Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray will kick off their Barcelona campaigns on Wednesday with respective matchups against Rogerio Dutra Silva and Bernard Tomic. Tomic is coming off a solid first-round win over Dustin Brown.
Rogerio Dutra Silva vs. (3) Rafael Nadal
Nadal set a single-tournament Open Era record by winning his 10th title in Monte-Carlo last week and he will now try to accomplish the same feat at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell. The nine-time champion is 48-3 lifetime in Barcelona and 47-2 in his last 49 matches at this event. Nadal is 24-5 this season (24-2 against opponents other than Roger Federer) after dropping just a single set in Monte-Carlo while beating Kyle Edmund (three sets), Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman, David Goffin, and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
The fifth-ranked Spaniard aims to continue his hot streak on Wednesday with Dutra Silva on the other side of the net. Their only previous encounter came at the 2013 U.S. Open, where Nadal dominated 6-2, 6-1, 6-0. Like Nadal, Dutra Silva is at his best on clay and spends as much time as possible on this surface. The 69th-ranked Brazilian has captured two Challenger titles on the red stuff already in 2017 and he opened in Barcelona on Tuesday by crushing Renzo Olivo 6-1, 6-1. Dutra Silva, however, is 0-3 lifetime against top 10 opponents (0-9 in total sets) and an especially bad 0-8 against top 20 opponents (0-22 in total sets). The heavy underdog will almost certainly be the victim of another thorough beatdown on Wednesday.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
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(1) Andy Murray vs. Bernard Tomic
Murray’s first extended period as the No. 1 player in the world is not off to a fun start as he heads into second-round action in Barcelona. Murray, who finished a year in the top spot for the first time in his career last fall, is a modest 13-4 this season and stands at 11th in the race to London almost four months into the 2017 campaign. After missing the Miami Masters with an elbow injury, the Scot began his clay-court swing with a third-round loss in Monte-Carlo to Ramos-Vinolas, the eventual runner-up.
Up first for Murray on Wednesday is a fifth career meeting with Tomic, who trails the head-to-head series 4-0 (all on hard courts). The 41st-ranked Australian is a hopeless 0-9 lifetime in sets against Murray following a pair of setbacks in 2016 (6-4, 6-4, 7-6(4) at the Aussie Open and 6-4, 6-4 in Cincinnati). Tomic had been 2-7 this year and a disastrous 0-6 in his last six matches prior to this week, but he managed to beat Dustin Brown 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 on Tuesday. A steep step up in competition, however, should send Tomic back to his losing ways in emphatic fashion.
Pick: Murray in 2 losing 5-7 games
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Rafa missed an opportunity to break Dutra Silva in his first service game in the second d set.
Now Dutra Silva breaks Rafa. He’s hanging in there and it paid off. Rafa should restore order here with a break back.
Sure enough, Rafa breaks back.
Rafahas restored order. 2-2
Rafa gets another break. That seals it.
Rafa in control up 5-2.
The forecast for tomorrow is very bad with rain predicted for the whole day.
beatdown city
Who’s this guy ever beaten though.
Rafa wins!
Next up for Rafa is Anderson.
Vaamoos Rafa!! ✌
Really felt that I was seeing Rafa of the old. Honestly! the way this is going, this guy will be unshakeable at the French. I don’t see him losing on clay if he keeps building this momentum.
Agreed. ?
Yes, and he’s becoming consistent. No odd & even good and bad days. He is looking much better than when he won MC and Barcelona last year.
A Rafan tweeted: “Toni thinks Rafa’s playing very well with his BH, but needs to hurt a bit more with his FH (not enough fast and deep)”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-WXW9WWAAET7CU.jpg
But I like Rafa playing with varieties these days, it’s so beautiful to watch. He’s losing more of the longer rallies these days, so he venturing to the net more often now to finish the point sooner is really the right strategy I feel.
Rafa needs to sustain his high level from set one to set two, he usually let his level drops a little in the second set, and that gives his opponents chances to fight back, of course they’re not always successful in the end.
Agree with you on all counts! Though, can’t blame Rafa for losing focus in the second…he was so in control of the match, firing on all cylinders that the outcome was never in doubt thus losing his interest a bit..he won’t do it against stronger opponents I believe…
And I also love him making the points shorter and employing more varieties in his game…beautiful to watch!
In this match there was no way that Dutra Silva was going to make a dent in Rafa’s game. Even when Dutra Silva broke Rafa early in the second set after playing some decent tennis, Rafa just broke right back.
I think Rafa knew that Dutra Silva could not hurt him. He was able to play freely and go for his shots. Some of it is because Rafa got the monkey off his back by winning MC. That win and the records he set with it, would give him confidence and good feelings heading into Barcelona.
I was hoping to see Rafa play more freely now, going for his shots and being aggressive and volleying at net. I hope he keeps it up!
Uncle Toni saying what I’ve been saying since Australian Open.
