Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios are on a collision course for the Wimbledon second round, as Kyrgios was left at the mercy of the draw due to being unseeded. They first have to get past Yuichi Sugita and Jordan Thompson, respectively, on Tuesday.
(Q) Yuichi Sugita vs. (3) Rafael Nadal
Nadal’s 2019 campaign has been steadily gaining momentum and he will try to keep it going when he contests his Wimbledon opener on Tuesday. The third-seeded Spaniard started the season with a blowout loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final, fell to Nick Kyrgios in Acapulco, suffered a knee injury in Indian Wells, and missed Miami. He even failed to win clay-court tournaments in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and Madrid, but it all turned around for him thereafter. Nadal is currently riding a 12-match winning streak, with triumphs in Rome and at the French Open.
A first-ever meeting with Sugita awaits the world No. 2. Slumping down at 258th in the rankings, the Japanese veteran has not yet played an ATP-level match this season. He did extremely well just to qualify for the main draw, a feat he accomplished by knocking off Carlos Berlocq, Stefano Napolitano, and Lukas Rosol. This obviously where the run ends for a player who has not even faced anyone in the top 90 since Tokyo last fall.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 8-10 games
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Nick Kyrgios vs. Jordan Thompson
If the reward was not a likely second-round date with Nadal (or with some other top player), Thompson probably wouldn’t mind a matchup against Kyrgios. After all, the volatile Australian is 2-5 in his last seven matches overall with a 1-2 record on grass–even though it is arguably his favorite surface. But because Nadal looms on the immediate horizon, Kyrgios will undoubtedly be inspired when he takes the court on Tuesday.
Although nowhere near as naturally gifted as Kyrgios, Thompson owns a massive edge in current form. The 45th-ranked Aussie is a stellar 21-13 this year, including an 8-3 record in his last 11 matches (6-2 on grass). He finished runner-up to Adrian Mannarino in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and is coming off a semifinal showing in Antalya. This is a winnable match for Thompson if his opponent for some reason lacks motivation, but this outcome will be dictated entirely by Kyrgios. That is not always a good thing for the 24-year-old, but for obvious reasons in this case it is.
Pick: Kyrgios in 3
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Rafa saves 0-40. God this is stressful!
Break Rafa!!☺
Please hold serve now!
I read from another website that some people said the baseline at Court 1 is rather slippery. It looks to me that it’s true, both Rafa and Sugita slipped and fell during the first few points.
The grass looks rather worn out already after only two days of play.
It was 35 degrees in London on Saturday. The grass will have shrivelled!
Rafa has settled. Playing good now☺
Some improvement there by Rafa; at least he’s trying to be more offensive, stepping inside the court and hitting winners.
Break Rafa!☺
Judging by Kyrgios’ first round match, I am leaning toward Rafa getting a serious dose of Wimbledon revenge on Kyrgios… Then again, no one can EVER know what to expect from Kyrgios when facing a big player. He could come out and get steamrolled by Rafa, or he could randomly play the most inspired match of his life. There’s just no way to know! No matter what ends up happening, it will be very “interesting”, to say the least.
Rafa not there yet! Two more sets to go!
Rafa is not serving all that well, at least not yet. He needs to serve well to hold serve before thinking of breaking Kyrgios’ serve.
Kyrgios will be serving his 200+kph serves game after game, unless his hand drops off!
I am not seeing the match. But Rafa has 5 aces. Is he not winning free points ?
Rafa serving better after breaking back, saved three BPs from 0-40 and then held serve.
Set Rafa!☺
Break Rafa!
Rafa steadies the ship, hope it remains steady until the end of the match.
Great point by Rafa, nice drop shot that Sugita couldn’t get to. Oh, another great point at the net by Rafa that he wins.
Beautiful passing shots from Rafa! Rafa’s passing shots are a thing of beauty.
Hope he comes up with them against NK!!
