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Glad to hear that. Shame Janik doesn't appear to have time to keep up his usual stream of expert commentary on here this year, though I can imagine it must have been extremely time-consuming for him.
Edmund made short work of his Marrakesh QF opponent. But he faces a SF opponent (Gasquet) who on paper at least is considerably stronger than anyone left in the other half of the draw. If (big if) he beats Gasquet in the SF, he must be favourite in the final. Winning which would just squeeze him into Monday morning's new top 20.
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He beat Gasquet pretty comfortably too. First ATP final, and he couldn't have wished for much better luck in his opponent - Andujar is ranked 355 in the world (though he has been top 50 at his peak). Obviously Andujar must be playing well to reach the final, but there could have been much more daunting opposition.
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...... and the second by the same score. Evidently not such a convenient opponent. His low ranking is presumably due to recent injury problems: he has consistently been in the 30-65 range for a number of years prior to recent months. This title lifts him 201 places to 154th tomorrow morning. As for Edmund, his run to the final does give him (just!) a new career high of 23rd in tomorrow's rankings.
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Back in 2008 people were saying it was a golden age of Men's Tennis, but if I remember right were openly wondering what the situation would be like in 2018. When that generation had slipped into retirement.
Well, as it happens, Roger Federer is setting new standards. And Rafa Nadal is seeing him and raising him. Just the 11th Monte Carlo title secured last week, and he goes for the same this in Barcelona, starting with a 4&4 win over Carballes Baena today. Nadal is unbeaten on clay since last year's Italian Open. In fact his QF defeat to Thiem there was the last time he lost a set. It now stands at 38 in-a-row, 20 at last year's French (he advance by retirement in one match), 6 in Davis Cup, 10 in Monte Carlo, 2 in Barcelona. To make it even more remarkable (as if it wasn't remarkable enough already), the set scores in today's match were as close as any of them have been. Not only has Nadal not lost a set in nearly a year, he hasn't been taken to 5-5 in any of them! The average score is 6-2.
Meanwhile the only active player to have beaten Nadal at Roland Garros, Novak Djokovic, was beaten in R2 by Martin Klizan having also lost in R3 last week (at least that was to Thiem). Djokovic hasn't made the QFs of any event this year. Shall we just give Rafa the Coupe de Mousquetaire now?
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Dan Evans returned to competitive action, being given a qualifying Wild Card to the Glasgow Challenger tournament. (I think a qualifying Wild Card was reasonable given that his drug use wasn't performance enhancing, but others may not share this view).
He beat Ed Corrie in straight sets, which is a decent result and suggests he might be able to get back to somewhere near the top 100.
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(I think a qualifying Wild Card was reasonable given that his drug use wasn't performance enhancing, but others may not share this view).
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Nadal beats Goffin 4&0 in the Barcelona Semis to stroll on up to 42 straight sets won. But the big story was not about him dicing up and spitting out another of the world's very best clay-courters. No the headline news came in the other Semi where Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Pablo Carreno Busta. Tsitsipas is a 19 year-old former Junior No.1, who is rocketing up the rankings. He was #63 last Monday and is clearly going higher again, though the boost will be slightly lessened as Barcelona is an ATP500 rather than a Masters Series.
It's not like Barcelona is a weak event, of the draw opened up to let a lesser player sneak into a big match - Tsitsipas has beaten four straight seeds, all significantly claycourters (#7 Schwartzman, #10 Ramos Vinolas, #3 Thiem and #5 Carreno Busta), to get to this showdown. Like Nadal he hasn't lost a set en route, though he has had to go to 5-5 twice. The slacker. That run is already sensational, but if he could cause an upset in the final (and given his results this week, he is as good a chance as anyone else on the tour of doing so), well that is a whole other level...
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Nadal is chopping Tsitsipas up. 6-2, 2-0. Which is entirely standard of course, but also part of his making the extraordinary mundane. Remember that the next most titles at one event is Federer at Halle with 9. Nadal is about to win for the 11th time at one event for the second consecutive week.
One thing from the commentary was that Tsitsipas was already the highest ranked Greek man in ATP Tour history.
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Tsitsipas is half Russian. His Mum was a professional player herself, or something like that. So probably more coincidence than anything.
Sakkari is a useful player. She had a decent run herself this week, getting to the Semis in Istanbul.
Marcos Baghdatis is Greek Cypriot. That was as close as Greece proper had come previously to a significant player on the World scene.
Daniilidou has plugged away at lower levels in recent years, long after her top 20 time had ended. That must be a hard slog, when you've known better. She was only in her mid 20s when it all went pear-shaped if I remember correctly.Last edited by Janik; 29-04-2018, 18:05.
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Djokovic still to reach a QF in any tournament this year following Kyle Edmund's first ever victory against him today. Nole has the name recognition, but one can't help but feel the next round vs David Goffin is actually the tougher challenge currently.
Meanwhile on the Women's side, Serena will play no warm-up events for Paris so must be a real doubt to compete. Sharapova, on the other hand, is might be showing the first flickerings of form after a year to please her detractors. Fingers cross Kiki Bertens can nip that in the bud. Good reason to think she can, having done for Wozniacki comprehensively in the last round (thereby denying Caroline the chance of returning to no.1) and generally being a much stronger player on clay than other surfaces. Bertens that is, not Wozniacki or Sharapova.
Oh, and Jo Konta lost to Bernarda Pera again. And Andy Murray is probably not going to play in the ITF events the LTA specifically set up with his comeback in mind.
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Originally posted by Janik View PostDjokovic still to reach a QF in any tournament this year following Kyle Edmund's first ever victory against him today. Nole has the name recognition, but one can't help but feel the next round vs David Goffin is actually the tougher challenge currently.
Bertens came up trumps against Sharapova. She really is good on clay. More surprising was Karolina Pliskova ending Halep's reign in Spain (Simona was the Madrid champion in 2016 and 17). Revenge for Halep beating twin sister Krystyna in R3, I guess.
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STOP. THE. CLOCKS. Rafa Nadal has lost a clay court set! Same bloke who took the previous one from him 51 weeks ago, Dominic Thiem. Run ends at 50-in-a-row, which is the most ever on one surface on the ATP.
Thiem shouldn't think about what followed his win over Rafa in Rome last year, i.e. a 6-3 6-4 6-0 mauling in the French semis. Just live in the moment and attempt to complete the win. Which, and it remains a major long shot, would lift Federer back to No.1 despite Roger being on his hols.
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