2021 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters...ATP 1000...Monte Carlo, Monaco

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Oddsmakers have Nadal favorite at -125 to win tournament, next of course Novak at -275. Big drop off to #3 Medvedev, who was at -1500, but now out of tournament testing positive for Covid. Stef #4 at -1700 playing the boss Karatsev today

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Sinner looked great in pretty much routineing the tough clay courter Alex Ramos. Should be very interesting vs Novak. Sinner was Karatsev(ing) that forehand. Quite the weapon there. And Sinner for his age is about the least drama queen ever. If Nick is a 10, Fabio a 6 or so, Sinner is a 0.1. He had about 1 slight fist pump the entire match, when he won the 1st set. It is probably more innate than anything else, but he must have some outstanding coaching that he respects. He seems like a very nice guy, and a great competitor.

[don_budge]

Daniel Evans struggling to get the horse in the barn against Dusan Lajovic. Evans up 6-3, 4-5 on Lajovic's serve. He played a stellar game to pull ahead by serve and volleying and attacking the net. Virtually unheard of tactics nowadays and he is doing it on clay. I love this guy. Yeah...quite a performance. He may not win but he sure has game. Attitude. Badass.

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Stef vs the Boss on tap. Watch the error count from Boss. He is not one to ever bide his time in a rally, though I did notice yesterday vs the young Italian he dropped back a bit on 2nd serves in the 2nd set to give himself more margin to get the return in play at put more pressure on the young Italian's service game. Nice tactical ploy that paid off at the business end of the 2nd set. With his massive firepower off of both sides, he still plays surprisingly good defense when he has to.

[don_budge]

After losing a brutal second set tie-breaker, Daniel Evans is finally serving for the match at 5-2 in the third. On break point with Lajovic serving, Evan clips the net with a backhand and it dribbles over the net. Tough break for Lajovic. Now for the moment of truth...serving out the match. 30-love. Good start. Double fault...30-15. Hiccup. 30 all...uh oh. Missed first serve and a failed serve and volley...30-40. Deuce...get the fricking horse in the barn, would ya? Missed first serve...Lajovic backhand winner. Break point. Back to deuce...good first serve. Overhead winner Lajovic...break point. Again. Second serve, serve and volley. Lajovic misses. Ace for match point Evans. Another backhand winner Lajovic. Deuce again. Missed return off of second serve...match point #4 for Evans. Misses the first...Lajovic misses backhand down the line. Horse...in...barn. Little shaky but he is in the locker room with a "W"!

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Stef takes out Karatsev with not much fuss, looking like the FO contender he is. He took Karatsev out of him game and into a more traditional looking clay court game. Too good by Stef. Stef's movement and high rpm's off both sides make clay his best surface it seems. I certainly like his forehand more than the clay court player he most resembles, Thiem.

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I think the "match of the day" tomorrow will be more competitive than Stef and Karatsev turned out to be

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Novak and Sinner on tap 2nd match stadium court tomorrow. Oddmakers have Novak at about 72% chance of winning.

[don_budge]

I think the "match of the day" tomorrow will be more competitive than Stef and Karatsev turned out to be

Even if Sinner and Djokovic was on the same day, and they are not, they would take a distant backseat. Very, very distant. If that match materialises it will be a snooze fest of epic proportions between the two most boring "GOAT's" ever. Coming soon...Aslan Karatsev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas!!! I think for a second round tennis match this one escapes my designation of foreplay. This could be the main course. The real deal. You can almost feel it. Should it live up to the possibilities.

Yeah...touché stroke. I was way off. I did sort of hedge with, "Should it live up to the possibilities". Very clever of me...if I do say so myself. It didn't live up to the possibilities and I am not sure why. Karatsev really step up and it wasn't as if Tsitsipas was so overwhelming. Looking forwards to seeing the two of them play again. A reset.

Perhaps Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic will make for more compelling drama. Compelling theatre. Karatsev and Tsitsipas came of with a resounding dud. A lead balloon. Call it what you will. I had such high hopes. Now watch...Sinner and Djokovic will have some sort of barn burner that lights up the tennis world. Two GOAT's...well at least one and the other a shoe in. We'll see. But if you ask me it was Daniel Evans who once again is the most watchable player on tour at the moment. The match with Roger Federer a couple of weeks ago sort of verified that with me. His match with Lorenzo Musetti was just as compelling and this match with Dusan Lajovic was worth every penny to watch it. I'm telling ya. Evans lost a brutal tie-breaker then just resaddled and managed to get the silly horse in the barn. Now he is up against the winner of last weeks ATP 1000 in Miami. Humbert Hurkacz. Evans won't be playing for second place as he lives and dies by the old saying, "the bigger they come, the harder they fall".

Daniel might not be the shiniest player on the tour or rather the most athletic as in the biggest. He is small in stature but big in heart. This is essentially what tennis always was about too. It's about the heart. Even though in tennis...love means nothing.

[don_budge]

2021 Rolex Monte-Carlo Open...Match of the Day: Daniel Evans vs. Hubert Hurkacz

Although neither Daniel Evans or Hubert Hurkacz have gotten even an honourable mention in the GOAT category...the match of the day pick from the don_budge school of tennis. I will not be able to see either match...life goes on. There are more important things in life than second round matches in the current world of tennis. I must admit I do believe I would watch Evans. I watched a good part of his match yesterday against Dusan Lajovic...another gem of a one handed backhand. Evans subscribes to "the bigger they come the harder they fall" school of thought. Which I like very much. David vs. Goliath. I just love it when the underdog pulls through. When the little guy prevails against the odds. When pluck and nerve win the battle against nothing but brawn.

[glacierguy]

Looking forward to Evans vs Hurkacz. I too watched the Lajovic match yesterday and was impressed by Evans's gumption (yet again) and belief in his all-court game. You only have to watch him save break points by serve-volleying on clay to realise he is different. Lajovic (whom I like) was seriously out of sorts and felt the court was against him (net cords, bad bounces, skids off line, etc) with some justification.

Today I'm also going to have a look at Fognini vs Thompson, mainly because I think the contrast between the dashing, handsome, immaculately turned out Fognini, and the just-crawled-out-from-under-a-rock Thompson will be quite funny.

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Lot of good matches today. I do think Novak needs to come out from the get in the mood to play. Sinner to me has the biggest shot on the court with his forehand. As DB has said, plucky Evans is always a good watch. He really competes well, but so does Hurkacz. Evans can get under some players skin, but that will not be in play vs the very even tempered Hurkacz. Hurkacz to me just is a better tennis player, but it should be a competitive match. Who know what Fabio will do. Certainly to me a big underachiever. Only one Master's 1000 title for career. He is way better than that. I was watching the Stef interview yesterday after his win vs Karatsev. He said his goal was actually to join the legends of the game(implied big 3). He then said "I am nowhere close but that is my goal". We will never hear Fabio say anything like that.

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Chalk first set for the Boa Constrictor, squeezing 17 unforced errors out of Sinner. Great test here for Sinner 2nd set to see where he is at.

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He just kept on squeezing. Young Sinner like so many before him had no answer for the ol clinical precision of Novak. If he plays like that, which is just like he always plays when in this mood, there is obviously on one guy that can beat him. He is up next. We will see how he looks after his 2 month layoff.

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To put it as succinctly as possible, Nadal still looks like the greatest clay court player ever, hook spinning Delbonis to areas of the court that he is not familiar with.