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2021 Australian Open...Melbourne, Australia...Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Rafael Nadal quarterfinal matchInteresting match...Stefanos Tsitsipas versus Rafael Nadal. I left after two sets. It appeared to be a meaningless repeat of something we have seen so many times. A Nadal beatdown where the opponent does not possess a remedial tennis IQ to change the tempo of the game. Everyone plays Nadal at his own game and they get their asses handed to them every single time. What is the definition of insanity...repeating the same thing and expecting a different result. Crazy, isn't it?
After walking the dogs and various other things. Cleaning the stable. I came back to the computer to check on the final result. What I found was they were still going at it. I don't think I missed anything. Not a thing. It looked to be a war of attrition. By the time I came back to the game Nadal was on thin ice. Struggling physically. He couldn't mount a challenge on the Tsitsipas service game and he poured all of his effort into his own serve...trying to get to the tiebreak where he could give it one last stab. Stefanos for his part struggled at the end getting the horse in the barn. He served for the match and he made a mess of it. He went down love-30 but managed to get it even. Nadal had a couple of swings at break points but couldn't convert. His legs were gone. His strongest asset. His desire could no longer compensate for spent legs. This happens when you reach thirty something. Stefanos won on his youth. Not on his IQ.
A couple of things about Stefanos. I think the little flaw in his service motion hindered his chance of serving out the match cleanly. The nerves were going full throttle and he just couldn't get the right levers to produce a good first serve. Physically he is a tremendous specimen. Even with Nadal now going down the slippery slope of decline, he is a dangerous opponent for all of the obvious reasons. Stefanos has a bit of a low tennis IQ judging by the standard of Mats Wilander's statement the other day about Andrei Rublev. It is the number of shot you possess in your repertoire. The Tsitsipas backhand is a truly glorious looking shot but as it stands it has more potential to be developed. Basically he has just two shots off that wing...hard and harder. This kind of ball is what a player of Nadal's or Djokovic's stature like. Medvedev too. It would be very difficult to overpower the lefty forehand or the two-handed backhand of those calibers. Our discussion about the relative merits of the slice would not be lost on this player. This is glaringly lacking in the Tsitsipas repertoire. You almost get a sense of ego involved sometimes. As if playing tactically or intelligently would be a condescending surrender. Patience is a virtue...in life and in tennis.
I believe that he could have taken Nadal's legs out earlier in the match and he was playing with fire trying to win a match at this point in the tournament with his all out, win or nothing approach. Now the energy expended in the quarter might just take its toll in the semi's. If he would somehow get by Medvedev to play Djokovic or the unknown Russian in the final then he might just come out somewhat flat. Not for sure...it is only speculation from an empirical statistical analysis. After all...this is what don_budge always does. Performance analyst. Metaphysically speaking.
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