Stefanos Tsitsipas has been reaping the benefits of what is positively a breakout year on the ATP Tour. His latest reward–aside from being a valuable experience–is not one that anyone else would envy right now.
Tsitsipas’ 2018 hot streak has carried him into the final of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, and with it a clay-court showdown against Rafael Nadal on Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, this is just about the worst possible scenario in which Tsitsipas could stage his first-ever meeting with Nadal: on dirt, in Spain, and amidst the pressure of a championship match.
Still, if they were all playing for second place when the tournament began, Tsitsipas has certainly earned that distinction. Building on quarterfinal performances in Doha and Dubai earlier in the season plus a recent second-round showing in Monte-Carlo as a qualifier, the 19-year-old Greek has advanced in Barcelona by beating Corentin Moutet, Diego Schwartzman, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Dominic Thiem, and Pablo Carreno Busta all in straight sets. Tsitsipas is already up to No. 63 in the rankings and he is expected to reach 44th even if he loses on Sunday.
Nadal, of course, cannot go any higher than No. 1. Just as in Monte-Carlo, though, he must capture the title to avoid slipping back to second in the world behind Roger Federer. There is no reason to expect he will fail in that effort, because Nadal has won a ridiculous 44 consecutive clay-court sets dating back to last spring following routs this week of Roberto Carballes Baena, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Martin Klizan, and David Goffin. Moreover, Nadal has won this event an amazing 10 times and boasts a 57-3 lifetime record.
“I have watched millions of his matches on clay,” Tsitsipas said of the Spaniard. “I know the way he is playing and, I think, the way he is going to play against me. I was preparing for this match already, 10 years (ago). I’m going to go out there, enjoy it, and play my best.”
“Stefanos is a great player,” Nadal assured. “Always the young players have something special and he’s playing with big confidence,. He’s playing so well, so it’s going to be a very tough match.”
The top seed always says that and is rarely correct. Nothing has been tough for him in Barcelona aside from a scintillating first set against Klizan, and something similarly competitive with Tsitsipas on the other side of the net would be nothing short of a shock. A steady diet of heavy topspin forehands to the youngster’s one-handed backhand should help Nadal coast to title No. 11 in front of the home crowd.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
[polldaddy poll=9991069]
who ya got?
Tsitsipas in 3 ( He is in extremely good form, and I think he is the only guy that has a chance against Rafa in this clay season.
Are you kidding, Todd?
I think Todd has to be kidding!
Rafa in 2. When Rafa is in this form and when you have a one handed backhand, you have no chance
Especially on clay
GOAT in 2!!!
I think there’s a potential to be another tough match for Rafa..He never meet with Tsitsipas before,so tend to get nervous coz he’s unfamiliar with his game…Tsitsipas’s big serve,flat hitting BH/FH will bother Rafa a little bit…but like Carballes Baena & Klizan’s match…Rafa still will win in 2 insyaallah!….There is no way Rafa will surrender to this kid today!..C’mon Rafa!…Teach the kid some life lesson today!!..
Or Rafa also could win easily 60 61 coz being a first timer finalist in a big stage..the kid maybe ‘overwhelmed’ by his surroundings…
Nah, if Fed couldn’t beat Rafa on clay, you think Tsitsipas > Fed on clay?? He modeled his game after Fed，you think he’s better thanFed?
If he modeled his serve on Fed he did a pretty poor job. His serve is very hitchy, nothing like the smoothness of Roger’s.
What do you expect? You think his serve would be as good as Fed’s at such a young age?
LOL.
I think Nadal in 2 tight sets. Tp’s is good. No chance Tpsi wins this though. He physical conditioning is poor.
Id say Tsitspas will be brought down to earth and go out early in Estoril.
That’s about right.
The Greatest in 2 . Easy 63 61.
