 tomorrow. Meanwhile he's still stuck at #18. The good news for him is the grass court season is 3 weeks away. He's on my short list to win Wimbledon so maybe he'll get some inspiration from Zverev's win. I would much prefer Roger win Wimbledon...but Kyrgios certainly has the talent, especially on grass, and the field isn't going to be any more wide open in the future than it is right now. Djokovic and Murray are struggling, Nadal hasn't been a major threat on grass in years, Stan is a head case, grass is not Thiem's best surface - and Raonic, Nishikori, Cilic, Tsonga, Monfils, Dimitrov and Berdych? I can't even be bothered with those guys anymore. They've underwhelmed me at every opportunity.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Surprising...not really. I thought either Zverev, Thiem or Kyrgios would win a Masters this year but I didn't think Zverev's would be on clay. Maybe his win will spur Kyrgios to get his head out of his butt and start taking his tennis seriously. Zverev is 2 years younger and just passed him into the Top 10 and will be #9 tomorrow. Meanwhile he's still stuck at #18. The good news for him is the grass court season is 3 weeks away. He's on my short list to win Wimbledon so maybe he'll get some inspiration from Zverev's win. I would much prefer Roger win Wimbledon...but Kyrgios certainly has the talent, especially on grass, and the field isn't going to be any more wide open in the future than it is right now. Djokovic and Murray are struggling, Nadal hasn't been a major threat on grass in years, Stan is a head case, grass is not Thiem's best surface - and Raonic, Nishikori, Cilic, Tsonga, Monfils, Dimitrov and Berdych? I can't even be bothered with those guys anymore. They've underwhelmed me at every opportunity.

If you think Nick is gonna get his head together for two straight weeks, then you haven't been paying attention.

 

[Busted]

Awesome. Two days in a row, great wake-up gifts: Thiem beating Rafa, Zverev beating Blovak and winning the final.

I had predicted Thiem would win a clay Masters and Zverev or Kyrgios one of the late year hard court Masters, but this is a surprise.

I was happy to see Thiem finally beat Nadal because I have been underwhelmed by all the other players this caly season. It was like they don't care about these these tournaments and were conceding them to Nadal. So it's great so see someone step up and beat him. I've said this entire clay season that proclaiming that Nadal is "back to his very best" was ridic because everybody else has been so bad. The average ranking of players he beat during that 17 match winning streak stretch was around 37 or 38. That's not very impressive. He SHOULD beat those guys on sand let alone clay. But, then Thiem nearly gets double bageled by Nole, so he can't back up his win. Until these guys can beat the big 4 back-to-back - they're not going to win Slams. They have to hope someone else steps up and takes out the other 3 guys. And no, I'm not counting Stan because Stan is a headcase. If he doesn't defend his Geneva title next week and loses early at Roland Garros his ranking will drop from 3 to 5 with the US Open looming. If he can't make the finals again? He'll drop to 8-10. So Stan needs to at least make the semis at RG to avoid playing Roger, Djokovic, Nadal or Murray before the Wimbledon semis - IF he even make it out of the early rounds.

 

[Busted]

News!!!!! Novak after the final loss said in the presss conference that he has decided to work with Agassi for the RG

That should be the other way around - Agassi agreed to work with Djokovic. For a guy who's always said he didn't love tennis and has too much going on in his life to coach - Agassi sure keeps his foot in the door a lot.

 

[Busted]

Now he's pissing in his shorts about Thiem and Zverev.

Funny thought that was...somehow I doubt it. I think Nadal thinks he can still take these guys in 5 setters. The longer the matches go he's still got that in his favor right now - especially with Zverev. Nadal just has to hope he doesn't get down 2 sets to love in a best of 5 because then it's harder to erode the other players belief that he can win 1 of the next 2 sets. If it gets to 2-all though? Nadal definitely has the physical advantage.

 

[Carol]

What an insistence about the age. First at all Novak is 30 (in a few days) and Nadal 31 (in a few days too) but after to see Federer playing at almost 36 with such energy and resistance in 3 sets and 5 too I'm sure that those two guys have still a lot to say

 

[Front242]

What an insistence about the age. First at all Novak is 30 (in a few days) and Nadal 31 (in a few days too) but after to see Federer playing at almost 36 with such energy and resistance in 3 sets and 5 too I'm sure that those two guys have still a lot to say

Only time will tell but already both Nadal and Djokovic look slower due to the toll their style of play has taken on them. Federer is slower too but he wins matches a lot easier due to aggressive style of play so this is how he's getting around that loss of speed and movement. If Nadal and Djokovic don't improvise their games though they won't be playing elite level tennis at Federer's age. Anyway I doubt either guy will play that long personally but you never know. At least Djokovic is trying something new with Agassi who always took the ball early.

 

[Carol]

Only time will tell but already both Nadal and Djokovic look slower due to the toll their style of play has taken on them. Federer is slower too but he wins matches a lot easier due to aggressive style of play so this is how he's getting around that loss of speed and movement. If Nadal and Djokovic don't improvise their games though they won't be playing elite level tennis at Federer's age. Anyway I doubt either guy will play that long personally but you never know. At least Djokovic is trying something new with Agassi who always took the ball early.

We'll see what will be the final results of each one but I think that Moya has something to do with those clear improvements that Rafa is showing like his serve, volleys more often and BH and confidence which is gold. And I'm sure we'll see still better things

 

[GameSetAndMath]

Congrats to Zverev on winning Masters title at such an young age. When was the last time, we had a non big four player winning a Masters. Was that Tsonga in Canada? Also, when was the last time an under 21 player won a Masters? Was that Rafa in 2005?

I did not see the match. Will catch some highlights soon.

 

[the AntiPusher]

We'll see what will be the final results of each one but I think that Moya has something to do with those clear improvements that Rafa is showing like his serve, volleys more often and BH and confidence which is gold. And I'm sure we'll see still better things

I agree..Moya has added what was missing from Nadal game .

 

[Front242]

Congrats to Zverev on winning Masters title at such an young age. When was the last time, we had a non big four player winning a Masters. Was that Tsonga in Canada? Also, when was the last time an under 21 player won a Masters? Was that Rafa in 2005?

I did not see the match. Will catch some highlights soon.

Read that it was Novak in 2006 and age 19.

 

[the AntiPusher]

Read that it was Novak in 2006 and age 19.

Are you sure that it wasn't Christy or Martina ?

 

[Front242]

Are you sure that it wasn't Christy or Martina ?

According to what I read, no, it wasn't either of them.