Articles by Steve Tignor

Djokovic and Nadal prepare for another final clash in their Rome saga

Sat, 15 May 2021 20:19:00 +0000

“Tomorrow is not at all preparation for nothing,” Rafael Nadal said on Saturday, as he looked ahead to a potential final against Novak Djokovic in Rome. “Is a final, an important one, and I want to be competitive.”

Nadal has always been a believer that you play for today, not a week from today, or in this case three weeks from today. Yes, Roland Garros is the tournament that he and Djokovic want to win the most, and the one that will help determine their places in the sport’s history. But Rome, like the city itself, is an event with its own deep history, and any victory there should be savored for its own sake.

Nadal and Djokovic have their own deep history in Rome. They’ve played each other here more than at any other event. This will be their ninth meeting at the Foro Italico dating back to 2007, and one or the other of them has reached the final there every year since 2005. Nadal leads their head-to-head in Rome 5-3, and he won the most recent encounter, in the 2019 final, in three sets. If I could rewatch any of their 56 matches, I might choose their 2016 quarterfinal in Rome. It wasn’t a final, or even a semi, and Djokovic won in straight sets, but it was Rafa-Nole tennis of the highest order, which is saying something.

Will we get anything approaching that this Sunday, when they play their sixth Italian Open final? Most people would say: Probably not. Because of rain on Friday, Djokovic was forced to win two arduous three-set matches on Saturday, against one very talented opponent in Stefanos Tsitsipas and one very stubborn and popular one in Lorenzo Sonego. While Nadal was on and off with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Reilly Opelka that was over by mid-afternoon, Djokovic played nearly five sets, the last of which ended after 9 P.M. His reward for running all of those miles and tracking down all of those drop shots is a date with Rafa less than 24 hours later.

“First of all I need to recover,” Djokovic said in a two-question press conference after his semifinal. “That's what I’m focused on honestly. I don’t have much time, I played a lot of tennis. Hopefully I’ll have fresh legs because that’s what I definitely will need. It’s necessary in order to have a chance against Rafa.”

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic following their 2019 Rome final clash.

While Nadal will be focused on winning this match alone, Djokovic may have one eye already on Paris when he takes the court. He said earlier this year that the Grand Slams will be his focus from now on, and beating Nadal in the Roland Garros final would be a major coup. Will that make Djokovic more determined to win this match, to try to gain an edge for their next meeting? Or will he be satisfied just to win a set and plant a seed of doubt in Nadal’s mind? Either way, Djokovic is not going to want to cede the confidence battle to Rafa by letting him get a one-sided win on Sunday.

As Djokovic pointed out in his presser, Nadal has “also had some tough matches” this week. Rafa made his own difficult turnaround, beating Jannik Sinner late Wednesday evening, then coming back the next afternoon to save two match points against Denis Shapovalov. At this point, Rafa says, he has played enough to be Slam ready.

“I spent plenty of hours on court,” he said. “In terms of preparation for Roland Garros, I consider the job done. Then I have to adjust a couple more things, but I have two weeks to prepare.”

On Sunday, Nadal should have an advantage. He’ll know if that he can keep the match close, make the rallies long, and grab a set, it will be hard for Djokovic to last, and even harder for him to raise his game late. But Djokovic may have his own counterintuitive advantages. He’ll be the underdog, which should allow him to swing freely, and he’ll probably feel as if he has to end points early. That should help him play aggressively, which is what he’s going to have to do to win anyway.

Nadal-Djokovic LVII could throw a surprise or two our way. Even if it doesn’t, it has been good to see these two old warriors and rivals finding their best tennis, and reasserting their mastery over their younger challengers, when it matters.

As Rafa says, “In terms of Roland Garros, is not the moment to talk. Is about Rome.”

Winner: Nadal

Djokovic regains control to pass tricky test against Tsitsipas in Rome

Sat, 15 May 2021 12:35:00 +0000

“There are many things to say about today’s or yesterday’s match,” Novak Djokovic said after his two-day, three-hour 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 quarterfinal win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in Rome.

He’s not wrong. Djokovic vs. Tsitsipas was one of the best, most intense, most hard-fought contests of 2021 so far. It began under dark clouds and a steady rain on Friday afternoon, and finished in bright sunshine on Saturday afternoon. It commenced with Tsitsipas in calm control and a simmering Djokovic, angry at having to play in dank and drizzly conditions for the second time this week, trying his best not to boil over. It ended with Djokovic, after multiple goal-line stands, raising his hands in the air in triumph. He may have made bigger comebacks over the course of his career, but rarely has he made so many in one match. He may have seethed on Friday and lost his cool and chucked his racquet on Saturday, but he found a way to stay calm when it mattered.

Tsitsipas won the first set, and when play was finally suspended on Friday, he led a distracted and uninspired Djokovic by a set and a break. On Saturday, with the skies cleared, Djokovic was ready to fight. He came back from 2-4 to win the second set. After falling behind again, 1-3 in the third set, he faced four break points. Tsitsipas, swinging for the fences and tracking every ball down, kept winning spectacular points, and looked as if he were about to run away with a significant victory. But Djokovic kept finding ways to save those break points, kept finding ways to hang on to the ledge by his fingernails. He used his first serve, he used his heavy forehand, he used his drop shot, anything to stay alive.

Yet Tsitsipas didn’t relinquish the lead. At 4-4, the two played the point of the match, a long, full-throttle, corner-to-corner rally that saw Tsitsipas take a bigger swing at each ball. Finally, with a 100-m.p.h. backhand, he put a crack in the Djokovic wall. As he watched the Serb’s last forehand land a few inches long, Tsitsipas nearly fell over. He had broken Djokovic’s serve, but, it turned out, he hadn’t broken his will.

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Tsitsipas served for the match at 5-4, but from that point on it was Djokovic, summoning his concentration, putting his anger behind him, and cutting out unforced errors entirely, who would show that, just a few days before his 34th birthday, he’s still the guy with another gear.

Down 4-5, Djokovic won one point with a drop shot and a lob; he won another with amazing side-to-side defense; and he broke with a strong inside-in forehand. At 5-5, Djokovic won one point with a forehand pass, and another with a pair of tricky volleys, and he saved a break point with a first serve and a smash. In the final game, Djokovic seemed to break Tsitsipas' spirit at last with a backhand down-the-line winner.

“It was a bit of luck, a bit of mental strength, right tactics at the right time,” Djokovic said. “Until the last shot, I didn't know whether I was going to win. But I believed that I can. You can always fight and give your best, let the god decide who takes the win.”

As so often happens in Djokovic’s close matches, he took this win in the end. It was one of the year’s most memorable, but it won’t be Djokovic’s last for the day. He’ll go up against Lorenzo Sonego, and a vocal Roman crowd, in the semifinals later today. We’ll see if the god is on his side again.

Rome: Nadal slides and slithers and scrambles his way past Shapovalov

Thu, 13 May 2021 17:18:00 +0000

When does Rafael Nadal officially become the underdog in a match on clay? When he’s down a set? A set and a break? A set and nearly two breaks? Match point?

How about never?

To anyone who watched Nadal’s wild and woolly 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) comeback win over Denis Shapovalov in Rome on Thursday, that last answer must seem like the correct one. Rafa trailed by all of the above scores, and yet still managed to slide and slither and scramble his way to a victory in three and a half hours.

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It’s the last stat—three and a half hours—that may be the most impressive. Late on Wednesday, Nadal had finished off another tough match against another tough young opponent, Jannik Sinner. When Rafa came back out less than 20 hours later, he looked less than completely ready. Shapovalov quickly took advantage, breaking Nadal in the opening game, breaking him again for 3-0, and then breaking him to start the second set.

Shapo was flying around the court; Rafa was trudging. Shapo was slinging his forehand into the corners for winners; Rafa was trying to get the ball past the service line. The Canadian is a lefty, and he took full advantage of that fact, forcing Nadal deep into his forehand corner, and not letting him backpedal for the inside-out forehands that he loves.

Tennis fans everywhere waited for the turnaround. For a millisecond, it looks like it wasn’t going to happen. Down 0-3 in the second set, Nadal went for broke on a couple of shots, instead of digging in and grinding. I wondered if he had pulled the ripcord and was going to get an early start on his Paris preparations. I should have known better. Instead, Nadal saved a break point to avoid going down 0-4, and and then broke Shapovalov from 40-0 down. You could see the tide shifting in the score, and in the shots: Now it was Nadal who was swinging freely and whipping forehand winners; now it was Shapovalov who was making tentative unforced errors.

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But credit Shapovalov for not crumbling entirely. After Nadal won the second set, the two see-sawed through a third set that was brilliant, wearying, and thoroughly unpredictable all at once. Chances were earned, and chances were squandered, by both players. Shapovalov had an early lead but couldn’t hold it. Nadal had opportunities to break late but couldn’t cash them in.

Finally, Shapovalov reached match point, twice, with Nadal serving at 5-6. On the first one, he sent a backhand long, on the second, he shanked a forehand straight up in the air. He had made it to the finish line, but he couldn’t swing his arm across it. Shapo had hit a wall, of his own making and Nadal’s. In the deciding tiebreaker, he kept going for more, and he kept missing.

“To be able to win these kinds of matches against young players give me confidence with my body,” Nadal said referring to this victory, and his equally long win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Barcelona final. “It’s true that I have to do things better for tomorrow.”