Dutra Silva hasn’t hurt anybody of note.
The mix in play is great but, don’t kid yourself, besting the best at their best will require what Toni says in this case, particularly against Federer, on any surfrace.
AT 7:34 PM,
It doesn’t matter what someone outside the Rafa team says.
@ hawks 7:34 PM,
Can’t think like that..,who did Nishioka hurt of note? Hmmm..,until he met red hot in form Fed? And beat him!
In my opinion, I realistically only see one single potential hurdle for Rafa in sweeping the clay season. If Rafa no longer has any kind of Djokovic-related mental block, I would pick him to beat Novak this clay season if they played. However, if they do play, and Novak still has a mental edge on Rafa, I don’t think it would necessarily matter that Rafa is playing better than Novak right now… We’ve seen it happen before where Novak has had this mental edge over both Rafa and Fed, where they can be playing arguably better tennis than, or at least as well as Novak, but then at least in large part because of the mental factor they lose to him…
Before people jump down my throat, let me be clear: I am NOT saying that I think that Novak WILL beat Rafa in this clay season! I am simply pointing out that there is a huge mental aspect to Rafa’s losing streak to Novak, and that Rafa may need to overcome that mental aspect in order to beat Novak if they played this clay season. But maybe not? Maybe Novak would play poorly enough or Rafa would play strongly enough that the mental factor just doesn’t matter or exist. We just won’t know unless and until we see them play. That being said, if they played on clay and I had to bet $, I would have to bet that Rafa would be over the Novak-mental-block and would win. I just haven’t seen enough from Novak to challenge Rafa on clay right now.
Other than that one thing, I can’t realistically see anyone else taking Rafa on clay right now. Stan could randomly take it to another at RG, but the chances are relatively slim. Andy ain’t beating Rafa right now. I don’t see Fed’s current aggressive game translating enough to clay to beat Rafa. Maybe Kyrgios only in Madrid? Long shot… I just don’t see anyone realistically challenging Rafa right now.
It’s Rafa challenging Rafa imo. I do feel playing so well, it’s all on Rafa’s racket; and if Djoko continues with his slump, I think Rafa won’t be affected mentally when he faces Djoko. If others could beat Djoko, I don’t see why Rafa couldn’t. Surely Rafa is playing (or can play) better than these others who are/were beating Djoko?
While I will continue to espouse the stance that mental strength and confidence is the separator between winning and losing, even more so than the elite physical talent required, I think that the concept that one player is in the other player’s mind is overplayed, whether it be for example Fedal or Rafole,
Maybe I didn’t explain myself properly. I was referring to Fedole and Rafole, not Fedal. Do you think the mental edge aspect of Fedole is overplayed, too? I think it was one of the biggest reasons Fed couldn’t capitalize in the 2015 US Open final, as well as in 2015 Wimbledon when Fed was playing extremely well and then just fell flat in the final. I think he’s had a serious mental block against Nole in slams for almost 5 years. As it relates to Rafaole, I feel like the mental thing showed especially itself in their match last year in Rome, and to a lesser extent at IW. However, I agree that it can be overblown by some people who think it’s 100% mental with these guys’ rivalries. Its certainly not all mental. I just feel like when you lose to a guy who you used to be beat regularly seven times straight, there’s got to be a mental aspect to that. I feel like Rafa is too great of a player for it not to be somewhat mental.
I think in general no matter the match up.
I really don’t think that’s how these guys think. They see it as a challenge and if they are playing well with confidence (which is where I’ve always come from), I really do think that they go on court with a plan and a belief that they can win.
This is not to be confused with the general bit of doubt that an on-form streaking Nadal, Federer or Nole can plant against the whole field.
But the one-on-one mental block, I just don’t buy when it comes to the Big Four. Just my opinion though. YMMV.
Rafa? No way. None of the Big Four. Rafa after his 2012 AO loss to Djokovic “I’ll win the next one.” After losing the 4th set to Djoker in their 2013 semifinal: “I’m in a big match again, one of the one’s that will be talked about at the end of the year.” Rafa is still the kid who went bouncing around the room yelling “GOOOOALLLLL!” after he scored against Moya in a playstation game. That had brought the score to 9 – 1 Moya. Rafa’s the man who values his 2012 AO loss v Djokovic far more than smooshing Roger in 2008 at RG. These guys are *competitors*. Maybe Roger wasn’t a fierce competitor early in his career but he is now. He has to be. Same with Djokovic took a good look at himself back in 2010 and figured he had to get tougher if he wanted to beat those guys. And did.
What a joy that was to watch Just like the old days. But the UE count was uncharacteristic. I assume this was the result of Rafa pushing the boundaries to test out his strokes knowing he was in control of the match.
Depressing weather forecast for the next two days – sounds like it will be a struggle to get through all the matches this week.
Yeah fantastic to see him going for his shots, and been aggressive and shortening points 🙂 ….
Two down!! ✌ ✌ Vaamoos Rafa!!