Rafel Nadal and Dominic Thiem will be making a quick turnaround after Madrid when they take the court on Wednesday in Rome. Nadal gets started against Jeremy Chardy, while Dominic Thiem is facing Fernando Verdasco.
Jeremy Chardy vs. (2) Rafael Nadal
Nadal is 0-for-3 through three clay-court tournaments in 2019, so he will be eager for success in Rome prior to his arrival at Roland Garros. The second-ranked Spaniard lost in the semifinals in Monte-Carlo (to Fabio Fognini), Barcelona (to Dominic Thiem), and Madrid (to Stefanos Tsitsipas). On the bright side, conditions in Rome–where Nadal is a 56-6 lifetime with eight titles–should suit him better than those at the Madrid Masters.
Up first for the 32-year-old in round two of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday is a third career matchup with Chardy, who trails the head-to-head series 2-0. Nadal cruised 6-2, 6-2 on the red clay of Vina del Mar in 2013 and 6-3, 6-4 at the Cincinnati Masters two years later. Chardy is an even 12-12 for his 2019 campaign following Tuesday’s 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 defeat of fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet. The world No. 42 will have to serve incredibly well just to be somewhat competitive, and even if he does Nadal will give him free clay-court lessons from the back of the court.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 5-7 games
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(5) Dominic Thiem vs. Fernando Verdasco
Thiem and Verdasco will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers on Wednesday. Surprisingly, Verdasco leads the head-to-head series 3-0–but Thiem can at least somewhat explain his shortcomings. The Austrian lost their first two encounters on grass and a hard court (2015 Wimbledon, 2017 Paris Masters) before getting bogged down by fatigue in the middle of a grueling 2018 Golden Swing (6-4, 6-0 in Rio de Janeiro).
Will the tide turn in this one? It should, even though Thiem may not have absolutely 100 percent of his gas tank full. The world No. 4 has had three full days off from singles and two from doubles, having lost to eventual Madrid champion Novak Djokovic in a two-tiebreakers semifinal. Verdasco, meanwhile, is coming off a tough 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Kyle Edmund on Monday. The 38th-ranked Spaniard is in decent form, but he may be overmatched on Thiem’s clay-court stomping grounds.
Pick: Thiem in 2
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WWW?
“Chardy is an even 12-12………following his defeat of fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.” 😂🤷♂️😉
OH DEAR!!!!
Actually Rafa has 8 Rome titles. The article says 6. No matter, Rafa can’t remember how many he has either. 🙂
Rafa in 2, losing possibly 4 to 7 games.
Thiem in 3. He would be better off if he could make it in 2.
LOL! Yet strangely appropriate.
The good Chardy beat the bad one,maybe ?
Nadal in 2
Theim in 2
Im expecting all the top seeds to win in straight except maybe Nishikori. Djokovic as set a high standard which the others will try to emulate.
I had a feeling Theim hasnt been that sharp. He’s movement is sluggish and and animated. There’s a lot of doubt in his mind currently.
Verdasco is always dangerous and this is the match I was expecting aganst Tsitsipas where he looked like he was having a social game.
How many chances does Theim need to break back. What a moron.
Hmm, isn’t this the same Thiem that was put on the pedestal after beating Rafa? This is what I meant when I said it’s not them being that good it’s Rafa not going by his own standards.
Rafa will beat them all in the RG!
@ Natashao,
Hahahahaha!! I love it!!
Let them all be busy trying to beat Rafa at those poxy tourneys! Lets see them beat him where it REALLY counts!!
Theim was the missing link. Out of all the top seeds expected to win 2 zip, Theim was the one that had the sub-standard form even though he beat a very rusty Fed.
Damn, that multi was paying close to 10s and was certainty without the inclusion of Theim.
Glad he lost after dropping the 2nd set, he deserved it. That was the wakeup call he needed and better to happen in Rome than in the early rounds of RG.
As predicted, it doesnt take many matches for Del Potro to find his feet.
Chechinato to beat Kohlscrieber? I’ll take your word for it but I cant see how thats a confident pick. Maybe the Italian crowd is enough to spur Chechinatto on.
Dude…. I know he wasn’t facing top opponents, but…. OLY TWO GAMES LOST IN TWO MATCHES IN ONE DAY?!! Just insane. If Rafa keeps this form, he will be extremely hard to beat from now through RG. Fed did well to battle through his two matches at his age, but god help Fed if he makes the SF… There is raging bull with serious momentum coming for him who is surely frothing at the mouth to be able to face Fed on clay!
Fed’s got either Tsitsi or Foggy tomorrow. God help him indeed! Rafa will have a fight on his hands v Verdasco unless Fer can’t recover well from today’s exertions.
I’ll assume Chardy was NOT having one of his better days, and Rafa on clay is just a really bad match up for Bashy.
Rafa was out there scowling or sighing at every missed shot. Still wants EVERY point. 🙂
There you go again, Kevin. Bigging up Nadal and underestimating Fed.
If Fed serves well (65% or better) and is not totally out of gas, I predict he will take down Nadal if they meet. Did you see him play today? Coric was playing fantastic tennis; even Sousa was very good. Rafa and Novak didn’t have to face the same level of competition today, though that may change in the next round. I would not want to face Delpo right now, and Verdasco seems to save his best tennis for when he faces Nadal. Of course, there is no guarantee that Fed will get past Tsitsipas, but from what I’ve seen, it all hinges on the Federer serve and legs. The rest of his game is looking extremely strong, even on this surface.
Fernando Verdasco – that guy can beat nearly anyone on the right day. 😀
Gosh, the Tsitsipas/Foggy match has just started and it’s like Davis Cup atmosphere. I hope Tsitsipas just concentrates on the job on hand and blocks out all those noise from the Italian fans.
