2019 Sofia Open...ATP 250...Sofia, Bulgaria

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas versus Anybody...2019 Sofia Open

Stefanos has momentarily inherited the mantel. Only in the sense that he is the most "watchable" professional tennis player other than Roger Federer. This does not however mean that he has inherited "The Living Proof" title. That will take a career of Grand Slam titles to transfer ownership of that title.

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/cu...chtype=singles

First up for young Tsitsipas will be Jan-Lennard Struff. We'll go from there. No expectations of Stefanos here but it is great that he gets back up on that horse that is the ATP tour and ride. No sense on resting on his laurels of a maiden Grand Slam semi-final appearance. If that is to become a routine he needs to start making a serious impression everytime he hits the court now. Match play and lots of it.

Gael "The Amazing Mr." Monfils is possibly a couple of wins away from Tsitsipas should he win. It would be very interesting to see him try to tame that wild one. But as I said...no expectations. Just one match at a time.

[stroke]

that was a great match vs Struff. Both played great. Struff hits a very big ball and is another 6'5" 200 pounder out there that is clearly an athlete. Stefanos by a very small margin took the match. He seems to have the perfect build for modern tennis, tall but not too tall at 6'4" and a Borg Kuertan type build, which seems ideal for movement. And as we all know, his game is so easy on the eye. Zverev, who is very slightly taller and has a similar body weight structure to Stefanos, clearly does not move as smoothly and easily as Stefanos. Stefanos is going to the the rock star of tennis.

[don_budge]

that was a great match vs Struff. Both played great. Struff hits a very big ball and is another 6'5" 200 pounder out there that is clearly an athlete. Stefanos by a very small margin took the match. He seems to have the perfect build for modern tennis, tall but not too tall at 6'4" and a Borg Kuertan type build, which seems ideal for movement. And as we all know, his game is so easy on the eye. Zverev, who is very slightly taller and has a similar body weight structure to Stefanos, clearly does not move as smoothly and easily as Stefanos. Stefanos is going to the the rock star of tennis.

He will rock...no question. But like young and inexperienced Alexander Zverev he is going to have to earn it. This is a tough, tough sport. There are a lot of similarities to the martial arts. You don't get the body contact but the battle is just as intense. On any given night you are facing an opponent who is going to fight you to the very end. Tonight Stefanos Tsitsipas ran into the amazing Mr. Monfils whom he had defeated once in the past.

Gael Monfils is a most interesting opponent. The Amazing Mr. Monfils. I almost said strange. But he is interesting/strange in the sense that you won't see another like him. It isn't that his strokes are so unorthodox or anything. He is different. A tough guy to get into a rhythm against. Not in the same sense that Rafael Nadal is as Stefanos was trying to understand what happened to him at the Australian Open. Gael is quite a different player. He has a style all of his own. I have the gut feeling that is sort of a surreal feeling being on the other side of the court as him.

Stefanos has the target on his back now. He's the "New Kid in Town"...that is for certain. But that is all really. If he had won the Australian Open then at this point we could put some serious expectations on him. But he was dispatched so he goes right back to where he started realistically. Neophyte. With a rather noticeable hitch in his service motion. Without that hitch he is quite another different animal.

The four remaining players will make for interesting, if not watchable, matches. Daniil Medvedev is sort of coming into his own a bit more under the radar than Stefanos. He showed some sign of even giving Novak Djokovic some food for thought at the AO. Matteo Berrettini was a player that Tsitsipas beat in the first round of the open. In his post Nadal loss interview he made a point to mention Berrettini as a great player. He beat the number one see in Sofia and followed it up with a convincing win against Fernando Verdasco.

Well...it is up for grabs now. Medvedev versus Monfils, Fuscovics versus Berrettini.

[don_budge]

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/cu...chtype=singles

Well, well...here comes Daniil Medvedev. This is a fellow who has come in a bit under the radar. Let Alexander Zverev take the brunt of the hype. It put a huge bullseye square between his shoulder blades and he has been unable to perform up to his capabilities because of a nervous condition called...premature expectations. Stefanos Tsitsipas too is going to find the onus of this weight as he tries to sort through the balance in life where we are caught between the longing for love and the struggle for the legal tender. Do you like that line? It reminds me of a song that I used to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQlwwMQHC18

It's a pile on these days. When you are young and you get a taste of it. Success that is. Then come all of the other distractions. The endorsements. The accolades. The expectations. If you aren't prepared...if you aren't solid in your foundation you had better get ready for the feeling that leaves you standing there like a deer in the headlights. It can happen at any time and what happens when you start to doubt yourself. It's gone. All of those expectations and the fake people that went along with them. It can be a cataclysmic crash. I wholeheartedly advise avoiding such a calamity.

Stefanos came into this tournament off of a run at the Australian Open. Who knows he still may be tired from the experience? But more importantly what is his psychological state. Before the AO he was hungry and he had been fighting the good fight all year. Knowing that all of the opponents were sensing his arrival. The New Kid in Town. So what happened in Sofia is that he comes across a former top ten in Gael Monfils and he lost. Overpowered. Out experienced. Sent crashing out of the tournament. It happens. The difference between winning and losing is a fine line amongst the players that are ranked between ten and fifty. On to the next tournament. Monfils went out in the next round...straight sets to Medvedev.

Daniil Medvedev has taken a slightly different route. He is a bit older and perhaps has the necessary experience to handle the situation. He finds himself in the finals playing Marton Fucsovics...a Hungarian. Marton has been hanging tough on the tour ranked in the neighbourhood of the mid thirties. He fought off a determined semifinal opponent in Matteo Barrettini. This is going to be a donnybrook. Medvedev doesn't feel the kind of pressure that other young upstarts feel at this stage. He has come up the hard way...slugging it out over the course of years. He is a hardened vet who has arrived just where he wants to be. It's Sunday and it's the finals. This is what tennis players live and play for. Whether he wins or loses in the end is immaterial. But he is in the moment and this is all important for both players. A big opportunity for both players but perhaps just a bit bigger for the Russian. This should be interesting.