The Cincinnati draw has been decimated, but Rafael Nadal’s remains a tough one. It begins against Richard Gasquet on Wednesday. Dominic Thiem and Fabio Fognini are in second-round action on Tuesday.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. Richard Gasquet
Nadal and Gasquet will be squaring off for the 15th time in their careers at the ATP level when they clash in round two of the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday. This is one of the most lopsided head-to-head series in tennis, with Nadal having swept all 14 of their previous encounters. Only four times has Gasquet event managed to snag a set, and he has not accomplished that feat since the 2008 Rogers Cup. Since then, Nadal has won 23 sets in a row–a streak that spans 10 matches. The two friends and fellow veterans most recently faced each other on the indoor hard courts of Basel in 2015, where the Spaniard prevailed 6-4, 7-6(7).
With Roger Federer joining Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, and many others on the sidelines, and with a red-hot Alexander Zverev surely running on almost empty, Nadal is the favorite on paper to triumph in Cincinnati for a second time (2013). The world No. 2 is coming off a disappointing Montreal loss to Denis Shapovalov that prevented him from ascending to the top of the rankings, but he is still 47-8 this season with four titles. Gasquet is a decent 21-11 in 2017, but he was just 1-3 in his last four matches prior to Cincinnati. The 29th-ranked Frenchman kicked off his campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 first-round defeat of John-Patrick Smith on Monday. A steep step up in competition in the form of his biggest nemesis should bring about a swift end to Gasquet’s week.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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(3) Dominic Thiem vs. Fabio Fognini
Thiem is heading straight for a second consecutive berth in the World Tour Finals, but the jury is still out on his hard-court form. The eighth-ranked Austrian has reached all three of his 2017 finals on clay (one title in Rio de Janeiro) and aside from a quarterfinal performance in Indian Wells has not done much on any other surface. Thiem is coming off a pair of brutal three-set losses–to Kevin Anderson in a final-set tiebreaker in Washington, D.C. and to Diego Schwartzman in Montreal, both from match point up.
Up first for the third seed on Tuesday is Fognini, who dropped their only previous contest 6-3, 6-0 two years ago on the red clay of Munich. Even though Fognini is also adept on the slow stuff, a hard court should give him a better chance in this matchup. The 25th-ranked Italian earned another shot at Thiem by beating Daniil Medvedev 7-6(5), 6-4 on Monday. That is a positive result for Fognini, but he went back to the slow stuff from three tournaments following Wimbledon so he has just one hard-court match under his belt.
Pick: Thiem in 3
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Fognini in three and Nadal in two
Stay focused, remain confident, be strong and enjoy the game, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHX_gf4XcAANdym.jpg
Go Rafa! Enjoy on the court, consider it all just as warm ups for USO and relax!
Vamos Champ!
I knew that Gasquet has never beaten Rafa, but I was just glancing at their h2h, and Gasquet hasn’t even won a set off of Rafa in 9 years! What a horrible match-up for Gasquet. I’d be shocked if he were even able to remotely push Rafa tonight…
reign delay
I can’t believe it! Rafa and Gasquet come out to play and it starts raining! They thought it would stop but it is still going. This is great! They make Rafa wait for the last match and it rains! So what do they do if they can’t get it in tonight?
I don’t know why Rafa has to play last!
I believe the winner has to play twice tomorrow. Gah! How am I supposed to sleep tonight?
Rafa has to play at night because he’s the biggest draw they have. He has to play 2nd because it was the women’s turn to play the first match.
Well at least it stopped raining and they are playing.
Rafa is again standing way behind the baseline. Giving up a lot of ground. But Gaquet had to fight just to hold serve in his first game. Rafa had a chance to break and tried to keep the pressure on, but Gasquet held.
time to get ready for Kyrgios
Just hope Rafa makes it through the first two rounds. I have courtside seats for Friday. It will be super if it is Rafa vs Nick.
wowzer
I would be really jealous vmk! I am rooting for Karlovic but we know it is much more likely to be NK! lol
Is it really that hot and humid out there or is it Rafa sweating like crazy again? Rafa’s game still error prone and the serve isn’t working well, yet Rafa’s helped a lot by Richard’s own UEs and is leading comfortably…
It’s humid out there, Gasquet is also sweating like crazy, just slightly better than Rafa.
