Rafael Nadal will get his shot at revenge against Stefanos Tsitsipas when they clash on a second consecutive semifinal Saturday, this time at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Tsitsipas just took down Nadal 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in the Madrid semis last weekend, but that does not necessarily mean the straits are dire for the Spaniard heading into this one. He still leads the head-to-head series 3-1, having dominated their first three contests all in straight sets.
Still, there is plenty of pressure on Nadal–and not just because he is surely so eager for revenge. In three previous clay-court appearances this spring, he did not reach the final on any occasion. Coming off a knee injury in Indian Wells, the world No. 2 can spin three straight semifinal showings as a positive. But, of course, it isn’t.
“(It is) good news I have been able to be back again in the semifinals (with) another three straight victories,” Nadal said following a 6-4, 6-0 rout of Fernando Verdasco on Friday. “I have been in that round during the last five events. First one I didn’t have the chance to play, Indian Wells. The next three, Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, I lost in this round–semifinals. But (to) be there all the time is good news.
“What happened (last week in Madrid), I know. The solution, I know. The execution is not easy. The theory is always easy, but the execution is much more difficult. Tennis is a simple sport. After a lot of years here, I know what happened last week, and I going to try to do it better.”
Meanwhile, Tstisipas has been one of the best players on tour in 2019. The 20-year-old Greek is 29-10 with two titles and a runner-up performance in Madrid, leaving him at No. 3 in the live race to London. Tsitsipas has been both lucky and good so far in Rome, disposing of Jannick Sinner and Fabio Fognini in straight sets before getting a quarterfinal walkover from Roger Federer.
Some much-needed rest was just what the doctor ordered for an overworked Tsitsipas, but Nadal also conserved energy earlier in the week. The second seed has dropped a mere six games through three matches and he baked a bagel set once against all three opponents en route to the semis (Jeremy Chardy, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Fernando Verdasco).
With his confidence being restored and playing in much more favorable conditions than at Madrid Masters, Nadal will likely take his revenge without a ton of trouble.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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I feel to beat this Djoko, you either overpower him with relentless attacking – hitting hard without missing to force him back – like what Stan did in the past and now what Delpo does (he almost beat Djoko), or you play a varied game like Fed or Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas is willing to venture forward to attack relentlessly thus taking away time from his opponent. In Madrid, he ran out of steam after beating Rafa, so he couldn’t play his all out attacking game. Shapo plays an all out attacking game but he doesn’t have the precision of his shots, tends to overhit.
I feel you can only beat Djoko with aggression, you can’t beat him with defence for its just so hard to force errors out of him.
Schwarzman is slow to cover his FH and is always late hitting his FH so tends to mishit;Djoko is hitting to his FH to extract errors.
A very impressive win for Nadal; this was the best he has played all season on clay (I thought he was even better in the AO, pre-final). The FH down the line did the damage early, and dented Tsiisipas’ confidence. Interesting that Stefanos didn’t think Nadal played much better than in Madrid; he thought the difference was mainly the court speed. I didn’t see it that way and I think Rafa was a couple steps higher today than in Madrid. However, I thought Stefanos was curiously unenergized. His shots were falling short in the court, and he wasn’t as aggressive as he needed to be. It was only a break in each set, but that was enough.
For those who think I always pick against Nadal, I picked him to win, narrowly, in the AO final. I’m not making that mistake again. He has had the much easier path to this final, he’s the king of clay, and his level in the SF should be good enough to win. But I tend to agree with Lucky. The only way to beat Djokovic when he’s at his best is to go with all out aggression. If Rafa tries to out-rally Novak, it will be a losing battle. He has to step inside the court, hit the FH down the line, and flatten out his shots. He also has to serve as well as he can. I’m still not sure that would be enough. Djokovic in 3.
Ricky, we here on the lowly pages of The GT do always think to check your twitter account when we miss your wit. But I think your people here would also like this GIF of Rafa (hope this goes through. I closed my twitter account)
https://twitter.com/tweenerwinner/status/1129476958130249729
I don’t get how anyone can’t love Rafa. Okay maybe I like him best off the court, as a Nole fan but I sure want him playing tennis as long as possible and winning!