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Nadal didn’t reach his top level in this one, the way he did against Sinner the night before. He did improve as the match went on, but rather than storming to a comeback victory, he needed some good fortune to survive and advance. Now he’ll have to do it all over again on Friday.

“The main thing today for me is recover physically, no?” Nadal said. “Have been a positive victory for me. I fighted until the end a lot to be in quarterfinals. Tomorrow is a chance to play a quarterfinals match. I hope to be ready to compete well.”

“Let’s see how I wake up tomorrow morning.”

One thing we know is that Nadal won’t be out of it until the final point has been played.

Gauff relishes flawless performance with Barty matchup looming

Thu, 13 May 2021 14:19:00 +0000

“You got to do the total concentration breathing that Tanjiro does,” Coco Gauff said after her 7-5, 6-3 win over Aryna Sabalenka in Rome on Thursday. “I probably wasn’t doing it like him, but it definitely helped on those match points.”

“Shout out to Demon Slayer for helping me.”

Do you feel lost, or maybe a little old, reading those words? You’re not alone. With a new generation come new inspirations, and Gauff got hers from the world of anime today. Who knew an animated character could teach you how to breathe?

Of course, Gauff did more than just take in air today. She dismantled one of the hottest players on the women’s tour at the moment, and she did it in comprehensive fashion.

Gauff won with her speed. Against most players, Sabalenka can finish points with a couple of shots; today, she needed to hit three or four. Gauff won with her tactics. Rather than try to slug with Sabalenka from the forehand side, which would have been a losing proposition, the American rolled her forehand high and deep, and jumped on any short reply with her more-powerful backhand. Most important of all, Gauff won by getting her serve in. Plagued by double faults in the past, she didn’t commit any today.

“A 10 out of 10,” Gauff said when she was asked to rate her performance. “I think I played pretty well the whole match. She’s not an easy opponent. I mean, sometimes you’re always on defense, so sometimes you just have to scramble a little bit.”

“I think today I played smart and well.”

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Gauff is still just 17, but the fairytale period of her career is behind her. She began where few people begin: at the top. As a 15-year-old, she enjoyed standing ovations from full houses on major show courts at the Grand Slams, just for winning her first-round matches. Now the long slog back up the mountain—as a real contender this time, not a Cinderella story—has begun.

But Gauff doesn’t seem to be let down by the smaller crowds and the quieter applause that greets her when she plays, and she doesn’t seem daunted by the tough losses and blown leads that come with earning an honest living on tour. All in all, she’s had a good season so far. She reached the semis in Adelaide and the quarters in Dubai and Charleston, and now she’s in the quarters in Rome, with wins over Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari. Coco’s not rocketing to the top, like the prodigies of old, but she’s also not proving to be a flash in the pan, either.

“I definitely think I would be happy where I’m at now,” Gauff said today when she was asked if her 15-year-old self would be pleased with her progress so far. “Obviously I want to keep going and keep going further. I’m not going to be satisfied until I reach my goal."

“During that time people were saying, ‘It’s a fluke, it will never happen again.’ I think I’ve proved all those people wrong. I’m going to continue to prove them wrong.”

Cutting down the double faults was job No. 1, and she has done that. She has made a tweak to the way she holds the racquet, and smoothed out the rhythm on her motion. More impressive, perhaps, is how she has learned to play within her limits. Gauff doesn’t have a killer forehand; it’s her two-handed backhand that is her putaway shot. So rather than flail at her forehand today, she turned it into a set-up shot; her high, heavy balls gave Sabalenka trouble, and opened up opportunities for her backhand.

Gauff also says that she has learned not to put the weight of the world on her shoulders, or expect to do prodigy-like things every time she walks on court.

“I think for at least now we’ve been working on just like laying back a little bit more,” she said. “I think for at least me, in my match, I approached the matches—I approach them seriously, but I was approaching them too seriously. Now I really am trying to enjoy the pressure, enjoy the moment.”

Sabalenka is a good match-up for Gauff, because her offense allows the teen to play defense, which she specializes in. Next up will be a trickier, and even higher-ranked, opponent in Ash Barty. Unlike Sabalenka, the Aussie will give the American a variety of spins and speeds to deal with.

“It will be great to see, like, where my level is,” Gauff said. “I mean, she’s the No. 1 player in the world. I have no pressure on me. If that ends up being my opponent, I’m just going to go out there and see what I can do and try my best.”

What would Tanjiro tell her to do in her first meeting with the world’s best? We’ll find out on Friday.

With "big respect" for Jannik Sinner, Rafa Nadal meets Rome challenge

Wed, 12 May 2021 21:18:00 +0000

These days tennis may look the same on clay as it does on the other surfaces, but one glance at Wednesday’s results in Rome should be enough to tell you that it’s not, and likely never will be. Naomi Osaka, Daniil Medvedev, and Serena Williams, each of whom reached the semifinals or better at the Australian Open a few months ago, struggled with the dirt and the breeze at the Foro Italico before making early exits. Medvedev, who ranted his way to a straight-set defeat against Aslan Karatsev, made his feelings about la terre battue clear: “This is a very bad surface,” he said. “How can I not swear?”

Fortunately, before Medvedev could have the courts paved over with asphalt, Rafael Nadal arrived to remind everyone how it’s done on dirt. He and Jannik Sinner closed out the day’s matches with a highly anticipated prime-time showdown. The King of Clay vs. Italy’s future superstar: It didn’t disappoint. Nadal won 7-5, 6-4, but the two-hour match was closer and more entertaining than the scores indicated.

Sinner started aggressively and confidently. He took the ball on the rise and powered his 80+ m.p.h. ground strokes into the corners and at sharp angles. He broke Rafa twice in the early going, once with a backhand winner, once with a volley winner.

This led Tennis Channel commentator Jim Courier to ask a question that has been asked about Nadal’s clay-court opponents hundreds of times before: “Can he (Sinner) sustain that without making a slew of unforced errors?” It has been asked of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Dominic Thiem—anyone who has pushed Rafa around the court and taken a lead against him. Now it was being asked of Sinner.

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The answer is almost always no, of course, but that wasn’t exactly the case with Sinner today. He didn’t continue to belt winners and break serve, but he also didn’t make a slew of errors. This was a match that was won by Nadal, rather than lost by Sinner.

Nadal won it by disrupting the rallies and giving Sinner different looks. He won it by stepping forward instead of retreating behind the baseline. He won it with drop shots, exposing a slight deficiency in Sinner’s up-and-back movement. He won it by coming up with first serves on big points. He won it by adding a little more hook to his crosscourt forehand, which opened up the down the line. He won it with a topspin lob and a perfectly measured backhand pass at 6-5 in the first set. And he won it by raising his game in the second set and out-hitting Sinner. During that stretch, for the first time in 2021, Nadal looked like he does when he’s dominating at Roland Garros.

“Have been a positive match for me, no?” Nadal said. “I did a lot of things well. I played a solid match…Yeah, very pleased with the victory.”

“I think I tried to do well, no, because I hold well, not going back too far from the court,” he said. “If not, you are dead. I think I [held] well the position on court. I hit some very good forehands, crosscourts too to avoid his great backhand cross, and then he has a great change down the line, no? So I think I did that well.”

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Instead of the match hinging on Sinner’s ability to sustain his level, it hinged on something else Courier said: “Nadal isn’t just a one-trick pony.” In all of the talk about Nadal’s intensity and mental strength, his skill level—his ability to do the little things well, to use his instincts, to remember the fundamentals—often gets lost.

This was a day when hitting through Sinner, or even hitting with Sinner, appeared to be a daunting task. So Nadal went around him instead. He didn’t let him take the big cuts from the middle of the court that he loves to take. He used the drop shot, but he also followed it to net himself, the way you’re taught. That paid off when Sinner was serving at 5-6: Rafa hit a drop and moved forward, Sinner hit a very good redrop, but Nadal was there in time to knife a pass down the line.

“I was on court with big respect for him and very focused every single moment,” Nadal said. “That’s why I am here with a victory.”

Nadal will have a quick turnaround against Denis Shapovalov on Thursday afternoon. I’m tempted to ask: Now that he has found his Roland Garros form, can Rafa sustain it? But I won’t ask it, because we already know the answer.

After being pushed, Djokovic responds in testy Rome win over Fritz

Tue, 11 May 2021 20:32:00 +0000

“The change on the men’s ranking, top of the men’s rankings, is coming,” Novak Djokovic said earlier this week in Rome. “Whether it’s gonna happen in a month or a year or whatever, I don’t know.”

You might think Djokovic would be the last person to welcome this change. He is, after all, the guy at the top of the rankings. But Djokovic says he’s “not personally paying too much attention.” He’s been up there long enough.

“I have managed to achieve the milestone of the historic ranking No. 1, and that was the focus up to recently,” he said. “Now it’s more about really trying to peak at Grand Slams and make those count for my career.”

His attitude is understandable. Djokovic will turn 34 later this month, he’s been on tour for 16 years, he has a wife and two kids, and he knows, like we know, that his career will ultimately be judged on how many major titles he finishes with. The days when he could expect to win virtually every Masters 1000 and Slam in a calendar year are surely behind him. So far in 2021 he has has skipped two of those Masters events, in Miami and Madrid, and his record coming into Rome was just 3-2 on clay.

