Rafael Nadal saved a match point to win his 12th Barcelona title vs Stefanos Tsitsipas, 64 67 75. The King of Clay is now 7-2 career vs. the Greek. Nadal said after that he has room “to keep improving.” Tsitsipas said of Nadal: “He hates to lose more than anyone… I haven’t seen anyone fight like this. He makes my life really difficult on court. I’m there to accept those terms and play based on his desire to fight. It also makes me a better player and I can see myself reaching my limits. It’s definitely something good to have for my personal development and growth.”
Matteo Berretini won the Belgrade title 61 36 76 vs. Aslan Karatsev.
Sorana Cirstea won her first WTA title in twelve years in Istanbul, it’s her second WTA title.
The WTA world no. 1 player Ash Barty continued her winning, dominant ways by winning Stuutgart and a Porsche car by beating Elina Svitolina in three sets.
Jenson Brooksby won his third ATP Challenger title in 2021, by beating Bjorn Fratangelo in Tallahasee 63 46 63. Top seeds Matos and Luz of Brazil won the doubles title over Bangoura and D Young.
Italian 24 year old Wildcard Andrea Pellegrino won the Rome Challenger vs Hugo Gaston 36 62 61. Pellegrino is ranked 241.
(Nadal art by Andres Bella.)
Andres Bella art · Rafael Nadal
Scoop Malinowski · April 26, 2021 at 9:17 am
Nadal’s finest French Open performance was last year, there is no way he can do better this year than he did last year. But he may need to.
Julian Rainero · April 26, 2021 at 8:06 pm
I’m not sure I agree that the 2020 RG final was Nadal’s greatest performance. It actually reminded me of a mirror image of the 2020 AO final. The losers both purposefully attempted a radical departure from their normal strategy in a way that they thought might neutralize the other’s advantage but which didn’t work for them. I almost view both lopsided scores as failed experiments by the losers rather than dominant performances by the winner.
I thought Nadal’s finest FO final was 2017. Wawrinka was in form, playing great tennis and it just didn’t matter.
Bill McGill · April 26, 2021 at 8:08 pm
I meant a mirror image of the 2019 AO final.
Scoop Malinowski · April 27, 2021 at 7:00 am
Julian/Bill: Nadal did not lose a set at RG last year and he decimated the draw. I believe he lost the least amount of games at last year’s RG. Total destruction at age 34. Now he will turn 35 on June 3. I would guess Djokovic changed his gameplan because he was desperate, and he was psyched out that his typical gameplan would not work so he felt he had to do more. Nadal can intimidate players to have self doubts. 2017 was another Nadal Paris masterpiece. They all were really.
F Novak Djokovic W 60 62 75
SF Diego Schwartzman W 63 63 76
QF Jannik Sinner W 764 64 61
Round of 16 Sebastian Korda W 61 61 62
Round of 32 Stefano Travaglia W 61 64 60
Round of 64 Mackenzie McDonald W 61 60 63
Round of 128 Egor Gerasimov W 64 64 62
Krzysztof · April 28, 2021 at 7:03 pm
The least number of games Nadal lost at Roland Garros was in 2008 – 41, in 2020 he lost 49 games.
Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Krzysztof, but then the next year Soderling dismissed Nadal. Could history repeat itself?