Fantastic Felix: The Prince Who Will Be King

That match was a lot of fun to watch — Felix with heavy, yet driving spin (like a slightly more spinny, two handed version of Nicolas Almagro, and slightly less aggressive as well); a bit like (and yet, unlike) Nadal in this dept. — the depth and heaviness of Auger-Aliassime’s strokes was shoving Stefanos well behind the baseline, and well off the court, completely on the defensive more often than not. I’ve heard some comments say that Felix plays like a combination of Djokovic/Nadal, and while that’s not too bad a comparison to make, the addition of Felix’s power means he plays his own game, and a very nice one it is. Lots of pace and depth from Auger-Aliassime, but it looks to be tightly controlled and focused (unlike our friend Almagro, who mentally self-destructed way too often). Felix plays much better (tactically speaking) as well, and that’s key.

Felix will have to overcome Giron and Cressy!

Nick said he did not have trouble getting up for that match. He arrived early and had several days of good practice. He simply could not play well, especially given the quality of Kohli’s play.

Tsitsipas looked psyched out from the start of the match, there is carry over from the Junior matches and Felix has his number-this may turn out to be one of those non rivalries, like Serena Sharapova, everyone said rivalry but Serena was (is) the superior player, felix did the same thing to Tsitsipas–made him look top 50 not top 10. Question, how would Felix fare now against Sasha? I don’t think Sasha would be psyched out.

It is hard to know how a rivalry between Félix and Stefanos will pan out. So far we have a small sample size – 3 junior matches and 1 main tour one.

But FAA did outplay Stefanos in this match. He literally hit harder, with an average first serve speed of 124 mph compared to 119 mph for Stef. For the 2nd serve it was 101 mph to 96 mph. Félix’s average FH speed was 83 mph compared to 76 mph for Stefanos.

He was also better in the winners to UFEs dept., with 18 winners and 20 UFEs. For Stef it was 12 and 18.

The total points won showed just how much FAA dominated, winning 64 points to Stef’s 45.

As far as Sascha goes, no I don’t think he would be intimidated by Félix. After all, he has been a highly-ranked player for some time now. Félix is an 18-year-old kid, however talented. Whether Sascha’s confidence would be warranted won’t be known until the two actually play each other.

I like both Félix and Stefanos, in fact both are treats-eligible. But if I had to choose, would probably say that FAA is my favourite among the youngsters, so I would be perfectly happy if Félix did dominate any rivalry in the future. He is now No. 55 in the live rankings.

Scoop – why do you keep hinting that Caroline has not got rheumatoid arthritis ? Although the disease might be in remission it hasn’t disappeared and probably affects her life in lots of ways – including her performance on court. She doesn’t have to keep talking about it. I’d be surprised to see her carry on after this year actually.

Kerber bts Natalia Vikhlantseva in three scrappy sets. Angie went into her ‘I don’t care ‘ mode in the 1st set, had Scheuttler out at 3-4 and then capitalised on Natalia’s unforced errors and ropey serving. But not a first class performance. Sometimes she struggles to get speed off the court at IW – is the court slow ? Did enough to win. Her strategy is pretty basic in these kind of matches and her attitude fluctuates – either she wants to play and win or she doesn’t. Make up your mind.

Kerber plays Sabalenka next. I’m looking forward to that – Aryna won in 2 sets v Tsurenko. She probably tried as hard as she could to stretch it to 3.

Zverev got struffed by Struff 🙂

Hartt – I was impressed by what I saw of Struff (except the baseball cap). He made Sascha look pretty ineffective. Milos will certainly have to raise his game.

Best news of the night for me – Osaka bt Collins in SS.

Geez, Catherine, you sure dislike the American players. I guess it’s okay for you to root for Osaka because it’s hazy whether she’s American or not. What’s wrong with Collins? Venus is having an amazing tournament, but I haven’t seen you post a word of praise for the soon-to-be-39-year-old. It’s always Kerber. It’s fine to have a fascination with a player, but why Kerber? Existentially, she seems rather boring to me. Maybe you should lavish more praise on Konta. I guess she just lost, but at least she seems to be a lot better person than gloomy Kerber or your other fave, Halep.

Dan – we’ve here before. I don’t dislike American players. Where do you get that from ? (my comment about Collins was joking BTW) I’m just saying Naomi will take over from Serena, going on current form. What’s wrong with that? I don’t care about people’s nationalities – having a mixed one of my own.

My comment was mainly about players coming to the end of their careers and the quote from Kerber because I don’t understand what she meant and she sends out different signals. I find that interesting. You don’t, which is ok. I haven’t mentioned Venus because she’s doing fine so far and I’m not covering the tournament – I’m just writing about reactions as they occur to me. I thought that’s what T-P was for. No reason I should mention Konta either – she’s not going anywhere. I find her rather dull.

It’s just a matter of who we prefer, in lots of ways. My interests are not yours but no reason they should be. We probably don’t enjoy the same books.

And it’s ages since I said much about Simona – don’t actually think she’s developing significantly and she’s certainly not a ‘fave’ of mine.

As for my ‘fascination’ for Angelique – maybe gloominess appeals to me. (Not sure she sees herself that way). But it’s part of human nature. Hamlet was no great barrel of laughs, as I recall.

Scoop – well, I agree with you that Angie is confused, about herself and her game. The attention she gets in Germany is distracting and not helping her to sort the muddle in her mind. I hope she can discover how to enjoy playing for the sake of it, trying her best without too much pressure, just make the most of the years left to her. She’s achieved a lot – more than she probably ever dreamed of as a kid. No reason to get sunk in gloom.

Catherine, I am so excited by how Andreescu is playing. Today’s match was a good example. You had the feeling from early on that Bianca would win, although the match was close enough to be interesting, until the last couple of games. I keep wondering if she will be able to maintain this high level of play, and then she does. She is now No. 48 in the live rankings, pretty good for an 18-year-old youngster. She said she has had to change her goal for this season, think it is now top 30.

Denis had a good win over Cilic, although Marin was far from his best.

This was so exciting for a Kohlschreiber fan – he won in SS over Novak! The commie said it was the first No. 1 win of his career.

Topsy-turvey at IW – adding to Novak upset out goes Simona, Osaka, Muguruza wins a match, Svitolina makes it 3 hrs v Barty and Kerber bts Sabalenka in 3.

I like Aryna but obviously very pleased for Angie – a long struggle against a player I thought would sweep her off the court. A true ‘role model’ there ?

Simona needs a coach. She cried after that loss.

Bencis will go far.

If Bianca can keep up her current level, I think she can beat Muguruza. Could this IW tourney be her big breakout, the way Montreal was for Denis?

Bianca will easily beat Muguruza – you read it here first. I was surprised Bertens lost – I thought she was the better player so I don’t know what happened here. Lots of UE in bits I saw. I’ve no idea why Garbine needed Sumyk then – no swearing that I could pick up.
Garbine really needs to volley more – she has a great angled FH volley but we seldom see it.

Elina S has incredible stamina but I can’t see her winning GSs.