“It’s a different schedule from what I had for so many years,” he said. “I'm actually looking forward to take that next step in my career and my life where I’m gonna spend more time with my family and just do other things that interest me. But at the same time, I do play specific amount of tournaments that would prepare me as best as possible for the Grand Slams.”

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The questions going forward will be: Can Djokovic stay engaged mentally and in shape physically while caring about his results at just four tournaments a year? And can he maintain a No. 1 player’s aura of invincibility without being No. 1? To some extent, Djokovic has always prioritized the majors, but he was also a full-time player who was motivated each week to do what he could to keep his No. 1 spot. Now he’ll have to flip the switch more quickly before each Slam.

Djokovic is planning to play four tune-up events before Roland Garros (he’ll go to Belgrade again after Rome). He says that should be enough, and on paper, it should be. But his early loss in Monte Carlo and his absence in Madrid has left him needing matches, and needing to start building some momentum before Paris.

Traditionally, he has done that in Rome, where he has reached the final there 10 times, and won five titles. On Tuesday, Djokovic took the first step toward another deep run by beating Taylor Fritz, 6-3, 7-6 (5). But it wasn’t as straightforward as the score might indicate.

Djokovic was annoyed by the steady rain that pounded down on the Foro Italico, and by the chair umpire’s unwillingness to consider stopping. When he served for the match and was broken at 5-4 in the second set, Djokovic went from annoyed to apoplectic. By then, with the rain coming down harder, the umpire didn’t have much choice. After a two-hour delay, Djokovic came back and closed out Fritz in a tight tiebreaker.

“It was a very strange match with strange conditions,” Djokovic said. “Obviously playing under the rain non-stop for almost two full sets, it is challenging for both me and him.”

“I was stressed out in the end obviously, but I think it was the right call to stop the match.”

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Until 5-4 in the second set, Djokovic was in firm, if not quite total, control. He moved Fritz from corner to corner with his ground strokes, and up and back with his drop shots. But Fritz gradually dug in and found some rhythm, and when they came back after the rain delay the two were on level terms. Yet as tight as things got, and as mad as he was, Djokovic was still able to take a deep breath and find the shots he needed. Serving at 5-6, 30-30, he hit two unreturnable first serves. Down 4-5 in the tiebreaker, he came up with two more first serves, and played three smart, solid points to close out the win.

“When I came back, I thought we were quite even actually till the last point,” Djokovic said. “I’m glad that I managed to finish off this match in straight sets. I know I can play better, and I’m going to work tomorrow trying to make sure I do that in two days.”

After a day off, Djokovic will play either Cam Norrie or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Assuming he wins that, he could face either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Matteo Berrettini in the quarters. Djokovic may be aiming for Roland Garros, but he also knows that his preparation for Paris can’t start there. He may not care about being No. 1 in the rankings, but he’s not going to want to let anyone think they can beat him in the big ones, either.

Is the 2021 Madrid Open Alexander Zverev's best tournament to date?

Sun, 09 May 2021 23:15:00 +0000

“I think it was a good week for me,” Alexander Zverev said after his 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-3 win over Matteo Berrettini in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open on Sunday.

This was something of an understatement. Rather than merely a good week, it might have been the 24-year-old German’s best yet. Over the last five days, Zverev beat Rafael Nadal, the best clay-courter of all time, in straight sets. He beat Dominic Thiem, the second-best clay-courter in recent years, and the player who robbed him of his first major title at the US Open last year. In the final, Zverev did something that may have been even more difficult: He found a way to claw through a match that was largely out of his control, and that he appeared to have thrown away.

“Matteo was extremely difficult for me in a way that I didn’t play anyone who serves 235 [k.p.h.], dominates the ball like he does,” Zverev said. “[It] was extremely difficult just getting the ball back in play, getting the ball deep enough to have the chance to win the point.”

Against Nadal and Thiem, Zverev had been the aggressor. He had served big and played his usual steady, rangy baseline game. But he also put a little more pace than normal on his shots and took the initiative when he could. With the ball flying at altitude, and Nadal and Thiem ensconced in their favored positions well behind the baseline, Zverev was able to command the rallies without taking undue risks.

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As he said, all of that changed against Berrettini. The Italian matched Zverev’s serving prowess. He stood up on the baseline. He powered his forehand for a winner on one point, then turned around and feathered a drop shot with it on the next. Zverev didn’t help himself when, at 8-8 in the first-set tiebreaker, he suddenly decided, for the first time, to hit his second serve as hard as his first. It landed long, and Berrettini closed out the set on the next point.

For the first half of the match, Berrettini was the better, more focused, more aggressive, more creative player. Zverev seemed to have made the conservative bet that, if he stayed patient and solid, Berrettini would eventually fall to earth. In this case, the conservative bet paid off. Serving at 4-4 in the second set, Berrettini finally went to the drop-shot well once too often. Zverev read it, ran the ball down, and passed him to go up 15-40. This time, at break point, it was Berrettini’s turn to double fault and throw away a set.

Berrettini may have given away the second set, but Zverev took the third. Serving at 1-2, he double faulted twice, before saving a break point with a forehand winner. That shot seemed to spark Zverev, and take the wind out of Berrettini’s sails. The Italian broke himself with three forehand errors in the next game and was never in the match again.

“It hurts now,” Berrettini said, “but I know this loss is going to be useful.”

“I played good. I didn’t play unbelievable. I also think it’s what he did to make me play like not my best tennis.”

Taken together, Zverev’s performances in his last three matches were what many expected from him when he made it all the way up to No. 3 in 2017. Back then, his game seemed to be a refinement on what players like Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were doing. Zverev could win with his range and steadiness, the way they did, but at 6’6” he could also win with his serve. That versatility obviously hasn’t always been on display over the last four years, but it was this week.

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Zverev’s win continues a hot streak for the ATP’s Next Gen during this clay season. He and Stefanos Tsitsipas have won Masters titles, while Berrettini and Andrey Rublev have reached finals. Zverev and Rublev have also recorded wins over Nadal. The next obvious question is: Can any of them ride this wave all the way through Paris?

Obvious or not, Zverev wasn’t ready to hear it after his win on Sunday.

“Look, at the end of the day I just won a Masters,” he said. “It’s my fourth one. I’m happy with that. That’s for me one of the most important things right now. Obviously I want to be happy for about 30 seconds, then obviously Rome is next. There’s still big tournaments coming up.”

The tournaments will get bigger for Zverev, but not many weeks will be better than this one.

WTA Rome Preview: Can Halep restore order ahead of Roland Garros?

Sat, 08 May 2021 23:53:00 +0000

The WTA is chock full of talent these days; the challenge is getting it together in one place. For the first time since the Australian Open, all of the tour’s marquee names—Ashleigh, Aryna, Naomi, Serena, Simona, Bianca, Garbiñe, and more—will gather in Rome for the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, where they’ll make their last-minute preparations for the season’s second Slam, at Roland Garros.

Here’s a look ahead at how they may go.

First Quarter

There’s no rest for the weary, or for an Aussie on the road these days. This week Ashleigh Barty will tee it up for the fifth time since March. When she does, she’ll see a familiar face on the other side of this quarter: Aryna Sabalenka, a woman Barty has already played three times this spring.

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Will the Australian and the Belarusian, who split their finals in Stuttgart and Madrid, have anything left at the Foro Italico? Will they decide to live to fight another day, on a bigger stage? Or will they just keep rolling?

First-round matches to watch:

Elise Mertens vs. Veronika Kudermetova

2019 Rome winner Karolina Pliskova vs. 1999 Rome winner Venus Williams

Coco Gauff vs. Yulia Putintseva

Camila Giorgi vs. Sara Sorribes Tormo

Semifinalist: Mertens

Second Quarter

With a 7-7 season record and five losses in her last six matches, Sofia Kenin was due for a change. She made a big one last week, firing her father Alex from what seemed to be a lifetime job as her coach. We’ll see if the move frees her up to play better right off the bat, the way some coaching changes do, or if there’s an adjustment period.

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Either way, Kenin, the top seed in this section, will have her work cut out for her in Rome. Iga Swiatek, Karolina Muchova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Maria Sakkari, and two-time Rome champ Elina Svitolina are all nearby.

First-round matches to watch:

Muchova vs. Madison Keys

Muguruza vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Semifinalist: Svitolina

Third Quarter

After a few near misses, Simona Halep finally made it across the finish line in Rome last fall, when Pliskova was forced to retire from their final. What are the chances she can defend that title? Halep looked like the favorite in the early going in Madrid, until she lost to Mertens, but her draw should give her another shot at a deeper run this week.

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The first seed she could face is Johanna Konta, and the second-highest seed in this section is Bianca Andreecu, who will be making her clay debut after injuring herself in Miami last month. However she looks and plays, it will be good to have Bianca back, for this tournament and hopefully for the summer.

Also here: 2019 Roland Garros finalist Marketa Vondrousova

Semifinalist: Halep

Fourth Quarter

There’s no question where the star-power is in this draw: Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams are the top two seeds here. What are the chances they’ll both make their hoped-for quarterfinal rendezvous? Serena hasn’t played since the Australian Open, while Osaka has entered two events and failed to get past the quarterfinals either time.

