A couple of Italians will be trying to pull off big upsets on Friday at Roland Garros. One simply is not going to happen. However, former semifinalist Marco Cecchinato could be in with a chance against Alexander Zverev.
Stefano Travaglia vs. (2) Rafael Nadal
Nadal’s bid for a 13th French Open title is off to a routine start despite unusually poor conditions for him in Paris. The second-ranked Spaniard opened with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Egor Gerasimov before destroying Mackenzie McDonald 6-1, 6-0, 6-3.
A friendly draw–at least for now–continues on Friday, when Nadal faces Travaglia for the first time. The 74th-ranked Italian had been a horrendous 2-8 lifetime in the main draws of Grand Slams prior to this fortnight, but he has advanced by taking out Pablo Andujar in straight sets and Kei Nishikori in five. This a great result for Travaglia, but inexperience combined with the toughest opponent possible and a five-setter two days earlier is a recipe for disaster.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 5-7 games
(6) Alexander Zverev vs. (Q) Marco Cecchinato
Zverev and Cecchinato will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time at a Grand Slam this season. Their only previous meeting came in round one of the Australian Open, where Zverev cruised 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3. Clay obviously gives Cecchinato a much better chance, as this is the only surface on which he has ever posted decent results. In fact, the 110th-ranked Italian was better than decent at this event in 2018, when he upset Novak Djokovic en route to the semifinals. Cecchinato is trying to make another run two years later, having followed up successful qualification with wins over Alex de Minaur and Juan Ignacio Londero.
Zverev needed five sets to outlast Pierre-Hugues Herbert on Wednesday after easing past Dennis Novak in his opener. Although the U.S. Open runner-up may not be at his very best on clay, he has reached the quarterfinals at each of the past two French Opens. At their respective levels, there is no surface and no conditions in which Cecchinato should be able to prevail.
Pick: Zverev in 4
WWW?
Anyone else sick of this endless fawning over Novak by the commies saying no one can beat him?!
Hope he loses his cool and assaults a ballboy thus ensuring another default!😀
If Novak.had to play Stan and Dom he would suddenly look a whole lot more beatable!
The only person who has him losing before the final is Ricky!
# Ricky’s word is law!
No @amy.😀. after all the fed fawning the media has subjected us to over the years, the djoko fawn is quite watered down. Also justified to a certain extent considering he is yet to be beaten in a completed match
Yes that too on clay everyone proclaiming he is unbeatable
I know conditions don’t favour rafa but a 12 time champion getting less respect than a one time champion is puzzling. I’m surprised the story is more about novak going for his 18 than rafa tying fed for 20
Ricky has him losing to tsitsipas .well tsitsipas almost got out of jail in first round…but good for him that both Medvedev n shapo he was slated to meet are out
Maybe busta takes novak out again 🙂 however personally I think garin n kachanov won’t be a walkover either
Apart from his AO run Tsitsi has a poor record at slams. RBA has given Nole a lot of trouble before so let’s hope he can do something.
Khachanov? He is not in good form, don’t think he will pose any challenge to Djoko. Garin not good enough either, lacking in experience.
There’s this guy called Busta, whom Djoko very much dislike to face, because Busta simply drags anyone into a war of attrition. I hope Busta plays well, if Agut is not playing well enough to beat him (Busta).
I see Berrittini is not great either, so maybe Agut or Busta has better chances to beat him, before getting to face Djoko, probably.
Pablo Carreno Busta or PCB for short. If you’re going to use the patronymic, that’s “Carreno” (sorry, don’t know how to do a tilda on my kb), which is how Rafa usually refers to him.
Busta is his mother’s family name. Similarly, RBA is “Bautista”, never “Agut” if you want to shorten it. Or “Rober”, to use his nickname.
I just use the last word of their names, that’s all. Only for ARV, I use ARV as Vinolas I sometimes couldn’t remember the spelling of it.
Other players have complained about the ball.
Dan Evans said it was so bad he wouldn’t give it to his dog!
Imagine if Rafa said that!? The Rafa haters would never shut up about it..
Fortunately Rafa doesn’t have a dog to not give those balls to.
Rafa in 3, Zverev in 5 (wouldn’t be surprised if he loses it though)
Yeah, I won’t be surprised Zverev may lose this. He almost lost to Herbert in the previous round.