Rafa playing some lovely shots now…
Tsonga won his match against Tomic in super quick time, in 58 mins! Struff also won his quickly in straight sets too.
Rafa moving very well now, more confident now with his movement on grass after the initial slip and fall.
When Rafa is moving and hitting well, it’s just so lovely to watch. Rafa looks so tanned, must be training very hard under the sun.
Rafa playing so well now, such a joy watching him playing like this. He’s able to mix in some net rushing, some volleying, slices, drop shots and his beautiful passing shots.
I hope he wins this in straight sets, and ups his level a few notches when facing Kyrgios.
Rafa has gone to sleep a bit! As usual!
Schwartzman is about to win his match in four sets. I didn’t know he can play on grass!
Shortman couldn’t play on grass – until this year when he did win a few matches in the warm up events. Good for him!
Vamos Rafa!
Sad for Thiem though. Screw Wimbledon’s stupid grass seeding!
he was never going to lose to Ebden
And now Shapo also gone, lost in straight sets to Berankis. At the rate they are going, not many young gen players left in the draw!
FAA at 18, is truly a very promising player; he’s playing well on all surfaces, he is playing a game that suits all surfaces and he has the footwork for all surfaces.
Agree. Kinda glad he isn’t any older though. Rafa didn’t need him to contend with. 🙂
Well it appears like FAA is maybe the best of his class. But I thought the same about Stefanos, Sascha, and a couple others. Overall mostly I’m disappointed with new kids except FAA right now.
I’m not giving up on the kids quite yet. Tsitsi has mostly done well. Can use a few losses since he’s been rather big-headed lately! Ditto Zv. The Demon won his first match after a rather disappointing year for him so far. Sorry for Domi though – dammit he’d earned a better seed even if he’s not yet a grass court player.
Yeah but I think you are nicer and have more patience than me, Ramara. 😀
And you would be a better bracket picker than me too, like NNY and Andy Mira are, if NNY would ever would play again. Andy Mira aka Farah Diba kicks my ass all the time lol.
More patience maybe – if you don’t have patience at my age you got some BIG trouble and just being my age is trouble enough – but not nicer! And no way would I be a good bracket picker. I get too attached to players and won’t pick against my faves.
Hahahahahahaaha…..ohohohohohohohoho!!….kick yor ass all the time hah RC??…Hehehehehehehe…I love u mucho RC!…but not all the time okay?..sometimes u kick mine!…Easy said,we kick each other’s ass!!..hehehehehehe…
Tsitsipas mentioned that the transition from clay to grass was difficult for him, as he had to get used to different movements on grass and had to bend low on grass as the ball bounces were low, unlike on clay.
I think his successes on clay were at the expenses of his grass court game. Last year, he wasn’t as good on clay and lost early at the FO, hence he could have more time to adjust to grass so he managed to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.
FAA is doing well on grass at the moment, but don’t forget, his main clay season wasn’t that great, lost early at the Masters and missed the FO due to injury. The test for him next year will be the transition from clay to grass if he’s able to go deep at the clay events prior to playing on grass.
The big three are really a different breed; Rafa at age 20 was already making Wimbledon final after winning the FO; Djoko at 20 in 2007 was able to make the SFs of the FO and Wimbledon B2B, losing both times at the SFs to Rafa. Fed in 2005 reached the SF at the FO losing to Rafa and then went on to win Wimbledon for the third time, he’s 23 then, about Medvedev’s or Kyrgios’ age right now.
Stefanos and Felix still have time on their side; I don’t know about Sasha; without his recent off court issues, he couldn’t go beyond the QF of slams in the past, don’t know whether he’s good enough to go deep at the B2B channel slams.
The most disappointing prospect to date is still Shapo imo, he’s now behind both Tsitsipas and FAA and is not making any progress after reaching the TOP 30, his go for broke style leads him nowhere, if he couldn’t learn the rope of when to rein it in and when to go for it with his game.