I have a feeling Rafa is rushing through his service game, trying to serve big hence the fault on first serve. He’s probably worried about the rain coming again and would like to win this match asap.
They said it was very humid tonight, but not as bad as it can be in Cincy. Gasquet was also sweating quite a bit.
I believe Rafa changed clothes after the first set. He was soaked through.
Is it just me or is Rafa playing a lot worse than he was at the AO this year?
yep I’m looking at some of nadal’s matches at the AO and literally everything looks better:
fast, good serve
deep, consistent shots
good spin and pace
barely any UFE
his play at the AO looks 1000x better than what is rn.
Not a lot worse, he wasn’t much better at the AO, just getting better after beating AZverev in R2; this is only his third match on the HCs after Wimbledon; AO was after Abu Dhabi exho and Brisbane, so he had some match practice before the AO.
to me he just doesn’t seem to have the confidence he had pre-Wimbledon, and it seems to be affecting his play.
Rafa’s ROS still a big worry…If he is having trouble returning Gasquet’s serve how on earth is he going to deal with Nick’s or Ivo’s serve…
Actually Rafa doesn’t need to stand way behind the baseline to return Gasquet’s serves as Gasquet doesn’t serve big. Rafa stands further back when returning huge serves, but I do feel he needs to cut off the angle for wide serves to his FH by standing closer to the baseline returning from that wing. I think he’s quicker on his BH corner return as he could move sideway to hit a sharp angle CC return from that wing better than at his FH wing.
Rafa could use a nice run here to get match play and rhythm and timing on his groundstrokes.
I would not expect him to be in great form now after only playing two matches in Montreal. I hope he can get into a groove here.
Love the last service game! Hope to see more of those confident serves!
Vamos Champ!
Vamos Rafa! ✌ ?
I really can’t imagine Rafa losing here considering how many top players are either not playing or have already lost. The only person who maybe could beat him if they are on fire is an inspired Kyrgios. But what are the realistic chances of that haha? Honestly though, who left in the draw can realistically beat 2017 Rafa?
Kyrgios plays for the big matches. So I think the chances are alright. He has been locked in more lately or at least in his first two matches here. He actually said he was surprised that he stayed focused through the whole match with Dolgopolov.
Tennis TV: “Remember at Wimbledon? Rafa Nadal wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice…?”
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/898011910666420224
🙂
I thought it was a MUCH better performance! After Montreal, I thought he would lose in straights to Kyrgios if they meet in Cincy but this performance gives me hope. He is still a bit confused about the return and the quicker conditions make it tougher for him to step up but he sometimes ends up losing too much ground.
I really liked Rafa’s groundstrokes. The improvements were vast as compared to his last match. He was getting great angles on his backhand CC and he was willing to use his DTL backhand to approach the net. The forehand had a lot more bite and it was much tougher to attack his forehand. Gasquet played a fine match but Rafa was very solid.
SO Glad Muller is out and he will now defeat Ramos. I am hoping Karlovic wins two TB’s against Kyrgios but of course the latter is favourite.
I think Rafa needs time to adjust to the conditions here and at Montreal. Both are fast courts, not unlike 2013 but back then Rafa was 27, with a better serve and ROS; now he’s four years older. I also think that he’s not too sure about his ROS these days esp after losing to two lefties in two B2B tournaments, when he had chances to win in both matches.
I feel he was treading too cautiously, didn’t want to take risk both times. He was also playing better vs Coric and Gasquet, both times trying to impose his game, knowing that his opponents didn’t have a threatening serve.
He’s also rushing through his service games, perhaps didn’t want any more rain delay, was trying to serve big but not too successful. I agree, his ground strokes are/were solid, he didn’t mishit much, unlike at Montreal.
The test is against the big server/hard hitter, I think Ivo or Kygrios will provide a bigger test for him. I’m not sure about Kyrgios though, I think Rafa is playing at a slightly better level than Kyrgios, as I think Goffin wasn’t fit yet, Dolgo wasn’t playing that well either lately. Kygrios seemed to have some physical issue still, grimacing sometimes as if in pain. Ivo though was serving from a tree, hard to return those serves.