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On paper, Serena would seem to have the slightly less difficult draw. The only seed she could face before the quarters is Belinda Bencic, while Osaka will play either Jessica Pegula or Daria Kasatkina to start, and, possibly, Jen Brady in the round of 16.

First-round match to watch: Pegula vs. Kasatkina

Semifinalist: Bencic

Semifinals: Svitolina d. Mertens; Halep d. Bencic

Final: Halep d. Svitolina

ATP Rome Preview: Can Djokovic kickstart his clay campaign?

Sat, 08 May 2021 22:31:00 +0000

Rome is the last major tune-up event before Roland Garros. Which means it’s the last chance for the ATP’s aging duopoly, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, to build some momentum before they resume their major-title race in Paris.

Each has some work to do. Djokovic is just 3-2 during the clay season and hasn’t been much of a factor; Nadal has a title, in Barcelona, but he also has two defeats, to Andrey Rublev and Alexander Zverev. The Serb and the Spaniard will start at opposite ends of the draw in Rome; here’s a look ahead at how it might play it out, for them and everyone else jockeying for position at Roland Garros.

First Quarter

Will Djokovic show any rust after skipping Madrid? He’ll need to shake it off quickly. His first match might be against Daniel Evans, who, as Djokovic put it, “dismantled” the world No. 1 with his soft slices and changes of pace in Monte Carlo.

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If Djokovic reaches the quarters, he could play the guy who won that event—and who nearly beat Nadal in Barcelona—Stefanos Tsitsipas; or he might face Madrid finalist Matteo Berrettini. As inauspicious as Djokovic’s spring has been, he has gathered himself together in Rome before. He has been to the final there 10 times, and won it five times, including last fall. He’s too serious about Roland Garros this year not to do everything he can to be ready for it.

Potential third-round match to watch: Tsitsipas vs. Berrettini

Semifinalist: Djokovic

Second Quarter

Dominic Thiem and Andrey Rublev, the top two seeds in this section, seem to be on moving in opposite directions at the moment. Rublev broke out of the gates quickly to start the clay season, beating Nadal and reaching the Monte Carlo final. But he may have peaked too soon. The wear and tear of many matches in 2021 appeared to catch up with Rublev in Madrid, where he lost in three frustrating sets to John Isner.

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Thiem, meanwhile, took six weeks off before returning in Madrid, but a semifinal run there makes it feel as if his best is still in front of him this spring. We’ll find out more if the Austrian and the Russian meet in the quarterfinals this week.

Also here: Gaël Monfils, Robert Bautista Agut, Cristian Garin

Semifinalist: Thiem

Third Quarter

If you don’t succeed, and even if you don’t believe you can succeed, try, try again. That could be Daniil Medvedev’s motto as he takes to his hated clay again in Rome. It’s not as if he can’t play on the stuff; he owns a victory over Djokovic on it, and he loves a long rally. But a series of early losses on dirt have clearly tested his patience and hurt his confidence.

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This week Medvedev will start against either Aslan Karatsev or Miomir Kecmanovic, and the second-highest seed in his section is Diego Schwartzman. It may not be easy for him to convince himself, but this is an opportunity for Medvedev to finally get his clay feet under him.

First-round matches to watch:

Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Filip Krajinovic

Hubert Hurkacz vs. Italy’s own Lorenzo Musetti

Semifinalist: Medvedev

Fourth Quarter

If Nadal is looking for a test before Roland Garros, he may find it in his road to the semifinals. He’ll begin against either Ugo Humbert or his sometime practice partner and Miami finalist Jannik Sinner of Italy.

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More important, and perhaps daunting, Rafa could face Zverev in the quarters. The German has won their last three meetings, all in straight sets, including their Madrid quarterfinal on Friday. Rafa usually doesn’t let his losing streaks to opponents on clay last more than one match. The last time he beat Zverev was in the Rome final back in 2018.

First-round matches to watch:

Sinner vs. Humbert

Denis Shapovalov vs. Casper Ruud

Fabio Fognini vs. Kei Nishikori

Semifinalist: Zverev

Semifinals: Djokovic d. Thiem; Zverev d. Medvedev

Final: Zverev d. Djokovic

Aryna Sabalenka seals No. 1 Ashleigh Barty to capture Madrid crown

Sat, 08 May 2021 20:56:00 +0000

Aryna Sabalenka had been here before. Twice over the last two months, in Miami and Stuttgart, she had pushed world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty to a third set, only to lose it 6-3. Now, in the Mutua Madrid Open final on Saturday, she was facing Barty again, and she appeared to be heading toward a third defeat by the same final-set scoreline.

This time, Sabalenka had charged out of the gate against Barty, dominated the early rallies, and blitzed through the first set, 6-0, in 25 minutes. Again, though, nerves and errors had crept into her game in the second set, which she lost 6-3. In the third, she found herself down 3-4, 15-30. Barty had won her last 10 matches against Top 10 opponents; there was little reason to think she wouldn’t make it 11 in a row.

In the past, faced with this situation, Sabalenka might have rushed, or ranted, or overhit. This time, she took a few extra seconds, made sure she made a strong first serve, and won the point. Then she repeated that process. Then she held for 4-4.

Instead of Barty serving for the match, she was serving to stay in the lead.

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By then it was too late. Momentum had shifted to Sabalenka, who seemed liberated after extricating herself from that jam, and who swung with total freedom during the last two games. At 4-4, she broke at love with a backhand winner; serving for the match at 5-4, she hit an ace, a service winner, and a backhand winner to hold at love for a 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 victory. All told, Sabalenka won the last 11 points to claim her biggest title yet, and climb to her highest ranking yet, No. 4.

“I think what I did really well here, I stay focused from the beginning till the end,” Sabalenka said. “I was putting her under the pressure, especially in the end of the third set. In those key moments, I was a little bit more aggressive. That’s what really helped me to win this match.”

Sabalenka credited a more positive attitude about clay for her success on it this month. In Madrid especially, where the air is thin and the surface a little quicker than other places, Sabalenka moved forward to take the ball on the rise whenever she could, and played a slightly-more-patient version of her hard-court game.

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“Before I was too much thinking about the clay court, that this is a surface not for me, that it’s really tough to play on this surface, it’s long rallies,” Sabalenka said. “This year I kind of relaxed and kind of just played my game. I worked a lot on the movement, so I prepare myself really well for the clay court. I just stayed aggressive.”

Barty, who could be seen rubbing her left quad during changeovers in the third set, kept the defeat in perspective.

“I think I had two or three break points in that third set,” said. “She had the same. She grabbed her opportunity, I didn’t grab mine. It’s a pretty fine line.”

“There’s certainly no shame in losing 6-4 in the third in a final to a Top 10 player. I have absolutely no shame about that, no regrets.”

Barty also made a fair assessment of what what makes the more-imposing and bigger-hitting Sabalenka such a tough opponent for her, and anyone else. The Aussie spent most of the first set lunging after Sabalenka’s missiles and trying to find a way to get the ball back any way she could.

“She takes the ball out of my court and essentially takes the racquet out of my hand when she serves the way she did in the first set,” Barty said. “I gave her a few too many looks on second serves. She’s able to dominate and take that away from me.”

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Typically, a world No. 1 will lift her game at the end of a close final. In this match, it was Sabalenka, rather than Barty, who played with a champion’s confidence down the stretch. When her 11-point closing barrage was over, it felt like the 23-year-old had taken an important step forward. We may look back on those three games as the moment when Sabalenka, after a few years of ups and downs, of hot streaks and disappointments, of learning to temper aggression with margin, became a consistent big-title contender.

“It’s a big difference, like, between me two years ago and right now,” she said. “Two years ago I was getting crazy on the court every match, I would say a couple times on the court in each match. I think the more experience you have, the more you understand little bit more what you have to do, what you can’t control.”

There was only one thing Sabalenka couldn’t control on Saturday. When the match was over, she smiled in the direction of her team and began an arm-swinging dance. She expected her physio, Jason Stacy, to join her. To her disappointment, he didn’t move.

“We've been doing this dance little bit before,” Sabalenka said with a laugh afterward. “I thought he’s going to follow me, it’s going to be like really cool, like teamwork. He didn’t. This is what I’m really not happy with.”

If that’s all Sabalenka is unhappy with at the moment, she may have a lot to look forward to the rest of this spring.

The methods to his madness paying off for Alexander Bublik in 2021

Thu, 06 May 2021 17:50:00 +0000

Have you missed the Nick Kyrgios show this spring? The underhand serves, the tweeners, the flashy racquet skills, the anything-goes shot selection, the tennis player who says he hates tennis?

If so, you’ve been in luck, because as Kyrgios has temporarily exited the stage, his 23-year-old understudy in eccentricity, Alexander Bublik, has crept closer to the spotlight. The Kazakh is 19-11 in 2021, a significant improvement on his .500 career winning percentage. He reached his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Miami, and now he’s into another in Madrid. Earlier in the week, Bublik edged 11th-seeded Denis Shapovalov in three sets. On Thursday morning, in a shadow-filled side court, he made fairly routine work of one of the ATP’s hottest players, Aslan Karatsev, 6-4, 6-3.

This was, relatively speaking, a straightforward affair for Bublik. He tried a few side-spinning drop shots, and dropped a deft half-volley an inch in front of the net. But mostly he served. He hit 14 aces, won 79 percent of his first-serve points, and bombed his second serve almost as hard as his first. Worse for Karatsev, Bublik kept finding the lines with his serve when he was down break point. He faced eight of them, and saved seven.