What is he saying?! lol
There are very few occasions when Rafa goes into a clay court final as an underdog. Tomorrow is definitely one of them. His game has improved but do not think it has improved enough to heal the scars of recent heartbreaks to Djokovic. But at least it will be a good gauge of how far behind Nole he is. If not Rafa, let Nole it be 😀
Come to think of it, it is a perfect opportunity for Nole to mess Rafa up even more. If he loses, it is because of all the tennis he has been playing leading up to the final. If he pulls out the victory especially if it is in three sets, it will send a message to Rafa that his reservoirs are much deeper. May the best man win. Just hope they dont do a Madrid 2009 and let Fed reap the rewards🤦🏻♂️
Shameful comment, How can you think like that? Are you hawkie LOL…it’s just what he’d be thinking.
Seriously think Novak will lose. And, if I’m right and Rafa wins, everyone has to join my draw challenge bracket for RG! That will soothe my pain.
I think Rafa did play his best match so far. Finally the DTL forehand! That was great to see him hitting that shot. Rafa is still making some errors, missing shots he would normally make. He’s not at his best yet but definitely getting there. I don’t know that he is ready to take on Novak. I think Novak has the mental advantage because he has beaten Rafa so often in recent years,
It is good to see Rafa playing so much better now. No matter what happens in the final, I think Rafa is in the way to peaking at RG.
Rafa played way better than in his previous matches, but I see him reaching his best at RG. I think this Rafa can beat Novak tomorrow but to be able to do that he will have to get rid of his demons & doubts, he will have to overcome his mental blockade when facing Novak. I also see Rafa’s serve as his main disadvantage against the best returner on tour which forces Rafa to dig on each point and uses up all his energy…
I see Novak desperately wants this title, and I am afraid he is ready to drag the match tomorrow no matter what. Novak rarely gets injured so he doesn’t mind wasting himself in one match. Rafa OTOH is scarred of getting injured ahead of RG so I hope he finds the way to avoid long and exhausting rallies by being more aggressive. Well, it’s easily said than done especially when facing the “human wall” but we shall see…
This is not RG yet and the notion that Rafa has been steadily improving is obvious. If Rafa can stay calm tomorrow he will win!
Vamos Champ!
I am going to watch the first game, and if Rafa is going to be content to stand behind the baseline, then Nole in 2!!!
In my humble opinion Rafa has got do the following:
1. Serve well and vary serve, try a bit of serve and volley
2. Stand on the baseline and be aggressive, flatten shots and no short balls
3. Shorten points, drops shots
4. Shorten rallies, limit cross court rallies, play ball down the middle
5. Vary pace, even on serve, try not to smoke the hair out of the ball on every shot, sigh
6. Dont give Nole rhythm and take time away from Nole by approaching net more, esp when u have him on the stretch
If Rafa at least does 4 out of the six, he is in for a chance! Otherwise, Rafa fans, it will be a sad day tomorrow
Seriously, I’m prepared for the sad day. I’ll be at the airport today, going travelling, so may not see the match in full, probably able to watch the first set?
I doubt Rafa is going to do those listed above, he wont suddenly change his game like that. He’ll still be playing from way behind the baseline, and engages in baseline rallies with Djoko. It’s typical of him on clay, that’s his bread and butter game. On the rare occasion of him sweeping away everyone easily when he played an aggressive game (FO2017), it was such a joy to watch, but as I said, it’s rare.
Rafa has the bad habit of starting slow, note that in his first service game in each match, he would hit the very first first serve into the net! He starts slowly and so his first service game may be under threat from the get go. He also has the bad habit of having difficulty in serving out set or match. IOWs, he’s more vulnerable nowadays.
Djoko will try to play his best in the final if physically he’s able to do it. He may beat Rafa in straight sets should he be aggressive from the get go, not unlike at MC2013. Rafa just has to come out all guns blazing, if he’s slow off the block, then gone case imo.
