2021 Serbia Open...ATP 250...Belgrade, Serbia

[don_budge]

Nothing to see here. Yet a second round match between Aslan Karatsev vs. Sebastian Korda might just do. Korda has won the second set of his first round match with Aljaz Bedene. Novak Djokovic playing in front of his home crowd. Starting this thread...just in case.

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/belgrade/5053/draws

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Copy that

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Karatsev vs Novak tomorrow. I am thinking there are 2 matches of the day tomorrow.

[don_budge]

Karatsev vs Novak tomorrow. I am thinking there are 2 matches of the day tomorrow.

Yes...Aslan Karatsev vs. Novak Djokovic. Djokovic prevailed routinely in the much anticipated Australian Open Quarterfinal. Was it the quarters?

2021 Australian Open...Melbourne, Australia...Novak Djokovic versus The Unknown Russian quarterfinal match

A foregone conclusion.

So Djokovic had the Russian's number Down Under. I doubt much has changed since. The match between Karatsev and Tsitsy a while back might have been a good barometer. Karatsev made some real inroads on the Tier 2 players but has yet to make an impression at the highest level. He struggled to get it home the round before facing match points against...against a lower ranked Tier 2 player.

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Not surprisingly, Novak huge favorite at 87% chance of winning.

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Karatsev takes the 1st set 7-5 with his unique brand of shock and awe tennis. Novak is unsettled and irritable, as he does not appear to be enjoying playing someone who is bossing most all of the points.

[don_budge]

Well it has been 2 hours and 45 minutes and they are on serve 3-2 in the third. Both going pretty much toe to toe for the last hour. This is going to tell us something about Aslan for sure and Novak as well.

[don_budge]

I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like that. Three hours and twenty-five minutes.

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That is the best non Major match I have seen in a long time. Novak dug in and made shock and awe win it, which he did. Karatsev has a game like no other.

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On an unrelated who cares side note, Karatsev is the coolest post match interview ever.

[don_budge]

On an unrelated who cares side note, Karatsev is the coolest post match interview ever.

He has already mastered the understatement.

[don_budge]

I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like that. Three hours and twenty-five minutes.

The master of the understatement. That's me...don_budge. Don't you think so?

Briefly...Novak got off to a slow start. He was getting rocked. The pace and heaviness of the Aslan Karatsev groundstrokes surprised him. Novak might not have been at his best in the beginning. But he worked his way towards that end. Surprise! Karatsev was better at it.

Aslan Karatsev is also lacking in a perfect service motion. It could be better. Loads better. He could be winning his service games more routinely. Someone tell him dr. don_budge is for hire. The price is right. Coming up...one perfect service motion. How many break points did he defend? Twenty three? That is enough for a month of tennis tournaments if you are Roger Federer. Too many. But what does that say about a man when his opponent is none other than Novak Djokovic and he could not convert. I have never seen anything like it. Karatsev was relentless for three and a half hours. When he shook Djokovic's hand he looked at him squarely in the eyes only briefly as if to say...you want to do another three and a half. Novak was through. To his credit he rose to the challenge and gave it everything. But again...surprise! His best was not good enough. He had been out Djokovic'd.

That reminds me of the high expectations I had of the Tsitsipas/Karatsev match at Monte Carlo that didn't pan out.

Aslan Karatsev applied the hammer to young Lorenzo Musetti to earn a shot a Stefanos Tsitsipas, which might just turn into a very, very interesting confrontation. The young Italian showed some real moxie though and didn't take it laying down. He went down swinging. I didn't get the impression that he was so overwhelmed by the weight of Karatsev's ground strokes like I have seen others...but he was nevertheless. Karatsev landing some real haymakers. When he was missing, he was missing really big. By big, I mean he was hammering it.

Aslan Karatsev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas will be the match of the day no matter what day they play it on. If Jannik Sinner plays Novak Djokovic...that will have to take a back seat. If Karatsev shows up to play it will be some real slam, bam, thank you ma'am tennis.

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.

Why didn't that match pan out? Such an interesting question. I gave it to stroke. But as it is...I was probably right even though I was wrong. Such is the life of don_budge.

Now I have one unrelated thought. It is about the calf muscles of Aslan Karatsev. I have never seen anything like that. There is something I was read that keeps popping up in my mind. Probably nothing. I didn't make it up. I read it somewhere in an article about PED's. It was about disproportionate calf muscles. Where has this guy been? How is it possible he has reached this level all of a sudden. He took his shirt off and he looked like a boxer. Just thinking out loud. He came of the court after three and a half hours. Gave the interview. Ho hum. Facing down Djokovic all that time. Novak throwing everything including the kitchen sink at him. I have never seen anything quite like it. I had that feeling after watching the match. Almost a sense of disbelief.