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When it was over, Bublik raised his arms and smiled with what seemed like a little bit of disbelief. His 19th win is a career high for a season for him, and we’re only in May. Outside of Miami, he had never won a match at a Masters event before. A year ago, in an echo of Kyrgios, Bublik told L’Equipe that he “hates tennis,” only plays it for the money, and would happily retire if he didn’t need to earn a living.

But Bublik doesn’t come across as displeased with his lot in life, just honest about the ups and downs that come with any job. He doesn’t seem to feel any pressure to be a Grand Slam champion or the game’s next superstar.

“The more Masters quarters, the more prize money you get,” he said in Miami. “So it’s nice, no? Why not? Maybe next time I make another result. Yeah, I’m pretty happy and pretty confident about my game. I just try and head in the right direction, do the right stuff and enjoy life.”

Asked whether he would join Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil’s nascent player’s association, the PTPA, Bublik said no, he was OK with the ATP, imperfect as it may be.

“I’m not a good politico, or I’m not trying to go against it because I believe that before we were making good money,” Bublik said. “[In 2019] I played 12 events, I made like 900,000. I mean that’s kind of OK, you know.”

Bublik continued his free-spirited ways off the court today as well. In a Tennis Channel interview, he said that if he ran the ATP, he’d hold every tournament in Newport—not coincidentally, he made the final there in 2019—and that an around-the-netpost shot he made in doubles this week was the “best shot in doubles eternity.”

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In truth, Bublik does something jaw-dropping with his racquet virtually every time he plays. Like any good 6’6” ace machine, he doesn’t give his opponents any rhythm; but unlike most bomb servers, he can disrupt play in a dozen other ways. His game is a compilation of unorthodox new-school innovations. He has the underhand serve, he has the SABR, he has the drop shot from either side, he has the chop forehand. He won one point against Karatsev today with a backhand drop and a lob volley.

“You never know,” Bublik repeated in a recent interview, about what’s next for him. It’s a pretty fair description of his game, and his entertainment value. But he also says there’s a method to his madness. If he tries to rally too much, he says, he’ll start to push, and that’s not his game. If he thinks there’s a 50-50 shot that a big second serve will win him a point, he’ll take it.

Like Kyrgios, Bublik will probably never be a guy you can count on to go deep every week. But when he is playing well, any fan will want to tune in to see his show. What will we get from him in the quarters in Madrid? “You never know,” he might say, and that’s not a bad thing.

Aryna Sabalenka builds steam through clay-court surge in Madrid

Wed, 05 May 2021 20:18:00 +0000

“Who can stop Aryna Sabalenka?”

This is the question that the Mutua Madrid Open’s on-court interviewer has posed to Sabelenka after each of her last two victories this week. It’s not one that players are asked very often; was Sabalenka really expected to name someone who might beat her? But it seems appropriate right now. Anyone who has watched her roll through one in-form opponent—Jessica Pegula, 6-1, 6-2—and another—Elise Mertens, 6-1, 4-0, ret.—will likely wonder if there’s anyone who can stay with her right now.

Mertens certainly wasn’t up to the task. Sabelanka’s former doubles partner was coming off one of her career-best wins over Simona Halep in three hard-fought sets, and it showed. She offered little resistance in the early going, and after taking a medical time-out in the second set she ultimately retired with a leg injury. But that doesn’t take anything away from Sabalenka’s performance, or the evolution that she undergone in recent months.

“Hit and miss” is how she has traditionally been described, and for good reason. Whether her shots are clicking or not, she keeps going for them, and because of that her level can rise and dip from one set to the next. In the Stuttgart final last weekend, Sabalenka won a convincing first set over the top seed, Ashleigh Barty, and then suddenly couldn’t put a ball in the court. She lost the second set 6-0, and the third 6-3.

Still, her hits have been outweighing her misses lately, and she has kept her level higher for longer periods of time. Starting from the Australian Open, Sabalenka has lost only to Serena Williams, Garbiñe Muguruza, and Barty. Right now, she’s on a trajectory that would make her a dark-horse threat for the title at Roland Garros.

Sabalenka’s increased patience and improved problem-solving skills were on display on Wednesday. Mertens, who knows Sabalenka’s game as well as anyone, tried to loop balls high and then up the pace on her next shot, but the Belarusian put a stop to it by moving in and taking the ball on the rise. Something that, at 6’0”, she’s quite capable of doing.

“In the beginning it was really tough to play against her,” Sabalenka said. “Because she was using like high balls and mixing it with slice and then try to stay aggressive, so trying to kind of understand what she’s doing. As soon as I understand what she’s trying to do, I was kind of like stepping into the court and try to be, like, a little bit more aggressive and like going through the ball and tried to hit heavy shots.”

“I think after first few games I would I say I kind of destroyed her a little bit.”

In the midst of that destruction, there were two moments, and two shots, where Sabalenka showed how sky-high her potential is.

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The first came on a Mertens moon-ball that pushed Sabelanka behind the baseline. Instead of lobbing the ball back, which seemed to be her only play, Sabalenka rolled a forehand past Mertens for a winner. She generated all of her own pace and hit the ball from well back in the court, and yet she applied enough topspin that it didn’t look like a risky shot.

The second came on a short ball to her backhand. By the time Sabalenka reached it, the ball had dipped below net level. Most players would have settled for a slice approach, but Sabalenka bent down and, without breaking stride, drove a backhand into the corner for a winner. She has credited better movement for her recent results, and you could see it here. She didn’t give Mertens any room to breathe.

As with most players, Sabalenka’s game often follows her serve; when she stops making the first one, she stops playing well. But that wasn’t true today. Her first-serve percentage was a shade under 45, but she wasn’t broken once. How much was that a product of Mertens’ injury and fatigue? We’ll know more when Sabalenka takes on a harder hitter and presumably fitter player, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, on Thursday.

Who can stop Sabalenka? Don’t be surprised if you hear that question again tomorrow.

Thiem a welcome sight at the Caja Magica in victorious Madrid return

Tue, 04 May 2021 21:07:00 +0000

Until this spring, it was easy to take Dominic Thiem for granted.

Over the past decade, he had always there, week in and week out, playing as many tournaments as anyone in the Top 20 and rarely giving himself any time off. He wasn’t as popular as the Big 3, but he also didn’t annoy their fanbases by beating them very often at the majors. Other than a stray callous comment here, and a broken Covid protocol there, Thiem didn’t make waves, like, say, Nick Kyrgios.

Even when Thiem finally broke through and won the US Open last fall, he retreated from the spotlight as rapidly as he had entered it. Instead of playing with newfound confidence, the way many of us expected he would, the Austrian was upset in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, and the fourth round at the Australian Open. His coach, Nicolas Massu, tested positive for COVID and had to leave his side. By March, Thiem himself was sidelined with a knee injury, and there was talk that this former iron man had lost his motivation. Coming into Madrid, he was just 5-4 on the season. With all eyes on Stefanos Tsitsipas so far this spring, Thiem’s days as Rafael Nadal’s heir apparent on clay seemed to be fading.

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Let’s hope that isn’t the case. Men’s tennis needs as many future stars as it can get, and Thiem has patiently made himself into of them over the last five years. On the one hand, at 27, he might seem sneaky old; shouldn’t an heir apparent, or the leader of the “next generation,” be a little younger than that? On the other hand, in this era of the 30-something Slam champion, Thiem might be entering his prime now. He’s the only ATP player under 30 with a major title under his belt. According to Thiem, the prospect of winning another one, and his first in Paris, is enough to keep him going right now.

“There were times in March where I was really feeling bad in general,” Thiem admitted on Tuesday. “Even then, I mean, I had in the back of my head the big goal of Roland Garros. That’s still where my expectations are, are very high about. That’s where I want to be at the top of my game again. Here in Madrid, honestly two weeks ago I was not sure if I’m playing here, so the expectations are still super low.”

Thiem also admitted that the enforced idleness during the lockdowns in 2021 had opened his eyes to the benefits of getting away from the grind.

“The six-months break, it felt so nice,” he said. “It’s definitely something I’ll consider, as well, in the future to better take a little bit more off.”

With all of that talk of vacation, it was good to hear that Thiem is ready to get down to business again.

“Now it’s also time to be back,” he said. “I think Madrid is a great place for me. I have only good memories to that tournament.

“I was preparing in Austria, doing lot of physical practice, lot of tennis practice. I think that I’m on a good level.”

Massu echoed those upbeat thoughts. He said that Thiem had been “training unbelievably,” and that their reunion after Massu’s recovery had breathed new life into Thiem.

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A two-time finalist in Madrid, Thiem couldn’t have asked for a smoother return. On Tuesday evening, he beat 91st-ranked Marcos Giron of the U.S., 6-1, 6-3 in 57 minutes. Thiem was superior in every aspect of the game, and Giron struggled to handle his high-bouncing topspin, both on his serve and his ground strokes.

“There were some things which I think made it a little bit easier, the match, after such a long time, especially the conditions in Madrid, which are great for me,” Thiem said. “Then amazing memories on this court where I already played probably some of the best matches of my career. So I think that’s why things worked out quite well tonight.”

Of course, one night does not a comeback make. He’ll likely face grittier competition in his next match, against Alex de Minaur. Thiem, and the rest of us, shouldn’t take anything he does for granted anymore.