I think I slightly favor Rafa tomorrow, as he has won their last two matches on clay, has had to grind much less than Novak in the tournament so far, and is in excellent form. I will say, however, that I believe that no matter who wins tomorrow, I consider Rafa and Novak to be the equal co-favorites for RG. I guess that if Rafa were to get steamrolled like at AO, then I would have to view Novak a little more favorably for RG, but I will be shocked if it is anything but a close match tomorrow. But if Novak wins a tight one or Rafa wins, then I won’t be able to declare either one as more favored than the other. This is strictly because, while Rafa has won their last 2 clay matches and is the 2-time defending RG champ, he also has not beaten Novak at a major in 5 years now. If there is still some sort of mental thing with Rafa against Novak, it is at the slams. It reminds me of Fed-Novak, where Fed was able to get multiple wins over Novak in 2014-2015, but it was always in best-of-3. Fed has unquestionably had a mental block against Novak at the majors for years. I believe Rafa has had the same thing with Novak.
If Rafa is going to get another win over Djoko at a major, it’s surely going to be at RG- and there is no doubt in my mind that Rafa can do it this year. Rafa winning tomorrow would obviously make me feel better about his chances of beating Novak at RG if they met there, but it wouldn’t be enough to make me think that the Slam mental-block will suddenly be gone. If someone else took out Novak at RG, I would literally give Rafa a 99% chance of winning RG. But I just don’t see anyone outside of Rafa having a realistic chance of winning 3 out of five sets off of Novak at RG. Not even Thiem, who has done it before.
We saw Fed manage to overcome his 10-year drought of beating Rafa at a major, so there’s absolutely no question that Rafa can end a 5-year drought against Novak. In my opinion, beating Novak again at a major is the best thing that could happened to both Rafa and Fed. I think it’s likely too tall a task for Fed at his stage in the game, but Rafa is still young and tough enough where he has a very good shot at it. Personally, I would love to see Rafa beat Novak in the RG final, but I wouldn’t have to worry about having a heart attack while watching it like a lot of you hardcore Rafans understandably would. 🙂
It will be Nadal today probably in 2 but i only bet on win for him. Djoko is great, his return out of this world, but this time Nadal is more fresh, i guess more hungry to win also and nevertheless we are on clay.
Yep. That’s what I was thinking too – even while picking my Rome bracket last week.
Rafa in 2, more safe to say 3, however, because Nole (should have a little bit of an adrenaline rush seeing Rafa’s mug across the net).
I expect this one will be pretty close, it’s nearly 50/50 for mine & I won’t be surprised either way.
Given how recent Nadal/Djoko matches have played out, it is still hard to go against Novak, even on clay. Like many others, I think he has had a mental edge over both Nadal and Federer for some time now. Rafa had a very good chance to turn this dynamic around at Wimbledon, and things can always change (albeit not likely for Fed at his age) but I think they struggle to believe they can hit through him/past him at his corner-to-corner best.
I have only seen bits of recent matches from Rome/Madrid, but I’d say Djokovic is now close to peak form.
However, he should be somewhat tired from his last couple of matches, and I think this can come into account if Rafa can take it up to him. But he has to get off to a decent start and be able to dictate his fair share of the points. His form at Rome has been very good, so I think he stands some chance of applying enough pressure to turn it into the battle that it should be.
That all being said, even if Rafa loses to Novak again here, it is probably to his benefit to play him before RG. That way if they meet there, the AO beatdown won’t be so fresh in his mind. If this one goes awry for Rafa, it should at least be close-run. Then he can keep on building form through RG.
Hopefully it’ll be a classic match either way. As a Fed fan I’m pretty much indifferent as to who actually wins it. Maybe a close Rafa win would be preferred if anything, as it would make things the most interesting for the FO. Otherwise it’s just Novak coming in with another W against Nadal. However this one goes, I expect a 55th match-up at the French – barring some sort of interjection from a red-hot Thiem (against the field, Novak remains the more vulnerable of the two).
Djoko in 3 sets
I am frustrated at the way Rafa bulldozes the field whilst Djokovic struggles to get to the final only for Rafa not to play his best and loses to Djokovic. Wimbledon 2018 and AO 2019 for example. I’ll wait and see.
Vamos Rafa!
On paper, Rafa should walk it. Rafa has lost 13 games to the final whilst Djokovic has lost 36! Still it’s a new day and a new match!
Vamos Rafa!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00QW4kkVWNE
@Nadline,
Thanks for posting this. Rafa is so grounded, a mature and thoughtful young man.