Nadal -6.5 wins
And the under 17.5 wins
Tsitsipas in 2. The mafia holds Nadal family as hostage and forces him to lose for match fixing. But if mafia is not involved, then Nadal in 2 losing less than 5 games
I’ve seen nothing in Tsisipas that suggests he can trouble Nadal on clay. His serve is good but not great. And the rest of his game, while nice, is custom-built for Rafa to pounce on it. To trouble Nadal on clay you have to hit hard, relatively flat, and deep in the court. Since that’s extremely hard to do, you also have to be willing to tolerate a significant number of errors, hoping that they will be outnumbered by winners and forced errors on the other side.
However, Tsisipas hits his groundies with a lot of topspin and not very deep in the court. Even his FH lacks the punch that Goffin was displaying in the first few games of his match against Nadal. And his one-handed BH will be targeted just as Ricky says. Above all, Tsisipas likes to hang back and is very unlikely to consistently try to step inside the baseline to take the ball early. Since that’s basically the only way to have a chance at beating Nadal on clay, Tsisipas has no chance.
So i shoukd just take a maximum mortgage loan and bet $200k on nadal to win $10k?
Depends on how confident you are about the no mafia thing.
Why don’t you forget about the betting and just watch the tennis! More enjoyable that way!
Needless to say, I would love to be wrong. Go Stefanos!
As Mira says above, facing a young player for the first time can be tricky for even the top players. e.g. it took Rafa the best part of the first set to bring Carballes Baena under control. I doubt Tsisipas will be over-awed by the occasion (he enjoys the big stage). He’s ‘talking the talk’ but is about to find out ‘walking the walk’ is another matter when it’s Rafa on the other side of the net.
Rafa in 2
The one thing Tsitsipas said that I did not like is that he thinks he knows how Rafa is going to play him. Actually he doesn’t know. Rafa can be full of surprises and is one of the greatest tactical strategists ever.
Klizan ran his mouth off and still lost in two sets. Talk is cheap. Rafa does his talking with his racket.
It’s not the quality; Tsitsipas has quite a good serve. It’s just that the mechanics look nothing like Federer’s. Unlike, say, Dimitrov’s serve, which is fairly similar.
I didn’t know that Tsitsipas modeled his game on Federer’s. I don’t see much similarity except for the one-handed BH.
Sorry, this comment is in response to Lucky at 8:35 above.
And, modeling after Fed doesnt mean he has to copy Fed’s way of serving; it is copying his game style, not how Fed hits his shots.
You havent been watching him. The guy said he admired Fed or something to that effect; and to me hes playing like Fed, ie moving up to the net to attack quite often; hes an attacking player mixing in some good varieties.
Imo, hes a better prospect than Shapo; he played with controlled aggression whilst Shapo tends to go for broke. Of course both still far away from becoming future big four kind of players, as they need to improve the precision of their shots and understanding how to make full use of the court the way the big four do.
Agreed. 5S has real deal potential, half of which is his poise and maturity for his age. Didn’t get tight in closing out matches.
Plus he was pushed hard but won all his matches in straight sets. I agree with you he comes across as exceptionally mature for a 19 yr old.
Can’t see anything than a Rafa win! As it had been said here,I also doubt of the physical condition of Tsitsipas,he looked very tired towards the end of his SF match.It’s gonna be interesting to see how his BH holds up against the extreme spin of Rafa’s FH.We shall wait and see.
Vamos King of Clay 👑🎾
Keep your mind sharp and focused, stay confident, be strong and show your warrior spirit, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Db8m-hkXkAAPCLU.jpg
Rafa draws first blood!!
The tennis channel commies are saying that Tsitsipas csn’t camp out on Rafa’s backhand side. He has to also go for the forehand. The way Rsfa is hitting his backhand, this kid isn’t going to have much luck.
Rafa gets the early break.
This kid is trying to go for his shots, but Rafa holds.
Rafa has come out playing beautifully today.
0-40.
Rafa rolling now
Oh yeah,beast mode already activated! Vamos 💪
Rafa gets the second break. The kid is getting schooled right now. I don’t think it’s nerves. I think he is just not up to hanging with Rafa on clay in a final. He’s done well to get through in a field where other took players are not now at their best. But this is Rafa!
Ignore the word “took” in my last post! Autocorrect gets carried away! *
Rafa’s DTL forehand is firing on all cylinders today.