Ashleigh Barty triumphs in battle of RG champions against Iga Swiatek

Mon, 03 May 2021 21:12:00 +0000

Ashleigh Barty and Iga Swiatek, the 2019 and 2020 Roland Garros women’s champions, met for the first time in Madrid on Monday. The stylistic contrast between the two—Swiatek is a power-baseliner and Barty an all-courter—promised much. Yet, even after they had faced off for an hour and 40 minutes in Manolo Santana stadium, their third-round clash still felt a little preliminary, like an opening gambit, or a rough rehearsal for future showstoppers to come.

The match went the way the rankings told us it would. Barty, the top seed, beat the 14th-seeded Swiatek, 7-5, 6-4. The stat that summed up the story best was break points: Barty saved six of the seven she faced, and converted all three of her own. She made just 53 percent of her first serves, and hit just six aces, but each of them came at just the right time; Swiatek never seemed to anticipate Barty’s T serve in the ad court.

While Swiatek ended up with more winners (22 to 20), as expected, it was Barty who got the first strike in with her forehand more often than not, especially on important points. Serving at 6-5 in the first set, Barty went down 15-30 before hitting two forehand winners. Serving for the match at 5-4 in the second, Barty started with another forehand winner and closed it out with two unreturnable serves.

“I think probably the first half an hour was a bit of an adjustment period for both of us,” Barty said. “I think it took me some time to get used to Iga’s weight of shot.”

“A lot of my service games I felt like I was building pressure on her service games by being able to get out of some tight ones.”

As for Swiatek, she broke out of the gate fast, went up 3-0, and threatened again on Barty’s serve in the fourth game. But once Barty was on the scoreboard, she relaxed and Swiatek tightened. That tightening up was most noticeable, and damaging, on her serve. Swiatek made just 46 percent of her first serves and double faulted six times, three of them when she was broken in the match’s most crucial game, at 5-5 in the first set.

Just as Barty seemed to have an ace for every big point, Swiatek seemed to have a double fault. When she finally found her first serve and made it through an easy hold late in the second set, Swiatek raised her hands in a mock victory celebration.

When we talk about Barty’s game, we usually talk about her versatility. And when we talk about her versatility, we usually talk about her ability to change spins and speeds from the baseline and finish points at the net, things that many of her more one-dimensional opponents can’t do. Barty did keep Swiatek off-balance with her slice in this match, and she won one important point with a perfectly measured short underspin backhand. But for the most part Barty showed off her versatility by staying at the baseline and beating Swiatek at her own game. It was Barty’s forehand, rather than Swiatek’s, that was the difference-maker.

“I think the more you play someone in match play, you learn tendencies, you pick up on patterns and things like that under pressure,” Barty said.

“I think it was a learning curve for both of us. Yeah, I’m sure that match tonight will be the first of many that we’ll play.”

Barty will move on to face Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals. Swiatek will surely redouble her preparation for her title defense in Paris. Tennis fans will look forward to more, and more thrilling, editions of this match-up to come.

Tsitsipas' secret weapon? Better breathing. How can it help your game?

Sun, 02 May 2021 11:32:00 +0000

“I find breathing very important,” Stefanos Tsitsipas said after the biggest win of his career, in the Monte Carlo final two Sundays ago.

As far as secrets to success go, that’s probably not going to rank among the most revealing or mind-blowing. It’s safe to say we all find breathing very important.

According to Tsitsipas, though, he has been thinking a lot about how he inhales and exhales of late. And it’s helping.

“Breathing is something I’ve been working on the last couple of months with my psychologist [Costas Pergantis],” he said. “Especially when I’m performing or playing, breathing helps me control myself and have full control of what I’m doing out there.

“When you breathe well, I feel like your game is capable of reaching the top. If you can’t breathe and you're trying to play, makes it twice more difficult to perform at your best.”

Breath control isn’t a new concept, of course, and Tsitsipas isn’t the first tennis player to discover its power. Novak Djokovic, for one, has credited breathing exercises with helping him improve his conditioning and consistency over the last 10 years. But Tsitsipas’ sudden rise comes at a time when the health benefits of proper breathing are clearer than ever.

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Unfortunately, it’s also clearer than ever that most of us aren’t enjoying those benefits, because we’re not breathing the right way. Last year, in his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, author James Nestor detailed the ways in which our breathing methods have deteriorated over the centuries, and the consequences that have flowed from that, including increased stress, loss of sleep, smaller lung capacity, and physical decay.

“So many people don’t breathe correctly,” says Jeff Greenwald, a Northern California sports psychologist and author of The Best Tennis of Your Life: 50 Mental Strategies for Fearless Performance.

The first step is simple, or at least it sounds simple: Keep your mouth shut.

“Mouth breathing causes a lot of problems,” Greenwald says. “Breathing in through your nose is the optimal way to inhale. The nose is able to filter out toxins, and it helps balance the oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood, which increases the flow of oxygen to your muscles and lowers your heart rate and blood pressure.”

Despite this, few of us are in the habit of consciously breathing through our noses, and it becomes even harder to do when we’re competing.

“When they’re under stress, people breathe through their mouths,” Greenwald says. “Think of how we gasp when we fear something. That disrupts the O2-Co2 balance in our blood.”

Oxygen is essential to every aspect of our performance. It helps us focus and think, it helps us recover, it helps our stamina, it lowers our stress levels and keeps us calmer. Yet it’s not something we’re taught to think about on court, or consider an important weapon in our arsenal.

“It’s one of the few things we have total control over,” Greenwald says.

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How can we make sure we’re using our breathing to our advantage and maximizing our oxygen intake when we’re playing? To start, we should make ourselves aware of our current breathing patterns.

How many breaths do we take per minute? The fewer the better.

Do we breathe through our nose or mouth? The nose is preferable.

Do we breathe down into our stomach, or just into the chest?

“Stomach and diaphragm is better because it kicks in the parasympathetic nervous system, designed to chill us out,” Greenwald says. “Most people breathe from their chest, which is more of a fight or flight mechanism.”

Through the day, take a few deep breaths, diaphragmatic breaths; this will make it feel more natural when you’re on court. As you prepare for a match, take some time to clear your mind and visualize how you want to play as you take half a dozen full breaths. During the match, as you recover between points, gain control of your breath by inhaling slowly and deeply, through your nose. This will help you gather yourself before your next serve or return. It also has the side benefit of keeping your brain occupied.

“You technically have 25 seconds between points, and your mind can wander all over the place during that time,” Greenwald says. “Keep it focused on the simple act of breathing for a few seconds, and you’ll maintain your concentration. If you’ve just lost a point, it’s a good way to prevent a mental train wreck.”

For Tsitsipas, controlling his breathing has been a way to maximize his game. For the rest of us, it will likely never help us win Monte Carlo, but it might offer something even more worthwhile: Better health, less-stressful days and nights, and maybe even a longer life. Tennis teaches us a lot of things; how to take a breath may be the most important of all.

ATP Madrid Preview: Is another Nadal-Tsitsipas final on the horizon?

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 20:14:00 +0000

Let’s start with who is not in Madrid this year: Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, to name the two most famous absentees, followed by David Goffin, Gael Monfils, Milos Raonic, and Stan Wawrinka. Some are injured, some may not be enticed by the smaller prize-money purse, and some, like Djokovic and Federer, have bigger tournaments ahead.

Yet looking at this 56-player draw, it’s hard to find many weak spots. And we do get one important, half-forgotten figure back: Dominic Thiem. Here’s a look at what lies ahead for the No. 3 seed, and everyone else, at the clay season’s second Masters 1000.

First Quarter

Rafael Nadal is the favorite in every clay-court tournament he enters, but he’s not always, or even often, the top seed. Which seems to suit his fight-for-everything-I-get mentality just fine. But with Djokovic’s withdrawal, Rafa must bite the bullet and take over the top spot. It’s left him with a potentially interesting draw. He’ll start against Adrian Mannarino or the young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz; the first seed he could play is his training partner Jannik Sinner in the round of 16; and his quarterfinal opponent might be No. 5 seed Alexander Zverev.

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Nadal seemed to turn a corner in his clay preparation last week, but he’s never a lock in Madrid the way he is in other places at this time of year. Since the tournament moved to clay in 2009, he’s “only” won it four times. The last time he played it, in 2019, he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semifinals. How will Rafa react to Djokovic’s absence? It seems to me like it may free him up to simply play his tennis and let the chips fall where they may. That’s usually a winning proposition for him on this surface.

First-round match to watch: Karen Khachanov vs. Kei Nishikori. The winner plays Zverev.

Semifinalist: Nadal

Second Quarter

Not long ago, Dominic Thiem was the heir to Nadal’s clay-court throne, and, as hard as it may be to believe right now, he’s still the reigning US Open champion. But he’s just 5-4 in 2021, he hasn’t played since Dubai in February, he hasn’t been the same since his five-set win over Nick Kyrgios, and he has been complaining of knee pain.

But Thiem still has time to gather himself before the Grand Slam season begins. Madrid, where he’s a two-time finalist, would seem to be as good as place as any for him to reboot his season. His early rounds look promising. He’ll open against a qualifier, and the highest seed in his half is Grigor Dimitrov. The quarterfinals could be more interesting: There Thiem could face a younger guy who has been going in a much better direction, Andrey Rublev. Would a win by the Russian over the Austrian mean that Rublev had passed Thiem in the ATP’s heir-apparent sweepstakes?