I think if Rafa can get past his QF opponent, he should have an easier SF, thereafter I think it’s either Isner or Delpo in the final, certainly not a straight forward path for Rafa here at Cincy.
Only saw a bit of the match. Gasquet is just hopeless against Rafa; incredible that the last time he even won a set was 2008. I certainly thought Nadal looked better on the whole than his last match, and hit some very impressive winners. Still not as consistent as he could be, imo. More will tell against tougher competition, particularly big hitters on this fast court.
Rafa’s post-match press conference:
https://youtu.be/Wng6jh9BzKI
“Just the start of the tournament. Was important start for me,” Nadal said afterward. “Always important to win the first match, especially after what happened last week, losing the match that way. So, just happy for the way that I played, and of course for the victory, no? So let’s see. Tomorrow another tough match against, you know, against Albert. I know him very well. He know me very well. Going to be a tough one. I hope to be ready to play well.
“My goal, I always say the same, is important thing for me because to come back to that number [one] after all the things that happened to me since the last time that I have been in that position is something very important and very difficult, no? I worked a lot to give me another chance, and here I am. Just to be back to that position is something that makes me happy, and of course is going to be an emotional moment for me. But that doesn’t change my goals. My goal is try to play a good tournament here, and of course then we gonna think about the US Open. But now it’s Cincinnati.”
Quotes in EL Espanol, a Spanish newspaper (translated from Spanish by GSS):
“When you come from a loss like the one in Montreal, it takes you some time to recover. It was a chance for me to add points, to become #1 in that week… so, there were several factors that made the loss particularly tough. It was important to recover mentally and arrive well prepared for this [first] match. It wasn’t easy the first 2 days but, from there on, I went back practicing well, motivated and doing things in the right way. Then, everything can happen, but I feel ready to compete again here, as happened today.”
http://www.elespanol.com/deportes/tenis/20170817/239726140_0.html
thanks for sharing.
SO, the no.1 ranking was surely added pressure and prevented him from playing freely.To me it was obvious how tentative he was in that entire match. It was his worst loss of the year. I think he will play much better in Cincy. he has generally played quite well on hard courts this year.
I think this tournament is VERY important for Rafa. Winning a masters 1000 in an event he has struggled a lot in the past would be so good for his confidence heading into the USO. I am really hoping he can overcome all obstacles. I would be very hopeful once he gets past the Qtr final stage.
winning here would give him a 1050 points lead over Federer in the ATP Race. I know he keeps track of the race quite frequently and often mentions it in his interview. A win here would be really awesome for him.
I saw the beginning of the first set and Rafa looked very average to me. he has to get better to win USO.
The same here, atul I think Rafa is not there yet! A lot of room for improvement IMO. Rafa needs to step it up if he wants to beat Nick who is always inspired when facing top five opponents and Rafa in particular!
Nick looking less than 100 percent this week. But who knows. If he gets past Ivo, he will raise his level for the big stage.
sure, there is a lot of room for improvement but I saw significant improvements compared to his Montreal match. He will get better and better I guess.
I hope so too! Less pressure on Rafa in terms of No1 spot but we all know he is nervous when facing big serving & hitting machines…i just want him to play freely and build his form for USO!
I agree with vr about seeing improvements in Rafa’s game. But he would feel confident against Gasquet who has never beaten him. The test will come in the quarterfinals when Rafa would face either Karlovic or Kyrgios.
I also agree with Lucky about Rafa needing to adjust to hard courts again. He didn’t really get the time to do that in Montreal because he lost to Shap.
I think he has to work on the ROS and get comfortable with it. At times I thought Rafa was again playing too far behind the baseline, but Gasquet couldn’t really hurt him. But I feel that after he won the first set he started playing more agressive tennis. He was moving into the court more and getting the good court positioning.
I have to believe that Rafa can play more freely now knowing he’s got the #1 ranking. I just hope he can relax and just go for it in his matches.
I would love to see Rafa win here, but even with so many players out, there are still challenging ones playing. Delpo and Isner are both still in it and either has a good chance to make the final.