Yeah, Cecchinato really is an old-school clay specialist, he knocked Djokovic out in 2018 for good reason. He really likes a five-set grind and may be able to wear Zverev down if he’s not careful. A lot rides on the Zverev 2nd serve, even on clay.
Be calm, be focused, be confident, be courageous, be strong, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EjTkVSvXgAIh4jc?format=jpg&name=900×900
Ramara October 1, 2020 at 7:25 PM
Pablo Carreno Busta or PCB for short. If you’re going to use the patronymic, that’s “Carreno” (sorry, don’t know how to do a tilda on my kb), which is how Rafa usually refers to him.
To get the ñ = Alt+164
Thanks!
Is it just me or are the courts playing really slow…it gives a very slow feel on tv..you just can’t hit through the ball…is it the court or the ball…
Stan losing to Gaston! So unsurprising! Stan is terrible against ordinary players
How disappointing is Stan!
yeah. Was hoping he’d beat Thiem! He actually could have.
Agreed. Stan is so hopeless against players he should beat easily and a beast against the best. Bet Dom is super happy!
Tell me about it!! Thats the one thong about him that is quite annoying!! he can be so up and down at times!!!
I swear that’s the easiest draw Novak has ever had!!Sigh!!
Commies Mona! Must be so infuriating being a fan of Stan! He really is a borderline basket case!
Rafa wins and into R4. Vamos Rafa!
Rafa was very very solid again. For all the talk about the ball and the condition s he has been hitting his forehand very well. That’s the index of where his game is and he was very strong at the net.
Thought his serve was better today as well.😀
I have definitely seen Rafa play worse than this early at RG!
Rafa DEFINITELY hitting with a flatter trajectory. He is going for more penetration and I can’t recall him doing it in RG’s earlier stages. He is doing this to stay in command of rallies as conditions are damn slow.
Keen to see a comparison of his average ground stroke speed so far compared to his earlier RG runs. A comparison of neat clearance would also be very useful.
He played the current match at 13-14 degrees,90%+ humidity and indoors! Can’t get any worse than this for him but he is looking GREAT out there.
Thanks for the recap. Haven’t seen the match yet, but I’ve been aware that Rafa has been flattening out his shots. He’s no dummy! And neither is Charley! This is not the normal RG!
Sorry to see that Stan went down. Total collapse in last set?? Hope he’s not hurt, watching the match wasn’t an option for me.
Vamos Rafa!
After the first match the commies said he was hitting his forehand 4 mph faster and his backhand 9 mph faster. I don’t know since then but he looked like he was hitting them faster again today…
But his first serve has been slower than last year. However, I was very surprised to see that in the second round he was hitting both his first and second serves faster than Dom!
Rafa’s Paris Bakery is still open for business! Bagels and breadsticks on special this week!
Yes Ramara. The bakery special is on and popping. Rafa serving us some delicious bagels and breadsticks.
Vamos Rafa
To be fair, he has not been facing stiff competition either. But rafa has played worse in the first week even against lesser ranked players(brands, klizan, bolleli). Even in rome he looked insurmountable till the Diego match. So better to be cautiously optimistic (a trait rafans have mastered over the years😀) . Qf onwards it looks like competition will jump two notches up going from players at the backend of top 100 to top 5 quite rapidly. Hope Rafa is ready and dare i say he gets the rub of the green his way as far as the weather is concerned. This rg, he needs every advantage he gets esp against the likes of thiem and the hungry djoko
Rafa is playing well. Today was a big step up in his game.Dont see anyone troubling him before the finals.
Exactly. He’s improving rapidly. Facing stiff competition is not the issue, getting much needed match play under his belt is the important factor. He’s fine tuning his game and adapting to the conditions with flatter groundstrokes (which he rarely does on clay with the crazy spin he generates with his forehand) and he improved his serve the last set of his match today. If he continues in this direction, he’ll handle any and all stiff competition ie djoko, Thiem etc.
I beg to differ that Rafa looked great in his first two rounds at Rome. PCB was exhausted from the US open and his other opponent was nothing to write home about. He lacked match play hence why when he met Diego and was challenged, he was a mess. If he had enough match play, Diego and djoko would have been handled by him.
He’s getting that here so I have faith that when he meets Thiem, djoko and co, he will be more than equal to the task.
‘If he had enough match play, Diego and djoko would have been handled by him.’
Mind boggles
Yeah just like if djoko had not been defaulted, he would have handled his opponents at the uso😀
Djoko is now the betting fav..crossed Nadal ..(:-