As players often do following big-time wins, Dominic Thiem has only gone south since stunning Rafael Nadal in the Madrid quarterfinals. Thiem lost the Madrid final 6-4, 6-4 to Alexander Zverev and dropped his Rome opener against Fabio Fognini 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 on Wednesday afternoon.
Little separated the two players over the course of two hours and four minutes, but Fognini managed to convert one of his seven break points in the third set whereas Thiem failed to capitalize on either of his two opportunities.
“It was a good match, actually, from both of us, I would say,” the Austrian assessed. “[The match] was a very intense fight, basically from the beginning to the end. So I’m disappointed that I lost, obviously. But game-wise, I’m not really disappointed.”
“I’m really happy, for sure,” Fognini commented. “It’s a great victory for me, especially here in Rome. I’m really happy about my game–about my performance…. I feel really good; really comfortable.”
Wednesday highlights:
Nadal had no trouble whatsoever in his second-rounder, as he hammered Damir Dzumhur 6-1, 6-0 in exactly one hour. The top seed committed only nine unforced errors and dropped a total of nine points in seven service games.
“It was a positive match, of course,” Nadal assessed. “It was important after a loss in Madrid to come back strong. And that’s what I did. I went on court with the right intensity. I don’t know how many mistakes I made, but not many. I also had control, more or less, of a high percentage of the points. That was the way that I want to play.”
Next up for the Spaniard is Denis Shapovalov, one of three active players who owns a winning head-to-head record against Nadal (1-0).
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breadstick and bagel
lol…
I guess Shapo loses in 2 but gets more game(s) than Dzumhur did.
At least it was an entertaining match. Fognini fell on his ass like 3 times in the match, haha and kicked some chairs, threw some things.
Fognini did? I need to find the highlights.
And Dominic destroyed a raquet too. All the action wasn in the third set. It was entertaining. Not sure Fogna can fire himself up and repeat such a performance vs Gojowczk. Hope so!!
Really entertaining match between Fognini and Thiem. Latter not at his best, especially on serve, but Fog has the game to trouble anyone. If he could just keep his focus he would be a top 10 player, easy.
Shapo has to play better than he did against Haase, but he definitely can give Nadal a lot of trouble. His wide serve, in particular, can be effective against Rafa, who I think is generally better moving laterally to his BH than to his FH.
Shapo has to serve big and stay aggressive, and then I think he has the chance for an upset. A fast start will be important as well.
Joe….If it’s Madrid,then yes!Shapo[with his current form] may have a chance to creates an upset…BUT,this is Rome…Have u seen Rafa vs Damir yesterday Joe?If u watch it…then the sensible question is..1]Can Shapo handle ‘this Rafa’?..2]Like RC said up there,how many games will Shapo get?..3]Can he stay with this Rafa for 1,2 hrs straight without melting?
Joe..I know u want Shapo to make an upsets against Rafa today…But,unless an out of the blue things/injury happen to Rafa…i don’t think your wish/hope will be granted today Joe…Sorry!….Insyaallah Rafa will win in straights…
Fair enough, Mira! Yes, I would like to see an upset, but I also think Shapo is the kind of player capable of it. He will also take confidence from knowing that he’s beaten Nadal before, even if it was on HC. He has unusual poise for his age, which he’s shown in his recent play. Go Denis!
Come on, this is clay, you think that would happen? You just have so little respect for Rafa, the king of clay! Every clay season, I see Joe wishing for Rafa to be upset; I wonder would he wish for a Shapo or Sasha to upset Fed at Halle and Wimbledon!
From what I’ve seen, both Shapo and Sasha have the game to beat Fed at Wimbledon. I hope for that to happen, and may start doing that every year.
I know what u mean Joe!…Maybe u will see Shapo beat Rafa again someday…maybe on grass where we know Rafa’s knees won’t allow him to be at his best nowadays…or maybe at Montreal[again!]/Cincy where the fast court will favour Denis…Even then,i will stick to the chances that if Rafa is healthy & no issues troubling him at that time..the chances of Denis beating him is 50/50 imo..
Mira, when Rafa is playing in full fitness and feeling confident, he’s hard to beat by even the TOP players on the HCs, I don’t see why Shapo would fare better than these TOP guys against Rafa.
Rafa was poor by his standard last year at Canada and Cincy, other than those two years of 2015/2016, Rafa had not done any worse at those two tournaments, only 2011 was worse (than 2017) when he lost in R2 at Canada and QF at Cincy. We know what happened in 2011 when Rafa was losing to Djoko a few times and his confidence had sunken to new lows.
Rafa wasn’t confident at all after losing a close match at Wimbledon last year, and he started USO not at all convincing. Rafa’s play depends a lot on his own confidence; I think when he won Canada/Cincy in 2013, he was full of confidence, because of his better than he would have asked for results on clay and at IW after his comeback.
I hope Rafa wins Rome and FO and then he’ll feel better arriving on grass at Queens. Last year Rafa hadn’t done any warm up event on grass, and I feel that’s why when it came to crunch moments, he became hesitant and made some wrong decisions, against Muller. He needed match play to feel confident about his own game.
If he can do better at Queen’s and Wimbledon, ie going deeper into the tournaments, I think he should feel better come the HC season. Losing a close match esp at Wimbledon was difficult to swallow, the disappointment needed time to overcome; I was glad he won the USO (frankly I was surprised, even though I was hoping he could win it). After winning his 3rd USO, I saw a confident Rafa at the LC and then the Asian swing and only injuries had stopped him after that.
