2021 Mutua Madrid Open...ATP 1000...Madrid, Spain

[don_budge]

First of all...watch for heavy Covid-19 restrictions. Second of all...no Roger Federer. The number one seed is none other than a forum favourite whom I hope to be humiliated at some point. He sure deserves it. His time is coming. I can't wait. The only redemption at this point is he has to chase down his own towel while maintaining his nonsensical, boring set of ticks. He digs deep into those shorts in his behind between every single point. Bouncing the ball upwards of forty times on a single point due to a let serve. He can win all he wants in this lifetime but I find him repulsive. Not that anyone else should. This guy is a jerk with all of his fastidious habits that make absolute nonsense of the game. Some can turn a blind eye to it...like they do to Joe Biden. It's hard to understand. Or maybe it isn't. Human nature being what it is.

As usual it is all foreplay early on. Some interesting characters here and there. More than you can say for either of the ATP 250 events going on at the moment. Both dead in the water. Jannik Sinner, Daniel Evans and even Dominic Thiem. Andrey Rublev rounding out the contenders in the top half with Señor A**holiness. Aslan Karatsev in the house looking to take a few more names down in this tournament. I would love to see a rematch of Karatsev and Tsitsy Tsitsipas. The Tsitsipatti Kid. He with the flawed service motion that will cost him more Grand Slams than he will win eventually. He may win one. He may win several. But if he had a human wrecking ball of a serve like he is potentially capable of he would be a much more complete player. Players of his style need that kind of serve...whereas Karatsev might not need it as much. As much as Nadal doesn't need it either.

A couple of interesting "losers" to watch are Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Zverev...a couple of wannabes who get spooked by their own shadows. Denis and Alexander both down in flames in tournaments that they should have had at least a shot at winning but both down to lower echelon players ranked way below them. Dominic Thiem resumes play after MIA for some time now. I even asked this week...where is he?

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/madrid/1536/draws

You get the picture. You can see the draw sheet. Anything of interest? That might just be in the eye of the beholder.

[stroke]

Karatsev looked very comfortable taking out #32 seed Ugo Humbert in 1st round match.

[stroke]

TennisTV is back to putting up the player spin rates at the end of matches this week.

[stroke]

Grigor goes out in 3 sets in a typically tough Master's 1000 1st round match up with Lloyd Harris. Lloyd's above average looking gf seemed pleased.

[stroke]

The pugnacious one gets through Chardy in a very tough 3 setter. Both players played very well.

[stroke]

Match of the day tomorrow, Fognini vs Berrettini. Next best match, FAA vs Ruud. Lot of good matches tomorrow obviously. Tournament gets going pretty good. It happens real fast in these 1000's.

[don_budge]

The two Italians might pan out...but I doubt it. "Fabulous" is about to take a dive...I think. Perhaps just a tad more interesting in the foreplay phase of the draw: Shapovalov vs. Bublik (two knuckleheads loaded with talent), Nikoloz Basilashvilli vs. Benoit Paire (for the right to play "The Tsitsippati Kid") or even Dominic Thiem vs. anybody. Aliasimme vs. Ruud may sound interesting on paper but in reality a snooze fest. Looking for Pierre-Hugues Herbert to advance in order to see a Daniil Medvedev rematch. All foreplay nonetheless. Merely preliminaries. Nadal lurking...always lurking.

[don_budge]

Also...Hurkacz vs. Millman to see who draws Daniel Evans next.

[stroke]

Ruud routines FAA. Ruud way too solid for FAA. The Ruud forehand produced about 60 more rpm's in both sets. Rudd has one of the very heaviest forehands on the tour.

[stroke]

Kei wins 2 and 2 after losing 1st set tiebreaker vs Khachanov. Kei plays Zverev next round. To me, Kei is the favorite in that one.

[stroke]

Berenttini wins pretty routinely vs Fabio. The Berenttini serve is such a weapon, and his forehand, the only better forehand on clay I can think of is Nadal. Matteo's biggest issue is the extreme(by pro men standards) different threat level between his forehand and backhand. And tennis where it is today, the ol Courier Moya Brugera runaround days are gone. Another accolade for Nadal, 15 years ago, he ran around to hit forehands all day. Now, he picks his spots for it very selectively.

