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

[stroke]

NBC in their unrelenting terrible coverage did not supply us with the 3rd set stats, but I am certain Novak for the 1st time in the match had better looking winners to errors numbers that Stef.

[jthb1021]

Bit of a cheat Tsitsipas. Ringing marks and pointing out knowing full well they aren't. That might fire Novak up who is about the fairest man on tour...honest as they day is long.

So true!

[jthb1021]

Now it’s time to see how good Taitsipas serve really is. He isn’t comfortable and isn’t in a good place mentally right now. I am with Budge I don’t think he has the serve to close out slam finals at the moment. The second serve is getting weaker as the pressure grows and he isn’t winning those points anymore. At the moment he’s going to have to grind it out from behind the baseline behind lots of second serves and average placed first serves the rest of the way.

[don_budge]

This is turning into a massacre.

[don_budge]

Now it’s time to see how good Taitsipas serve really is. He isn’t comfortable and isn’t in a good place mentally right now. I am with Budge I don’t think he has the serve to close out slam finals at the moment. The second serve is getting weaker as the pressure grows and he isn’t winning those points anymore. At the moment he’s going to have to grind it out from behind the baseline behind lots of second serves and average placed first serves the rest of the way.

Good point.

[stroke]

Oddsmakers have Novak now at 75% implied probability of winning, about where he was at the start of the match.

[stroke]

4th set Nivak had much better winners to errors numbers than Stef. Do not know exactly how much better as NBC coverage continues to blow.

[stroke]

Nobody can go away during a match and re-engage like Novak ever. Rope -a-dope, rope-a-dope, rope-a-dope.....

[jthb1021]

Tsitsipas second serve percentage points won
set 1. 67%, set 2 57%, set 3 38%, set 4 30%, and two service games in the fifth 33%

he’s not getting the match he wants

[don_budge]

Serving out the championship...a nerve wracking proposition. It demands a motion that can be counted on. Novak for all the marbles.

[stroke]

Novak goes into zen lockdown mode to run off 3 sets for number 19. So tough for Stef, but truth be told, Novak won it. The stats for all 3 sets won by Novak are very telling. Better winner to error numbers than Stef.

[stotty]

So I go out to give two tennis lessons in sweltering heat with Stefanos two sets to love up but having gone down a break in the third. I come home and it's all over. Somehow, after giving the end of the first set and the whole of the second set to Stefanos on a plate, Novak reels off the last three sets.

I swear Novak does this rope-a-dope stuff for fun. God knows what is going on in that head of his to play a reasonable first set and to break just at the right time and then to go listless for the next 35 minutes. Inexplicable.

I will watch the last two and half sets on replay.

Well that's number 19...going to take a lot of stopping not to win at least a few more slams.

[stroke]

At 19 Slams, 2 career Grand Slams, 36 Master's 1000 titles(and the only player to win all 11), his total weeks at #1, and a winning head to head vs Fed and Nadal, he has a very strong argument for best ever.

[stotty]

Novak is playing so well he could wrap up the GOAT debate (if slams if what the measuring stick is) this season. He could even win a calendar slam. The only person that could stop him is probably himself...

[tenniscoach1]

The least talented of the big 3 - but, the most scientifically well trained and best reaction to supplements ever in the game. Always on top of the recovery - and does better GPP work than anyone else. He is athletically built by design to hold up to pressure. Highly sophisticated maniac program I am sure. Craziest motherfucker on the tour. They once asked some high end Olympic athletes if you did ABCD and won Olympic gold three times but would die at 40 as a result would you do it? You can imagine the response. Of course they will break all the records and die young. Tennis lucky to have a normal
superstar in Federer. The Novak dudes nuts like Micheal Jordan - great competitor, his teammates/friends hate him ... but, narcissists are needed in the world. The .00001 of them like Novak and MJ can back it up. You have no choice but to respect that ... Novak will go to the ends of the earth to win and to be loved. He gets all the number 1 records that wont be broken ever - but he will never get the love/respect of Federer/Sampras/Agassi/Rafa/Laver/Borg - he is a calculated hard ass dude and everyone see’s through it ... he don’t give a shit either I am sure. One day everyone will try and throw this dude under the bus - just you watch. He ain't one of the establishment. Live by the sword die by the sword. I do respect the dude - he gets shit done in a tennis pro world that us ruthless, mean and unforgiving.