2019 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships...ATP 500...Dubai, U. A. E.

[don_budge]

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/dubai/495/draws?matchtype=singles

Watching Roger Federer in his first round against Philip Kohlschreiber. He is already up a break at 3-1. Funny isn't it? It just doesn't seem like a tournament worth watching unless he is playing. That's not a good thing. Stefan Tsitsipas in the house too. Stefan cannot carry a tournament yet on his own but let's hope for the future of the game.

Roger has announced that he will be playing some sort of clay tour this year. This is good for the game. When he is away from the tour for too long it starts to look like what it will be like without him.

[don_budge]

Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas through to the next round. Federer to play Fernando Verdasco and is 6-0 head to head against the Spaniard. Tsitsipas has played his 6' 5" inch opponent Egor Gerasimov once before in a Challenger event where he lost in three sets.

Gael "The Amazing Mr. Monfils" Monfils took down Marin Cilic with a bagel in the third set which leads me to question if he was injured. If so...he rebukes the modern day tennis player that walks off the court due to niggles or other hurt and pain. It used to be that players gutted it out and finished if at all possible. Soon the players will be wearing helmets. Interesting match with Borna "Born Again" Coric and Tomas Berdych coming up. Tomas keeps it interesting with his sole fan club forum participant klacr in the house.

The match to watch continues to be Roger Federer versus Anybody. I watched Tsitsipas in his first round and he was not nearly as interesting to watch as a pretty lacklustre Federer. Stefanos versus Nishikori might be interesting in the sense to get a gage on where the development of Tsitsipas is at this point in time and space but Kei is really one of the most boring of all the highly ranked ATP players.

[don_budge]

Roger Federer looking pretty sharp against Fernando Verdasco as he routinely serves out the first set in 27 minutes...6-3. Stefanos Tsitsipas took down his opponent Egor Gerasimov in a no muss and no fuss straight set victory. Nishikori actually lost his second round against a player, Herbert Hurkacz that Tsitsipas defeated last week en route to his tournament victory in the Netherlands. Nothing could please me more than a Roger Federer versus Stefanos Tsitsipas final. But there is tennis to be played.

[don_budge]

Roger sort of struggling to find his A game. But in the meantime his B and C are getting the job done. This is the great thing about his style of play. If the first string is not getting the job done he calls in the reserves. Really nice performance at his age. This young fellow put a bunch of pressure on his in the first set but Roger can take a hit and roll with it.

Stefanos Tsitsipas got it done on his end also. One more win from the two of these classics and we have a rematch of the Australian Open. This would be the best of all possible outcomes for the tournament. Tsitsipas has his hands full with Gael "The Amazing Mr. Monfils" Monfils and Federer certainly has had his problems with Borna "Born Again" Coric if that is in fact his opponent in the semis. It's been a nice tournament watching Roger trying to find his form and Tsitsipas developing with each match.

[stroke]

good tournament no doubt, but to me the match of the week by far has been fast twitch Nick taking down Nadal. That was impressive. It will be very interesting to see if he chooses to really compete 2 days in a row vs Stan. Very interesting. He is certainly the better player to me, and that is saying something as Stan is top shelf.

[don_budge]

Roger Federer versus Not Just Anybody...Stefanos Tsitsipas

Stefanos Tsitsipas struggled all the way to the bitter end to defeat "The Amazing Mr. Monfils" in a tremendous effort if not a tremendous match. Not quite as scintillating as Nick Kyrgios but it will do. It will have to. Roger Federer did his part with a very sharp performance against Borna Coric. I never understood how Borna defeated Roger those last two meetings. But he laid him to waste today...6-2, 6-2. No fuss...definitely no muss. Tomorrow will be a real treat. Two of the nicest two one-handed backhands in the game today.

One note about the up and coming Stefanos Tsitsipas. He has showed tremendous resolve in the past two tournaments. He joins the rankings in the top ten after his victory over Gael Monfils. But I think more importantly is how he appears to feel about his status. He seems to be much more comfortable than Alexander Zverev or Dominic Thiem to mention just a couple. He has been beating the players that he should beat and he has been doing a good job against players who are his equal. Monfils case in point. This match with Federer is a huge match for Tsitsipas in his young career. If he were to lose he could blame the long draining match against Monfils. But he can put that one behind him and with his youth come out and be ready to take it to Federer again. Tsitsipas has shown one of the traits that you need to be a great champion and that is to not get down when you are behind. I noticed this early on last year that when he would lose the first set or get behind early he wasn't out of it. He hangs in there and lets the game come to him. Big day for him tomorrow...for Roger as well.

