2021 Roland Garros...ATP 2000...Paris, France

[stroke]

Well it's a fourth set after two uncharacteristic errors from Novak in the tiebreak. Shame, Novak will have to work for it now, and the crowd, as usual, are totally against him.

True, but no matter. The shamdemic curfew about to kick in ha.

[stotty]

It's everything Novak doesn't want...a momentum shift and a protracted route to the semi final. Berrettini is growing in confidence and his weight of shot is starting to hurt. Novak continues to hold on to his serve with aplomb so far in the fourth. Novak needs to keep away from Berrettini's forehand right now...at all costs.

[stroke]

And to make it worse, he may have to play Nadal. He has a chance. If anyone thinks he can beat Nadal, there is going to be good money to be had.

[stotty]

And to make it worse, he may have to play Nadal. He has a chance. If anyone thinks he can beat Nadal, there is going to be good money to be had.

Yep...he was focused to win in three for that reason. Hard work from here, and Berry is in with a shout of winning if he can keep the momentum his way. Hasn't made much impact on Novak's serve so far though.

[stotty]

Novak continues to hold serve wonderfully...5-4 to Novak

[stotty]

Brilliant fourth set by Novak...slightly against the run of play I might add. An education in that if all else falls just concentrate on holding serve with authority.

[jthb1021]

I heard an amazing stat about Rafa. If a players wins the first point on their serve against Rafa, they will go on to hold serve 70% of the time. If a player loses the first point on their serve, then 2 out 3 times they will be broken.

That’s in incredible statistic! The pressure that he applies mentally on that court is unlike anything our sport has ever known. This stat says basically it’s set point on the first point of each of your service games. That’s crazy!!
Novak in my opinion is the only player in the draw that can conceivably hold up mentally to win three sets against him. I wouldn’t bet on it though!!
If a man truly believes he can win against Nadal on Chatrier how do you find or what is the perfect mix of relaxation, concentration, and the toll physically to win three sets against Nadal? You have to maintain that for over three hours to get it done and fight off some major demons to climb to the summit. The final is tomorrow.
Stef and Zverev are just playing for the runner up plate and the ability to congratulate Rafa and his team on #14, thank their own team, thank the tournament organizers, volunteers, and finally the fans, and see ya next year. It’s good to get some practice with air time in the trophy presentation, there’s an art to it. Maybe next year guys...I wouldn’t bet on that either

[stroke]

Betting odds, Stef has an implied probability of 71.4% of winning vs Alex. Nadal implied probability is 73.3 % chance of winning vs Novak. Nadal, even though to me he has slowed down court coverage wise much more than Novak from their prime, he is somehow looking more unbeatable. His forehand, certainly at the very least the best clay court forehand of all time, is looking as menacing as ever.

[stotty]

Novak in my opinion is the only player in the draw that can conceivably hold up mentally to win three sets against him.

You're right, he is. I have never lost faith Novak can beat Rafa at the FO because they have had some mightily close matches there in the past. Novak is the only player with any kind of record at all against Rafa on clay. But it is a huge undertaking at this stage in the tournament. As stroke points out, Rafa seems even more invincible than ever, and the reason for that is he more aggressive than he has ever. He serves better these days and his forehand is deadly and without doubt the best the game has seen. Roger's, despite it's poetic beauty, can break down at times whereas Rafa's is just so secure and so physically hard to play against.

Betting odds, Stef has an implied probability of 71.4% of winning vs Alex. Nadal implied probability is 73.3 % chance of winning vs Novak. Nadal, even though to me he has slowed down court coverage wise much more than Novak from their prime, he is somehow looking more unbeatable. His forehand, certainly at the very least the best clay court forehand of all time, is looking as menacing as ever.

I make the odds about right. Stephanos is the player in form in my view and I love his positivity. I hope he wins as Zverez is likely to wilt is he gets through whereas I think Stephanos will put up a better fight against Rafa.

Novak needs to be at his immaculate best tomorrow. I am hoping he will hit his forehand quite a bit harder. Just hitting those handful of forehands harder towards the end of the match against Berritini made all the difference in the world and brought up the break of serve to win him the match. Above all, Novak needs his precision to be working perfectly.

[stroke]

You're right, he is. I have never lost faith Novak can beat Rafa at the FO because they have had some mightily close matches there in the past. Novak is the only player with any kind of record at all against Rafa on clay. But it is a huge undertaking at this stage in the tournament. As stroke points out, Rafa seems even more invincible than ever, and the reason for that is he more aggressive than he has ever. He serves better these days and his forehand is deadly and without doubt the best the game has seen. Roger's, despite it's poetic beauty, can break down at times whereas Rafa's is just so secure and so physically hard to play against.




I make the odds about right. Stephanos is the player in form in my view and I love his positivity. I hope he wins as Zverez is likely to wilt is he gets through whereas I think Stephanos will put up a better fight against Rafa.