I like watching Tsitsipas, he’s such a pleasant looking boy, so nice to look at; plays beautiful tennis and he’s tough mentally, serious with his career, unlike that Aussie guy who was being defaulted today due to bad behaviour.
Yes, oh yes Stefanos is charming, utterly. He makes me smile. Maybe he can talk to Kyrgios (Greek to Greek) and calm him down. But Kyrgios certainly did Stefanos a favor by giving Medvedev the boot! Not sure if Kyrgios intended that beating he gave Medvedev. You can’t make this stuff up. Then he turns around and loses very conveniently to Ruud. But that’s Kyrgios – what an act 😀
Kyrgios beat Medvedev by s&ving I was pleased to see it.So talented.
I even enjoy some of his outbursts , but they come at the expense of the quality of the tennis and that’s not on.
Kyrgios gets points with me for making me laugh. The punk has always a surprise. I think he has a good heart but he can’t help himself. Tennis only needs one of him. fingers crossed.
No, i think Kyrios is utterly outrageous!! He needs to be kicked out of the sport until he can modify his bad behaviour. He is a disgrace for a young man, and i c no where on the horizon where he will change his ways. It is utterly shameful and a damn disgrace!! He is certainly not good for the sport! Dont know y the ATP is taking so long to ban him, it is really infuriating!! What are they waiting for, for him to kill someone with a chair?!!! Disgusting!!!
Luckystar agree with your post , in fact hes becoming my new favorite after Rafa now ….
Alison… hugs and love xxxoo
Wish you would get in the ATP Bracket for RG – vamos!
this one:
http://www.tennisdrawchallenge.com/
(jalep wildguess group)
Picking Rafa. Picking Rafa until there’s reason good enough not to pick him to win FO. And the way he played today…..wow.
Everyone is hitting as hard as possible against Rafa; Rafa really has to up his aggression instead of defending all the time. He should move inside the court more often imo.
Rafa has to serve well so that he’s not allowing Verdasco to step inside the court to control the point; once Rafa serves a second serve, Verdasco has all the chances to return with interest and moves forward. See, getting in a good first serve makes life easier for Rafa!
Rafa took his serve to another level after sinking into the 0-40 hole
Rafa serving like this, if he can win this match and the next to reach the final, I’ll be very happy already. Without a good serve, he’s not going to win the title esp if it’s Djoko in the final.
Verdasco simply hits as hard as possible pushing Rafa back, not allowing Rafa to step inside the court! Rafa needs his first serve to win points!
Like Andy Roddick said- at some point in the match a lower ranked player will show why he is lower ranked
Verdasco is winning most of the longer rallies, that shows he’s hitting so hard that Rafa couldn’t handle the rallies and finally loses the point. Rafa wins most of the points under five shots, I think Rafa returns Verdasco’s second serves better than Verdasco does.
All these show that Rafa should shorten points as he’s no longer winning the longer rallies the way he used to in the past.
I think if Verdasco is physically fresher, perhaps he would win the first set. I do feel that Rafa is ‘afraid’ of Verdasco, respecting Verdasco’s raw physical power and Verdasco’s strong desire to play his best to beat him each time they play.
See, when Rafa has the chances to step inside the court, he could win the point. At least he’s playing better in the second set, esp when Verdasco may be feeling the physical strain now.
Omg, I DESPERATELY want to see a Rafole final in Roma… I really think that it should be a toss-up. We already know that Djoko and Rafa are two of, if not THE two, of the favorites for RG. Thiem’s stock has obviously fallen. At this moment, I would put him as the 3rd favorite to win RG. The thing about him is that it’s always possible that he could streak his way to the title, but it would have to involve a lot of luck. Since he swings so goddamn hard and goes for broke so much, he needs a good amount of luck for those shots to fall. When those massive shots are missing the lines by like 1 inch, to me that means that he needs luck on his side more than the average player. If he’s lucky, those shots consistently hit the line as opposed to just missing. I don’t think he can do anything better in terms of his technique- he just has to hope they land on the lines. And while Thiem is arguably the most exciting player to watch when those shots do hit the lines, on the flip side he can be painful to watch when he’s always going for broke and the shots just aren’t landing in. That’s just not a winning formula at the majors in the Big 3 era. Yes, you must take risks and be aggressive if you want to beat those top guys, but there has to be a limit. And when his shots aren’t landing in, Thiem just doesn’t have any other game plan. I hope for his sake that he eventually develops more variety in his game. If he does, he has the potential to be the best in the world. I think Tsitsipas is definitely trending in the right direction in terms of variety and having options. I’m not saying Thiem needs to become a full-blown all-Court player like Tsitsipas, but he certainly needs to at least have a Plan B.
I DON’T want to see a Rafole final, tyvm. But I also don’t want Rafa to lose to Tsitsi again so I’m not gonna get what I want, am I? Playing Novak is hard on Rafa at best, I just do not want him to get injured right before RG.
I understand, Ramara. 🙂 I would prefer that Rafa play someone else in the Final if I were at hardcore Rafan like you! But for me, I’ve always loved Rafa-Nole clay matches so much. We haven’t necessarily had a Rafole clay match in a while where both of them were in really good form. In 2015 and 2016 Rafa wasn’t at his best, and in 2017 and 2018 Novak wasn’t at his best. While neither of them are necessarily at their top-dollar best right now, they are both fully healthy and are both playing very well, so I really hope it happens. But I totally understand why the Rafans would prefer he face not-Djokovic, and vice versa.
Typical Nadal-Verdasco match in many ways, except that FerVer ran out of steam in the 2nd set. Not surprising given the matches he played yesterday. He IS 35, after all.
It’s very quiet around here. Has Ricky gone AWOL?