Semifinalist: Rublev

Third Quarter

How serious is the Tsitsipas surge? Is he a Roland Garros contender now, or is he destined to run out of steam on the road to Paris, the way other temporary contenders to Nadal’s clay throne have in the past? Either way, he has played some of the best tennis of his career over the last three weeks, and he’s coming to a place where, in 2019, he beat Rafa in the semis before losing to Djokovic in the final.

Tsitsipas’s path back to the semis looks about as smooth as he could ask for. He’ll start against either Nikoloz Basilashvili or Benoit Paire; the first seed he could face is Felix Auger-Aliassime, who he beat in straight sets last week in Barcelona; and if form holds his quarterfinal opponent will be Diego Schwartzman.

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First-round matches to watch:

Auger-Aliassime vs. Casper Ruud

Denis Shapovalov vs. Dusan Lajovic

Marton Fucsovics vs. Alexander Bublik

Semifinalist: Tsitsipas

Fourth Quarter

Daniil Medvedev will make his first appearance since contracting the coronavirus in Monte Carlo three weeks ago. Instead of being seeded ahead of Nadal, as he was at that event, he’s back where even he would admit he belongs—No. 2 to Rafa’s No. 1. The Russian will try once again to make some inroads on clay. You might think the quicker stuff in Madrid would help him, but the last time Medvedev played here, he went out in the first round to Guido Pella. This time he could face early tests from Alexander Fokina Davidovich and Cristian Garin, and a tough quarterfinal against, potentially, Matteo Berrettini or Pablo Carreño Busta. Last week the Italian won the title in Belgrade, and the Spaniard reached the semis in Barcelona.

Semifinalist: Berrettini

Semifinals: Nadal d. Rublev; Tsitsipas d. Berrettini

Final: Nadal d. Tsitsipas

WTA Madrid Preview: How will this year's jam-packed draw play out?

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 20:23:00 +0000

The depth of the WTA Tour has been a regular topic of discussion in recent years. But only at the four Grand Slam events and the tour’s four mandatory tournaments—now called WTA 1000s—do we get to see it laid out before us, bracket by bracket. The Mutua Madrid Open is one of those mandatory tournaments, and scanning its 64-player, no-bye draw gives us a sense of the tour’s quality and variety right now. Even better, it gives us a chance to what happens when virtually all of the top women—Serena Williams is the highest-profile absence—go head to head. Here’s a look at how that might play out at the Caja Magica over the next two weeks.

First Quarter

No. 1 players on both tours often parachute in for the big ones, but that’s not how Ashleigh Barty has approached this pandemic season. Over the last month, she has played Miami, Charleston, and Stuttgart, and come away a winner in two of them. Now we’ll see whether her labor-intensive style pays off at a 1000. To start, she’ll face a familiar and potentially difficult opponent in Shelby Rogers. The Australian and the American have already played three times in 2021; in their last meeting, Barty won 6-4 in the third set.

In a field like this, of course, your road isn’t going to get easier as it goes. Barty could play 14th seed and Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek in the third round, and, potentially, either three-time Madrid winner Petra Kvitova or defending champion Kiki Bertens—yes, Bertens won this event the last time it was played, in 2019—in the quarters.

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Returning: Elena Vesnina, who will start against Veronika Kudermetova

First-round matches to watch:

Barty vs. Rogers

Swiatek vs. Alison Riske

Kvitova vs. Marie Bouzkova (Bouzkova won their only previous meeting)

Angelique Kerber vs. Marketa Vondrousova

Semifinalist: Kvitova

Second Quarter

Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic are the top two seeds in this section, but the most intriguing performer to follow may be Garbiñe Muguruza. She’s Spain’s best hope, and she’s having a good season, but she has never been to the final in Madrid. She’ll also be playing for the first time since she was forced to retire with an injury in Charleston. Muguruza will restart her 2021 against a fellow Grand Slam champ in Sloane Stephens, and could play Ons Jabeur after that.

Returning: Yaroslava Shvedova. She’ll begin against Jabeur

First-round match to watch: Svitolina vs. Jil Teichmann

Semifinalist: Muguruza

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Third Quarter

Two-time Madrid winner Simona Halep is the top seed here, followed by the woman who just beat her in Stuttgart, Aryna Sabalenka. In between them are Victoria Azarenka and Elise Mertens. While Halep loves the Caja Magica courts—she’s also a two-time runner-up in Madrid—former doubles partners Sabalenka and Mertens may be the players to watch. Each made a final last week, and each seems due for a deep run at a 1000.

First-round matches to watch:

Jessica Pegula vs. Istanbul champ Sorana Cirstea

Azarenka vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova

Halep vs. Sara Torribes Tormo

Semifinalist: Sabalenka

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Fourth Quarter

We’ve saved the headline for last: Naomi Osaka is back, for the first time since Miami. That means the start of a slew of stories musing on whether she can make a smoother and more successful transition to clay than she has in the past. Osaka has won four majors on hard courts, but hasn’t been past the third round at Roland Garros. She wants to change that in 2021, and Madrid, with its quicker clay and thinner air, isn’t a bad place for this power player to start. Osaka will open against a qualifier, and then play either Wang Qiang or Karolina Muchova.

As far as first-round matches to watch, this quarter is chock full of them:

Karolina Pliskova vs. Coco Gauff

Madison Keys vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Jelena Ostapenko vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova

Jen Brady vs. Venus Williams

Maria Sakkari vs. Amanda Anisimova

Semifinalist: Sakkari

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Semifinals: Kvitova d. Muguruza; Sabalenka d. Sakkari

Final: Kvitova d. Sabalenka

Week in Preview: Zverev and Shapovalov headline Munich, Estoril

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 19:39:00 +0000

After a frenetic four-tournament week, the tours take something of a breather for the next few days. The women are off entirely until Madrid, which starts next weekend, while the men have two 250s on the docket, in Munich and Estoril. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening, of course. Both of these draws have solid fields and headliners who could use a win or two. Here’s a look at how they might play out, and how they may affect the bigger clay events ahead.

BMW Open (ATP)

Munich

$600,000; ATP 250

Red clay

Draw is here

After a week off, Alexander Zverev returns to his home country as the top seed in a compact 28-player field. He’ll want to start getting a few clay-court matches and wins under his belt. Since beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Acapulco final five weeks ago, the German has mostly watched from the sidelines—he went out early in Miami and Monte Carlo—as his Greek peer broke through to a new level with his first Masters 1000 title. Zverev may start against countryman Maximilian Marterer; the three seeds in his half are Filip Krajinovic, Dusan Lajovic, and Jan-Lennard Struff.

The bottom half is headlined by two players who have made waves, in a positive way, this spring, Casper Ruud and Aslan Karatsev. Ruud, the No. 2 seed, reached the semis in Monte Carlo, while Karatsev knocked off Novak Djokovic in Belgrade for the biggest win of his meteoric 2021 rise.

Millennium Estoril Open (ATP)

Estoril, Portugal

$600,000; ATP 250

Red clay

Draw is here

Like his fellow top seed Zverev in Munich, Denis Shapovalov could use a few clay-court victories in Estoril. In his only tournament on the surface so far, he suffered a decisive defeat to his friend and countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime. This week Shapo will start against either Marcos Giron or Corentin Moutet. The highest seed in his half is No. 3 Ugo Humbert.

Speaking of players who will want to start generating some momentum before we get to Madrid, Rome, and Paris, Cristian Garin of Chile is the top seed in the bottom half here. The Chilean is an old-fashioned clay-court specialist who makes his living at this time of year, but who hasn’t done a whole lot so far. In Monte Carlo, he lost to Tsitsipas in the round of 16, and in Barcelona he made an opening-round exit to Kei Nishikori. This week Garin will start against either Juan Ignacio Londero or Richard Gasquet.

Also in the bottom half: Nishikori, France Tiafoe, and Barcelona quarterfinalist Cam Norrie.

Weekend Winners: Nadal makes history, Barty's versatility

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 19:18:00 +0000

Some tennis matches are memorable because they’re played at the highest pitch of quality over a sustained period of time. Others, like Rafael Nadal’s 6-4, 6-7 (6), 7-5 win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Barcelona final on Sunday, are memorable for the way their flaws, and the two players’ Herculean efforts to overcome them, serve to heighten the drama and highlight the struggle. Nadal-Tsitsipas was one of those imperfect storms, and it’s going to be a tough match to top during this clay season.

Over the course of three hours and 38 minutes—this was the longest best-of-three ATP contest of 2021—the tournament’s top two seeds made their share of mistakes, both physical and mental.

Nadal was broken early in each of the first two sets. He double faulted at 6-6 in the second-set tiebreaker. He failed to make passing shots he normally makes, let two match points go by in the second set, and, when he was serving for the title at 6-5 in the third, tightened up and nearly let a 30-0 lead slip. At times, it seemed as if the Rafa of today was going up against his 2015-2016 self, the one who would play brilliantly until he had to close out a match, and then fail to find the shot he needed.