Novak needs to be at his immaculate best tomorrow. I am hoping he will hit his forehand quite a bit harder. Just hitting those handful of forehands harder towards the end of the match against Berritini made all the difference in the world and brought up the break of serve to win him the match. Above all, Novak needs his precision to be working perfectly.

I love Stef's game, to me a Guga 2.0, just a beautiful clay court game. I could see him being the pick over any clay courter ever except Rafael and that forehand.

[stotty]

Stephanos is off to a solid start and Zverez just can't settle. He needs to play at his best as Stephanos has played consistently great throughout the tournament and looks every bit like a clay court specialist.

3-1 Stephanos

[stotty]

2 sets to love to Stephanos

Stephanos is just a better player at this point...a class above.

[stroke]

I felt at the beginning of the tournament he had the best small chance of taking Nadal. He is just playing solid, not his best. His numbers winners to errors are just ok, which is good enough vs Alex.

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Alexander Zverev...2021 French Open Semifinals

There is a glaring weakness relative to the rest of the Stefanos Tsitsipas game and that is his service motion. He was rolling along and up two sets to love and then the tables turned. What happened?

Tsitsipas is lacking a motion that makes his serve even better under pressure. Like a golf swing...if there is some pressure or nervousness and the motion is flawed, beware. It seems his serving became a bit more tentative and as the serve goes so goes the rest of the game. He definitely was not as assertive in the last two sets as he was in the first two. He has lost control of the match and now it hangs in the balance. He starts the set serving and we might just get a pretty good clue how the deciding set will play out.

The problem is Stefanos just does not have the kind of serve to match the rest of his game. Roger Federer, even in the later stages of his career, could always count on quick service games. He had a first serve that could knock his opponent completely off balance or win outright. The same cannot be said for Stefanos. He serves well at times but he is pretty inconsistent when it comes to maintaining a very high degree of performance and particularly so in high profile and tense situations with higher or highest rank players. He just double faulted for love-40 in the first game of the fifth set. I hope he doesn't make a prophet of me.

He needs a high percentage flat serve that wins outright when he needs it. For the matter he needs a second serve that he can be very aggressive with as well. At 6' 4" tall this should be well within the realm of possibilities but the fact of the matter is it doesn't exist. He often in tense situations is serving into the fat part of the court as if he has lost his confidence in going for the lines and corners. This is where the perfect and frictionless motion, ala Federer, just gets better and better. When the chips are down it just galvanises the motion. The confidence rises as the player knows that he is going to win his serve and win it quickly. Tsitsipas managed the first game so we shall see what we shall see.

The father and coach needs to recognise this glaring deficiency in the son and advise him accordingly. Otherwise he needs to find someone who can do it. The celebrity coach in the corner now doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to service motions and tactics. How do I know this? The "Tennis Bible" tells me so.

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Alexander Zverev...2021 French Open Semifinals

There is a glaring weakness relative to the rest of the Stefanos Tsitsipas game and that is his service motion. He was rolling along and up two sets to love and then the tables turned. What happened?

Tsitsipas is lacking a motion that makes his serve even better under pressure. Like a golf swing...if there is some pressure or nervousness and the motion is flawed, beware. It seems his serving became a bit more tentative and as the serve goes so goes the rest of the game. He definitely was not as assertive in the last two sets as he was in the first two. He has lost control of the match and now it hangs in the balance. He starts the set serving and we might just get a pretty good clue how the deciding set will play out.

The problem is Stefanos just does not have the kind of serve to match the rest of his game. Roger Federer, even in the later stages of his career, could always count on quick service games. He had a first serve that could knock his opponent completely off balance or win outright. The same cannot be said for Stefanos. He serves well at times but he is pretty inconsistent when it comes to maintaining a very high degree of performance and particularly so in high profile and tense situations with higher or highest rank players. He just double faulted for love-40 in the first game of the fifth set. I hope he doesn't make a prophet of me.

He needs a high percentage flat serve that wins outright when he needs it. For the matter he needs a second serve that he can be very aggressive with as well. At 6' 4" tall this should be well within the realm of possibilities but the fact of the matter is it doesn't exist. He often in tense situations is serving into the fat part of the court as if he has lost his confidence in going for the lines and corners. This is where the perfect and frictionless motion, ala Federer, just gets better and better. When the chips are down it just galvanises the motion. The confidence rises as the player knows that he is going to win his serve and win it quickly. Tsitsipas managed the first game so we shall see what we shall see.

The father and coach needs to recognise this glaring deficiency in the son and advise him accordingly. Otherwise he needs to find someone who can do it. The celebrity coach in the corner now doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to service motions and tactics. How do I know this? The "Tennis Bible" tells me so.

The other side of the coin is that Alexander Zverev has an equally or even more defective motion. The way I see it his game is less dependent upon his serve than the Tsitsipas style. But that being said Zverev's serve has been the culprit in his demise at times. A huge contributor as he has battled double fault-itis in the past.