2021 Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell...ATP 500...Barcelona, Spain

[don_budge]

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/barcelona/425/draws

The tour continues to evolve as Father Time slowly but surely works his eternal magic on this earthly plane. It doesn't happen overnight but one day it seems that you wake up and realise..."I'm getting too old for this". At the same time, the youth of yesterday become today's men and they start to flex their muscles nudging the ageing aside. It isn't a pretty process and it can be just as cruel as Darwin's "Survival of the Species" or "Survival of the Fittest". Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev emerged from the pack last week in a tournament that gave us a new look from the "same old, same old". There are others in the pipe that are starting to waken and realizing that the field is wide open. It is time to man up. New comers like Lorenzo Musetti and Jannik Sinner sense that their time is coming. With a couple of years of seasoning...who knows? With a couple years of ageing on Señor Nadal and Herr Djokovic the writing is on the wall. They aren't done just yet. But it is inevitable. No one here gets out alive. Jim Morrison said that as he was drowning in his own vomit once.

All eyes on Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Lots of questions to be answered here. It is all about performance. How does one react to recent developments? Nadal is the most feared player on tour. Rublev and Tsitsipas want to take their status up a notch. Consistency is the hallmark of great tennis players. Nadal is etched in stone. Rublev and Tsitsy are works in progress. Daniel Evans has raised a few eyebrows himself. This is the wild card. How is he going to react with his huge breakthrough last week? One school of thought says that the only way to go for him now is down. How much pluck does he have? Does he still have any ambition left after such a performance? Questions. Answer the questions...you jerk! From the mouth of an ever evolving John McEnroe, so many years ago.

[stroke]

It sure looks like this clay court season could be Nadal's last best chance to get another FO. He definitely looks slower, particularly moving east/west. And so many very dangerous guys out there now, Stef, Rublev, Ruud, Alcaraz, Sinner, and of course Thiem and Fabio. A lot of landmines are going to be in the FO draw.

[stroke]

Lot of great matches tomorrow. It is on. Sinner looked great today. RBA the gatekeeper up next. It is very tough out there.

[glacierguy]

Fognini just got defaulted for unsportsmanlike behaviour, was 0-6, 4-4 at the time. Was watching on Prime Video with no commentary (my favourite) and didn't really see what happened. But I think he said something to the foot-fault judge who foot-faulted him at 4-3, 30-40 on his first serve. He lost the point after his second serve, and he wasn't happy.

[stroke]

Fognini a bit of a princess out there as we all know. He surely deserved it. Nadal is getting pushed around out there by Ivasha and loses 1st set 6-3. Stef looked like a rock star out there in his win. Such a beautiful clay court game.

[arturohernandez]

Nadal looking like Barney. Purple, slow and old.

[arturohernandez]

Nadal looking like Barney. Purple, slow and old.

And then he stopped looking like Barney and more like the purple bandit who comes back and wins in three.

[don_budge]

2021 Barcelona Open...Match of the Day (Denis Shapovalov vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime)

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/barcelona/425/draws

I'll have you know that I spelt both names correctly the first time. This is becoming a real challenge in the tennis world these days. Spelling the names of the competitors and I have a bit of a leg up living in Europe. I am used to different sounding names. I am always amazed that Swedish people spell my name correctly the first time. But anyways...I digress.

It is early in the tournament and the field is somewhat divided between Barcelona and Begrade. Why would they do such a thing? Just so Novak Djokovic could preen in front of his hometown fans? Just as Nadal is in Barcelona? There's a couple of peacocks if I've ever seen one on the tennis court. Preening.

For my money though, I am going to take "Denis the Menace" and "Felix the Cat". Here is a contrast of two players who actually are from the same country. Canada. See how the world is changing? It's interesting. But the real contrast is in style. In approach to the game. Somehow Felix's seems to be more sustainable, although he seems to have hit a rut or two in the road as well. Shapovalov has been mired down in the mud, relatively speaking. Some dashing results...then a dud. Denis shows flashes of brilliance on a point by point basis. Game by game even. But he seems to be troubled when it comes to putting entire matches together. Certainly putting matches in a row together. He lacks in consistency and his image projects a certain unwillingness to do what needs to be done. The backwards cap on the head. The bouncing of the ball between the legs in the preserve routine. His lack of consistent defence and intelligent tactics. It can be a long process or you can make it an impossible one.

Auger-Aliassime seems to have hit a plateau as well as there are newer kids on the block. All playing the same brand of tennis. If you ask me, I think that they are boring themselves to death playing the same junior game that they have played forever with Mom and Dad breathing down their necks. Nothing they can really call their own and take responsibility for. You have to leave the nest sometime. Not a single one could drop the two handed backhand security blanket from the junior days of the past. After watching Daniel Evans one has to wonder what kind of tennis could these great athletes be producing if only their coaches could have convinced them to play...tennis.

So giving them the benefit of the doubt in a diluted field at this ATP 500 event, let's see what they can do to each other. Both of these players have something to prove to the other. To themselves about where they stand in the food chain. That is what makes this one interesting. Just a tad more interesting in the not so interesting collection of matches today. Sure, you can try to blow each and everyone of them up to be interesting but if you put them to the gold standard of Roger Federer interesting...it's a bit boring.

[stroke]

3 more very interesting matches, RBA(the Benchmark)vs Sinner, the Demon vs Stef, Nadal vs Nishi. FAA is slight favorite vs Denis. BTW DB, Denis has a new look, with a haircut and a headband in lieu of his backwards baseball cap. He looks more professional.

[stroke]

Denis really just did not compete well in a routine 2 set loss to FAA. Denis just does not have the hard hat game to really be a factor on clay. FAA, I see no reason why he cannot play with anybody on clay.

[stroke]

Rublev way too many errors in losing 2nd set to Ramos-Vinolas, who definitely has has hard hat on for the clay season.

[arturohernandez]

Denis really just did not compete well in a routine 2 set loss to FAA. Denis just does not have the hard hat game to really be a factor on clay. FAA, I see no reason why he cannot play with anybody on clay.

I think that Robapolov is a bit too robotic for my taste. I love his game and he is aggressive. But his defense is not the best and he has no touch. He never learned slice well until recently.

I am starting to wonder if we can judge a player's touch by their ability to slice their backhand. It's ironic that FAA can In that case, my guess is that FAA will fly high. Touch, speed, offense to defense and an all court game. His volleys are great too.

I want Robapolov to excel but he is all offense and attack. Not patient enough to stay in neutral and not able to turn defense into offense well. Surprising that he is not as well versed in the subtlety of the game.

[stroke]

Such huge matches tomorrow, FAA vs Stef, Rublev vs Sinner. Massive matches.

[stroke]

Sinner routines Rublev 6-2 1st set looking silky smooth in doing so. He has one of the most effortless looking forehands since Fed. So much flip and lag on that thing.

[stotty]

Just managed to catch the second set tiebreak won by Sinner. It was a topsy-turvy 14 points but Sinner finished it with aplomb...and emphatic ace out wide. The ball striking is so hard out there the players don't seem to recognise it's a slow clay court. I like both players. There's a no nonsense attitude about them. Very likely we will be seeing a lot of them over the next decade.