Now I have a feeling that if Karatsev can recover that he will overpower Berrettini. Look at the contrast in the calf muscles...just for the hell of it.

[stroke]

Someone on the dark side, the TW Message Board said about Karatsev, "it feels as though he runs an Al-enhanced algorithm on every shot he faces to optimize the use of speed, trajectory, and spin. Something tells me Karatsev is an artifact from the future of this sport". And I have noticed his calves. Novak was sucking wind after that 3 hour plus slugfest, a slugfest like I have never seen. As you said, Karatsev looked as if he could easily go another 3,

[don_budge]

The master of the understatement. That's me...don_budge. Don't you think so?

Briefly...Novak got off to a slow start. He was getting rocked. The pace and heaviness of the Aslan Karatsev groundstrokes surprised him. Novak might not have been at his best in the beginning. But he worked his way towards that end. Surprise! Karatsev was better at it.

Aslan Karatsev is also lacking in a perfect service motion. It could be better. Loads better. He could be winning his service games more routinely. Someone tell him dr. don_budge is for hire. The price is right. Coming up...one perfect service motion. How many break points did he defend? Twenty three? That is enough for a month of tennis tournaments if you are Roger Federer. Too many. But what does that say about a man when his opponent is none other than Novak Djokovic and he could not convert. I have never seen anything like it. Karatsev was relentless for three and a half hours. When he shook Djokovic's hand he looked at him squarely in the eyes only briefly as if to say...you want to do another three and a half. Novak was through. To his credit he rose to the challenge and gave it everything. But again...surprise! His best was not good enough. He had been out Djokovic'd.

That reminds me of the high expectations I had of the Tsitsipas/Karatsev match at Monte Carlo that didn't pan out.

Aslan Karatsev applied the hammer to young Lorenzo Musetti to earn a shot a Stefanos Tsitsipas, which might just turn into a very, very interesting confrontation. The young Italian showed some real moxie though and didn't take it laying down. He went down swinging. I didn't get the impression that he was so overwhelmed by the weight of Karatsev's ground strokes like I have seen others...but he was nevertheless. Karatsev landing some real haymakers. When he was missing, he was missing really big. By big, I mean he was hammering it.

Aslan Karatsev vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas will be the match of the day no matter what day they play it on. If Jannik Sinner plays Novak Djokovic...that will have to take a back seat. If Karatsev shows up to play it will be some real slam, bam, thank you ma'am tennis.

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.

Why didn't that match pan out? Such an interesting question. I gave it to stroke. But as it is...I was probably right even though I was wrong. Such is the life of don_budge.

Now I have one unrelated thought. It is about the calf muscles of Aslan Karatsev. I have never seen anything like that. There is something I was read that keeps popping up in my mind. Probably nothing. I didn't make it up. I read it somewhere in an article about PED's. It was about disproportionate calf muscles. Where has this guy been? How is it possible he has reached this level all of a sudden. He took his shirt off and he looked like a boxer. Just thinking out loud. He came of the court after three and a half hours. Gave the interview. Ho hum. Facing down Djokovic all that time. Novak throwing everything including the kitchen sink at him. I have never seen anything quite like it. I had that feeling after watching the match. Almost a sense of disbelief.

Now I have a feeling that if Karatsev can recover that he will overpower Berrettini. Look at the contrast in the calf muscles...just for the hell of it.

I find this so ironic and at the same time perhaps a sign of things to come. I was writing about Sinner/Djokovic at Monte Carlo at the same time I was writing about Karatsev/Tsitsipas. Here we had the same participants and in different tournaments with interesting results. Hmmm....

[don_budge]

Someone on the dark side, the TW Message Board said about Karatsev, "it feels as though he runs an Al-enhanced algorithm on every shot he faces to optimize the use of speed, trajectory, and spin. Something tells me Karatsev is an artifact from the future of this sport". And I have noticed his calves. Novak was sucking wind after that 3 hour plus slugfest, a slugfest like I have never seen. As you said, Karatsev looked as if he could easily go another 3,

Novak was spent. Totally depleted. This match might just have a real downer effect on Djokovic. He didn't want to lose in his own backyard. The "Unknown Russian" took him down heavily. A crushing defeat. Djokovic really manned up for the entire match but the end was perhaps a foregone conclusion. Thud. The sound of the ball meeting Karatsev's racquet and the sound of Novak crashing to the mat. That was an epic defeat. That would be tough to swallow. I wonder how he feels today.