At the same time, Tsitsipas was enduring his own struggles. He gave back both of those early service breaks, and was just two of 13 on break points. While he attacked relentlessly, and successfully, whenever he fell behind, he didn’t keep it up when he was ahead in a game or a set. And when he reached his own match point, at 5-4 in the third, Tsitsipas let Rafa back into a rally that he seemed to have well in hand. During that point, one of Nadal’s backhands grazed the net cord as it went over, but it was a Tsitsipas backhand that finally landed in the net.

These hesitations and signs of nerves were understandable from each player.

Nadal was trying to win a mind-boggling 12th title in Barcelona, and his first since 2018. He’s still the king of clay, but outside of Roland Garros he hasn’t been as dominant on the surface as he once was; this was only his second win in a run-up event to the French Open since the start of 2019. Rafa, who will turn 35 in June, was also trying to beat a player 12 years his junior, one who was coming off his biggest title in Monte Carlo, and who had worn him down over the course of five set at the Australian Open in February. This time, though, Nadal showed no signs of fatigue, and he worked as diligently and passionately to find a way to win as he had when he was a teenager.

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If anything, Tsitsipas was trying to do something even more daunting: Become the first man to beat Nadal in a Barcelona final. In his 11 previous title matches here, Rafa had lost just two sets. For much of Sunday’s final, it looked as if Tsitsipas would succumb in the same way that so many of Rafa’s opponents have in the past here, especially those with one-handed backhands. Tsitsipas came out rifling winners, including a couple from his backhand side. Gradually, as expected, Nadal began to wear Tsitsipas down with his heavy-topspin forehand. But instead of quietly accepting his fate, Tsitsipas escaped the Rafa trap by charging the net, and nearly charged all the way to a win.

“I think I never played a final like this in this tournament, so it means a lot to me against a player like him,” Nadal said. “It’s an important victory for me. I think I have been increasing my level during the whole week and this victory confirms it. That’s important for today.”

Nadal hasn’t reached his clay-season peak yet. He knows he has another month to get there, and he knows better than anyone how to save an extra gear for Paris. But this win felt special because, as he said, he hasn’t played any epic finals like this one at his home tournament. It also felt special because these types of wins won’t happen forever for him, even on clay. And it felt special because of how Nadal and Tsitsipas pushed each other. For three and a half hours, they made each other get tight, they forced each other to make mistakes, and they inspired each other to fix their flaws and do whatever it took to win. Nadal crossed the finish line first, by a millimeter.

Ash Barty seems to be enjoying her round-the-world 2021 adventure, doesn’t she? After staying at home in Australia during the pandemic last year, the world No. 1 has committed to the full tour experience this season. She and her coach, Craig Tyzzer, are living on the road and entering every tournament they can. The effort is paying off. This week, in her first trip to Stuttgart, Barty came away with just the second clay-court title of her career.

That may sound simple—play tournament, win tournament—but Barty earned this one. In her last three matches, against three Top 10 players, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, and Aryna Sabalenka, Barty lost the first set each time. Against Pliskova, she was down 3-5 in the third set. Against Svitolina, she had to survive a second-set tiebreaker. And against Sabalenka, she had to withstand an early storm of winners from her more powerful opponent. But Barty stayed patient, trusted her varied and versatile game, and proved to be the steadier, more even-keel presence on court each time.

“This week’s been phenomenal for me,” Barty said after her 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Sabalenka on Sunday. “I’ve certainly felt like I’m taking my tennis to kind of a new level, in a sense of being able to be calm and play with freedom and play without consequence in a way, just going out there and try to bring my best every single point.”

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Barty showed how valuable a Plan B can be. In the first set of the final, she was on her heels and at Sabalenka’s mercy. But in the second set, Barty immediately changed the tone of the match by following her returns to the net and taking Sabalenka’s time away. From there, Sabalenka lost her rhythm completely, and was at a loss for how to find it again. So far this year, Sabalenka had shown some signs of improved consistency, but Barty was able to derail her with the title on the line.

“Tennis is a strange sport at times,” Barty said. “Even though you can be a set down, I didn’t feel I was very far off. I had a couple of break points and opportunities myself, you take one or two of those and it’s a completely different ball game.”

With her all-court style and love of doubles—she and Jen Brady won the title in Stuttgart—Barty has always been a throwback player. Now she’s a throwback to the days when the game’s biggest stars were in action virtually every week. It’s nice to see that she’s enjoying her adventure, and that it’s helping her rather than wearing her down. Next week, when Barty faces a full field, including No. 2 Naomi Osaka in Madrid, we’ll find out how much she’s learned.

Joy of Six: Semifinal previews for Barcelona, Stuttgart and Belgrade

Fri, 23 Apr 2021 23:56:00 +0000

Saturday's six semifinals on the ATP and WTA offer plenty star power, and even more intrigue.

ATP Barcelona

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jannik Sinner

Last weekend, after beating Andrey Rublev in the Monte Carlo final, Tsitsipas said that the future of men’s tennis wouldn’t be about any “singular” rivalry. It would contain multiple ongoing duels, involving upwards of 10 top players. As if to prove his point, on Saturday Tsitsipas will play his third straight match against a fellow Next Gen hopeful: On Thursday, he beat 22-year-old Alex de Minaur; on Friday, he beat 20-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime, and now he’ll take on 19-year-old Jannik Sinner—who is coming off his own quarterfinal win over Rublev.

Tsitsipas and Sinner have already faced off twice on red clay, both times in Rome; the Greek won the first, the Italian took the second. Sinner, a finalist in Miami last month, is undoubtedly on the rise, but Tsitsipas’s confidence seems to be peaking at the moment. In his three straight-set wins in Barcelona, he has shown no signs of being weary or satisfied after winning his first Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo. In this match-up, Tsitsipas has a little more variety—enough for a Plan B if Plan A doesn’t work—than Sinner does. Winner: Tsitsipas

Pre-match pressers:

Rafael Nadal vs. Pablo Carreño Busta

Nadal likes to play on clay, and he likes to play his fellow Spaniards. That combinations hasn’t served Carreño Busta well over the years. He’s 0-7 against Nadal, and hasn’t won a set in any of their matches on dirt. Plus, he’ll be coming off a late-night, three-set, war-of-attrition win over Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Does Carreño Busta stand any chance? He did push Rafa to a third set on indoor hard courts at the Paris Masters last fall, and Nadal is still in the process of his finding his clay form this spring, having won two matches in three sets this week. Unfortunately for PCB, beating him for the eighth straight time will probably be one more step in that process. Winner: Nadal

WTA Stuttgart

Ash Barty vs. Elina Svitolina

Normally, when a player comes back from 3-5 down in the third set to win a match, the way Barty did against Karolina Pliskova in the quarterfinals, we’d say she’s playing with house money, and that she should be a little more relaxed in her next match. Except that in this case, Barty’s opponent, Svitolina, engineered an even bigger comeback in her own quarterfinal. Down a set and 5-2 to Petra Kvitova, Svitolina dug in and fought back to win in three. Which means it’s safe to say that both Barty and Svitolina should feel happy to be in the semis, and confident that they can bounce back from just about any deficit.

Who should feel the more confident of the two? You might think that their head-to-head would favor Svitolina, who leads it 5-2. But Barty has won their two most recent meetings, including one in the semifinals in Miami just a few weeks ago. You might think the surface, clay, would also favor Svitolina, who has won multiple events on it over the years. But Barty has won the biggest clay event, Roland Garros. So I’ll go with their rankings and take the world No. 1, in what should be a good one. Winner: Barty

Hot Shot: Elina Svitolina's backhand

Simona Halep vs. Aryna Sabalenka

It’s early in the clay swing, but this seems like a match that could have repercussions for the rest of it. Halep is 3-1 against Sabalenka, and the much more accomplished dirt-baller. That and the fact that Sabalenka comes into this match having survived a long, late, quarterfinal against Anett Kontaveit makes Halep the clear favorite. But Sabalenka is also someone who has begun to make herself a regular threat against the top players, and, for the first time, at the majors. A win over the world No. 3, and 2018 Roland Garros champion, would be a big statement as the WTA heads to Madrid, Rome, and Paris. If she’s not too tired, Sabalenka could make it. Winner: Sabalenka

ATP Belgrade

Matteo Berrettini vs. Taro Daniel

Ranking-wise, this looks like a mismatch: Berrettini is 10th, Daniel is 126th. But Daniel won the only previous meeting between the two, on clay, in 2018. Daniel should also have built up a fair bit of momentum in Belgrade by now; a lucky loser, he’s 4-1 so far this week. Still, despite injuring himself earlier this year in Australia, Berrettini, who is a multi-surface threat, remains the favorite. Winner: Berrettini

Belgrade quarterfinal recap:

Novak Djokovic vs. Aslan Karatsev

When these two met for the first time at the Australian Open in February, Karatsev was ranked No. 114. Two short months later, the Russian is No. 28, has reached his third semifinal of 2021, and has made it feel as if he’s been in the ATP’s upper echelon for years. Now for the next challenge: Can Karatsev improve on his never-in-doubt, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 loss to Djokovic in Melbourne?

He should feel more comfortable going out on court against the world No. 1 by now, and he shouldn’t feel as overwhelmed by the stage in Belgrade. The problem is, Djokovic may be just as motivated to win his newly-resuscitated home tournament as he was to win his ninth Aussie Open. Djokovic has won his first two matches in Belgrade 6-1, 6-3; can he make it three in a row? Winner: Djokovic