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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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?