[stroke]

Match of the day tomorrow, the King of Clay vs Alcaraz, who certainly appears to be a future FO champion, with a very good model type 3 forehand.

[don_budge]

As usual it is all foreplay early on. Some interesting characters here and there. More than you can say for either of the ATP 250 events going on at the moment. Both dead in the water. Jannik Sinner, Daniel Evans and even Dominic Thiem. Andrey Rublev rounding out the contenders in the top half with Señor A**holiness. Aslan Karatsev in the house looking to take a few more names down in this tournament. I would love to see a rematch of Karatsev and Tsitsy Tsitsipas. The Tsitsipatti Kid. He with the flawed service motion that will cost him more Grand Slams than he will win eventually. He may win one. He may win several. But if he had a human wrecking ball of a serve like he is potentially capable of he would be a much more complete player. Players of his style need that kind of serve...whereas Karatsev might not need it as much. As much as Nadal doesn't need it either.

A couple of interesting "losers" to watch are Denis Shapovalov and Alexander Zverev...a couple of wannabes who get spooked by their own shadows. Denis and Alexander both down in flames in tournaments that they should have had at least a shot at winning but both down to lower echelon players ranked way below them. Dominic Thiem resumes play after MIA for some time now. I even asked this week...where is he?

https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/current/madrid/1536/draws

You get the picture. You can see the draw sheet. Anything of interest? That might just be in the eye of the beholder.

Yeah...you get the picture. The draw sheet. Every picture tells a story. I've watched a lot of these preliminaries. Being a student of the game I have to be informed. Yesterday I had four matches at a time up on my TV screen. Studying. Who's Next? "Who's Next"...one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Boy...they sure don't make 'em like they used to. Listen...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhdllX-u89E&list=PL085FFD0FB0D1DC25

Carlos Alcaraz. I saw him do some things that if you project a couple of years down the road...he becomes a vision. Alexei Popyrin played big against a possible fatigued Jan-Leonard Struff. Can he take it to Jannik Sinner? Sinner getting the lion's share of the publicity. The hype. The dreaded expectations. Millman vs. Evans...this is going to be an excellent match. Nishikori vs. Zverev...who care's let alone who's next. Dominic Thiem answered one of my questions. Andrey Rublev challenged by a somewhat interesting Tommy Paul...an American of all things. All gone...all Americans. Then the match of the day...Diego Schwartzman and Aslan Karatsev. Karatsev winner in a serious spanking at the Aussie Open. Aslan gaining in confidence. The best match yesterday of many that I saw or glanced at...Alexander Bublik took down Denis "I can beat anyone" Shapovalov in a tussle of loose canons. The difference between the two is Bublik has the sense to tone it down when he must to win. Denis doesn't have a clue. The bandanna look is a step in the right direction. Next...lose the bounce between the legs. Always change a losing game.

Caspar Ruud just routinely took down the latest and greatest Felix Auger-Aliassime. Felix never got his teeth in the match and Ruud dominated from the opening bell. Ruud has an interesting match next in Yoshihito Nishioka...a Nishikori lite. He played exceptionally well against Kranjinovic. A bit of a surprise. Ah...Benoit Paire. They didn't give you a chance. "They" being stroke. Overwhelms Basilashvili who most likely shot his wad the week before. Paire to play Stefanos Tsitsipas, he with the less that perfect service motion. Will it matter against Paire? There is a line of demarcation. Not necessarily. In a match of quick points...is the serve the deciding factor? Ah Matteo...doing exactly what I expected him to do. Don't you love it when that happens? I even saw some of Pierre-Hughes Herbert lose to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. How's that for a couple of names? I thought that Pierre-Hugues was going to eek it out. Fokina wouldn't take no for an answer. Lastly...Daniil Medvedev back in the house after a match against Covid-19. The scamdemic. Who's Next? Listen to the album Dummy! The Who...GOAT? Who cares?

[seano]

Nadal was just brutal to Carlos Alcaraz today, 6-1, 6-2. In the future, we'll probably look back at this first meeting together, particularly since it's on red clay.

[stroke]

Not match of the day. In fact my bad, no Nadal match has really been match of the day on clay the last 16 years, unless you enjoy watching the Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals and are unsure of the outcome. Match of the day tomorrow, Tsitsipas vs Ruud.