I think confidence is everything for Rafa, when he’s feeling nervous, we could see him losing even at Madrid, lost his way during a match!
Lucky!…Very agree with u!..U,me & Hawks always stressed that confidence played a big part in Rafa’s game…They determined whether he will win or lose in matches…
And i want to say so much about grass,but i don’t think our fellow Rafans wants to hear anything about it yet..especially what i have in mind will surely makes augusta shakin’ with rage,and his/her usual mantra..’Wheelchair doctor r at it once again!’ surely will appear soon!Hahaha…
But,based on his perfomance against Damir yesterday…Honestly,i think it’s hard for anyone to stop him..not even the in form Sascha….That’s my opinion…
Please notice that I said IF Shapo serves well and plays aggressively, he has a chance of an upset. I’m not saying he is favoured, or that I expect him to win, of course. But I think he has a chance, and the sort of game that can give Nadal trouble.
As I said elsewhere, I think Rafa is more vulnerable psychologically than he used to be, even on clay. If his opponent plays strongly and keeps it up -no easy task, of course- then I think Rafa can get discouraged and that can embolden the opponent even more.
Obviously, if Nadal comes out and plays his best, he will win. I just think there’s a decent chance that he won’t, and Shapo would have to have something to do with that.
Why he won’t when he was winning convincingly in his R2 match? I mean Shapo is not unbeatable, and frankly, he wasn’t at all convincing against Haase; it’s more about Haase being awful than Shapo playing well.
Shapo struggled to beat Berdych, struggled to beat Haase, I don’t see how he would not struggle against Rafa.
I know people are all over Shapo, but I think the hype over him has gone too far. He went deep at Madrid but the Madrid surface was a quick one, playing more like a HC than normal clay court.
I would say it’s his fighting spirit that got him through his matches vs Berdych and Haase, both of his opponents were not exactly on fire though.
He’s already doing alright on clay, his big serving, hard hitting and going for broke game would at least allow him to beat those players in the early rounds on any surface. It’s at the later stages, meeting the big guys, that his game would really be tested.
Like I said earlier, his big serving and hard hitting game will be better suited for grass, the quicker lower bouncing grass would make his game (serve/hard hitting) more difficult to defend against. He done quite well last year at Queens, I think he will do better this year at Queens and Wimbledon.
Shapo’s game matches up quite well with Rafa to be honest (big hitter, left-handed, no fear) but on clay I just can’t see it.
1HBH does not match up well
Actually, it does match up well, just as Benny says, for all those reasons. Shapo has the ability to hit winners in large numbers. He doesn’t freeze up in the big moments, and continues to go for his shots. He also has a big serve when it’s on. If his game is firing on all cylinders, he has a decent shot at an upset here.
negative
Left handers don’t match up well against Rafa’s leftiness. Rafa’s FH > than most lefty FHs, who has a bigger lefty FH than Rafa? Maybe Verdasco, but Verdasco’s is error prone. Rafa now has a formidable DHBH, which may come in useful vs Shspo’s lefty SHBH.
Shapo has his big serve but Rafa has his great ROS; Rafa’s serve is good enough against Shapo’s not so great ROS. Shapo beat Rafa barely at Montreal last year but that was the first time Rafa met Shapo, and Rafa wasn’t really on fire back then. He was also poor at Cincy. He’ll be ready for Shapo in their next meeting(s).
Also, how many big hitters have positive H2H vs Rafa? Not Delpo, not Cilic, not Berdych, not even the now retired Sod. He also has positive H2H vs big servers Isner, Raonic, Karlovic. I fail to see how Shapo has any edge over Rafa, unless Rafa has an off day like that Madrid QF.
Just finished watching the match. Shapo served well, but he was just ok from the baseline and his ROS was terrible. In fact, it was the most inept returning I have seen in a long time. It’s not like Nadal’s serve is huge, either. Why Denis didn’t take a couple steps back to give himself more time is beyond me.
All that said, Shapovalov didn’t do badly at all, considering who he was playing, the surface, and the fact that he’s played all of about 10 ATP clay matches (or less?) in his whole career. Nadal didn’t look unbeatable to me, though he was mostly solid apart from some bad UE in the beginning. Fognini will again have chances if he can keep his head screwed on, no guarantee, obviously.
A final note. More evidence in the 2nd set of why clay court tennis (along with rest of the tour) needs to go entirely to electronic line calling. Shapo was up 40-love, down 3-1, and ended up losing the game. The call was ultimately correct, as was showed on the replay (the umpire made a bad over-rule), but it took awhile to get the right call and Shapo didn’t get two serves. Unlikely to have made a difference to the match, but might have to the game. It’s just more evidence of why tennis should take away the human element from line calling.
Maybe because just getting the serve back is death vs Nadal? No one this side of vintage Djokovic can rally with Rafa on clay. Shapo’s only hope was to go for it and hope Rafa had a really bad day. Shapo’s not stupid; he knows he’s inexperienced on clay. He’s just out there learning.
That might make sense if Shapo was really going for his returns, but he was unable even to chip them back most of the time. He shanked a ton of them; it was just bad. It was really the difference in the match, I thought. And it meant that Shapo was never really in it even when the score was tied at 3-3: he just never showed that he was capable of breaking Rafa’s serve.