Madrid

No surprise, Rafa beat FAA in straight sets. But the youngster had to have his baptism by fire – playing Rafa on clay – at some point. FAA got off to a decent start, but as so happens when a top guy plays, Rafa gradually raised his level and FAA’s dropped.

Catherine – You say, “If that means a few top players don’t become trillionaires then so what? Maybe they should take their noses out of the money bags for a few seconds and think about the game which has so richly rewarded them.” I thought the emphasis was on distributing more money to lower ranked players who are indeed struggling (those who come from wealthy countries with tennis associations that can help them or G.S. tournaments that can give them wild cards are fortunate indeed).

I don’t think the Australian Open should move to the U.S. But I do think it is too bad that so many smaller tournaments have been lost to the U.S. Unfortunately, it appears that only tournaments with big stars are supported here in the US (Masters’ level tournaments and the U.S. Open do very well). Roddick’s early retirement probably hurt the U.S. tournaments, as he was still something of a “draw.” Juan Martin del Potro is pretty much the only big star who plays smaller U.S. tournaments, and he has obviously been injured a lot. There may be more American women players who are doing well than American men – but I think WTA tournaments have been lost to the U.S. as well. Let’s face it. Serena wasn’t going to play New Haven.

I thought this was funny – saw Petra described in a match report as ‘the Czech Republican’. Logical I suppose.

Fed had such a close match against Monfils that it was scary for Fed fans. He had one of his 2nd set walkabouts, but he did get it to a TB in the decider, and then won the TB quite handily.

Roger will face Thiem next, and I think Dominic is the favourite for that match.

At the Rogers Cup last summer there were a few groups of kids (looked like they were from day camps because it was the summer holidays) for an afternoon match. They could have had more, but at least it was a start.

Halep bts Bencic in 3 – 6-0 in the 3rd. Simona’s attention drifted in the 2nd set but came back in the 3rd.

The stands were quite full but I’m afraid the crowd was just waiting for the men’s matches.

Yes, so many good players all on one day.

Fed vs Dominic was so exciting. High quality, and it was impossible to tell who would win until the very end, when Thiem pulled through.

Someone wrote that the King of Clay, the Queen of Clay and the Prince of Clay (Thiem) were all scheduled for today.

During the Fed vs Thiem match today one set of commies asked which active players had a winning H2H against Fed and another asked which players (not just active ones) had a winning record when they’d had at least 5 matches with him. For both questions it was easy to come up with Novak, Rafa and Dominic. But after that we were stumped until the commies finally gave the answers.

Still trying to wrap my brain around the decline at 22 of Zverev. I know there are extenuating circumstances, but when the Greek Freak beats him soundly and with AZ’s slam woes, there has to be some worry in the Lendl camp.

Sherry – you are probably right about Lendl’s distance coaching methods – I have a feeling Ivan’s heart isn’t in coaching really. Maybe he should just step back and let Sascha find his own way through what could just be a young man’s angst over changes in his life.

Kiki beat Sloane without much drama. Her serve and backhand made the difference. Simona will be pretty motivated to win today – could be a tough match. I noted somewhere above that she seems more mature now – on the court and in conversation. Cahill had an infantilising effect after their first couple of years.

Attention moving to Rome and Serena’s return to the Eternal City which she enjoys and where she met her future husband. Usual suspects in the women’s draw except Kerber is not playing, having one eye on her ankle and the other on RG. Andreescu skipping as well.

Scoop, I’d planned on sharing the answers to the Fed questions, but wanted to give folks a chance to see if they could get them. 🙂

As I said, it was easy to think of Rafa, Novak and Dominic.

For the other active players with a winning H2H – Kokkinakis and Donskoy. Of course they have only played against Fed once, so that helps. Kokkinakis beat him in Miami last year (2nd round), and Donskoy in Dubai in 2017. I still remember how shocked I was both times.

As one would expect, the players with a winning H2H having played Fed at least 5 times faced Roger early in his career – Kafelnikov and Corretja.

Simona was spotted watching Nadal/Tsitsipas – picking up some tips ?

Can’t comment on that match because I didn’t see it but I expect others will.

(Halep in pc: ‘I played wrong’)

Catherine, thanks for the link to the interview – it was indeed interesting.

I can appreciate Kiki’s skill, and thought she did play well in that final. But somehow, for me, she does not have that extra “something” that makes a compelling player.

Tsitsipas vs Nadal was a compelling match, with some amazing shots from both players. I kept thinking that Rafa would pull it off, but Stefanos maintained a high level of play.

I have been paying attention to Stefanos since Scoop first stared talking about him a couple years ago, and he is a treats-eligible player, so obviously I like him. But I have been blown away by what a great season he is having. I am hoping like crazy that he wins the title today, and it’s not just for the treat. 🙂

Hartt – no,Kiki doesn’t have ‘star quality’ but if it weren’t for players like her, being around to push through and threaten the status quo, the stars might not be twinkling so brightly 🙂

Scoop – I was responding to Hartt’s comment about Bertens not being, for her, a ‘compelling’ player.It’s all pretty subjective but I think I know what she means.

Not being a ‘star’ in tennis doesn’t mean you aren’t a very good player – maybe even a No 1, but it does probably mean you don’t fill stadiums and aren’t asked to do glamour shoots. Conversely, Marilyn Monroe was a star but she wasn’t the world’s greatest actress – same with Elizabeth Taylor. And so on.

It’s the ‘extra something’ Hartt mentions, the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that makes a star. For me, Nadal and Federer have it, Andy Murray doesn’t, Felix might develop it.

Anthony Joshua has it in boxing – you can probably think of great talents who never leaped to stardom outside the sport.

And no – however many photoshoots and glamour stuff Kerber does I don’t consider her a star – maybe half a star. Or sometimes a collapsestar.

The WTA want their No 1 to be overwhelmingly good and a star as well. We all know who filled that spot for so long.

Scoop, I guess I am making a distinction between a tennis star, a very good player, and someone with “star quality”, the ability to draw fans to them. Some great players, like Rafa, Fed and Serena, have star quality, but it not a given.

Although I am glad that FAA has a 4-0 record vs Tsitsipas, including those wins in the juniors, I’m not sure it will always be like that. It took Stefanos a few attempts before he beat Rafa, but he finally managed it, and on clay no less!