[stroke]

Stefanos is very watchable but his game seems to remind me more and more of an improved Grigor than it does of Roger. Stefanos volleying and half volley game was not good vs Monfils. He is not afraid to move forward certainly but he is just as certainly no Roger. I don't see Stefanos winning vs Roger tomorrow, not in this final.

[don_budge]

Stefanos is very watchable but his game seems to remind me more and more of an improved Grigor than it does of Roger. Stefanos volleying and half volley game was not good vs Monfils. He is not afraid to move forward certainly but he is just as certainly no Roger. I don't see Stefanos winning vs Roger tomorrow, not indoors in this final.

Now there is a new category. First there was Roger...then we had a clone. But this kid is an altogether different story. He is his own man at twenty years old. He is still in the developmental stages but that match against Gael Monfils really showed me something that I have suspected all along. He can fight and he doesn't quit. His volleying and midcourt game is definitely developmental but it appears he is making the attempt to learn. It is the serve that I see the most room for improvement in. He wins his serve most of the time...but he must learn to dominate that part of the game. Ala...Federer.

[don_budge]

Roger Federer versus Not Just Anybody...Stefanos Tsitsipas

Now there is a new category. First there was Roger...then we had a clone. But this kid is an altogether different story. He is his own man at twenty years old. He is still in the developmental stages but that match against Gael Monfils really showed me something that I have suspected all along. He can fight and he doesn't quit. His volleying and midcourt game is definitely developmental but it appears he is making the attempt to learn. It is the serve that I see the most room for improvement in. He wins his serve most of the time...but he must learn to dominate that part of the game. Ala...Federer.

One break of serve in each set...that was all the difference. A scintillating performance by Roger Federer after a rather long competitive layoff to play a match tough Stefanos Tsitsipas and defeat him. Very impressive for his 100th tournament victory and Stefanos should be honoured to be his 100th victim. I'm sure in hindsight he will be...but for now I am pretty certain he would much rather have been the spoiler. This kid doesn't like to lose. He was probably a bit tired from his schedule, not to mention his match with Gael Monfils yesterday in the semifinals. He was down 40-0 at 5-4 with Federer serving for the first set...he got it back to deuce and had a number of break points but Roger held his resolve.

So we really had a treat here. We got to see the recent past and the present and hopefully we see some thing good in the future from Tsitsipas. Once again I emphasise that the serve of Stefanos Tsitsipas could use a little grease in the motion. That little bit of friction in his backswing may or may not be the reason he failed to hold at crucial points in the match. The don_budge school of tennis theory dictates that the motion must be perfect. When it is perfect it gets that much better under pressure...ala Roger Federer.

Federer may have been just a little rusty himself. Hard to tell...but it was a little uncharacteristic that he had 40-0 in the first set and struggled to hold. Just a bit of rust can be the cause of just a little friction. Inertia...pure inertia. Worth its weight in gold.

[stroke]

Stefano's serve friction, or motion, reminds me a lot of Grigor. There are not many players with service motions like Sampras, Roddick, Fed, Raonic, and Kyrgios that are pretty much bullet proof. I guess one needs to include Isner and Karlovic in that bullet proof category, but at the 6'10" plus category, it is not apples and apples.

[bottle]

Stefano's serve friction, or motion, reminds me a lot of Grigor. There are not many players with service motions like Sampras, Roddick, Fed, Raonic, and Kyrgios that are pretty much bullet proof. I guess one needs to include Isner and Karlovic in that bullet proof category, but at the 6'10" plus category, it is not apples and apples.

Arf arf-- don_budge's poodle speaks.

[gzhpcu]

Come on guys, grow up. Why all this acid....

[bottle]

Come on guys, grow up. Why all this acid....

don-budge's chihuahua?

[stotty]

So it's 100 titles for Roger over 21 years...amazing. Me, I prefer Borg's record, though, 64 titles in under half that time.

[gzhpcu]

don-budge's chihuahua?

What is your problem?