Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will bid for spots in the Wimbledon second week when they take the court again on Saturday. Nadal faces another potentially tough test in Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while Federer is going up against Lucas Pouille.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (3) Rafael Nadal
Nadal and Tsonga will be squaring off for the 13th time in their careers when they clash in the Wimbledon third round on Saturday. The head-to-head series stands at 8-4 in Nadal’s favor, a respectable record for Tsonga relative to the Spaniard’s dominance of most opponents. Their only previous grass-court contest came eight years ago at Queen’s Club, where the Frenchman prevailed 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1. Of course, Nadal was making a quick turnaround following his sixth French Open title and Tsonga was at his peak in those days. The 34-year-old is a shadow of his former self right now, plagued by injuries and struggling at 72nd in the rankings. He has benefited from a favorable draw at the All-England Club, coasting past Bernard Tomic and Ricardas Berankis in straight sets.
Tomic was fined all of his first-round prize money for failing to meet a professional standard in terms of effort (ie, “tanking”) against Tsonga. Saturday’s opponent, of course, is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Even more motivated than usual against unfriendly rival Nick Kyrgios, Nadal survived a high-quality 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(3) battle with Kyrgios on Thursday evening. The world No. 2 preceded that result with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 beatdown of Yuichi Sugita. Nadal is riding a 14-match winning streak and his performance in round two will give him the utmost confidence for the remainder of this fortnight.
Pick: Nadal in 3 losing 12 games or fewer
[polldaddy poll=10357276]
(27) Lucas Pouille vs. (2) Roger Federer
Whereas Nadal was fired up to an unprecedented extent–even by his standards–against Kyrgios, Federer has not come close to putting things into top gear. With a draw even friendlier than Tsonga’s, the third-ranked Swiss eased past Lloyd Harris and British wild card Jay Clarke in the first two rounds (although he actually dropped the opening set to Clarke). Eyeing a ninth Wimbledon title, Federer recently triumphed for the 10th time in Halle to set himself up nicely for success in SW19.
Up next for the 37-year-old Saturday is a second career matchup with Pouille. They previously faced each other five years ago on the indoor hard courts of Paris, where Federer cruised 6-4, 6-4. Pouille is obviously a much different player now, but he is slumping in 2019 following several mostly impressive seasons. Down to 28th in the rankings, Pouille is a mediocre 12-12 in 2019 and 7-11 in his last 18 matches. He did not have to do much in rounds one and two, taking advantage of compatriots Richard Gasquet and Gregoire Barrere in straight sets. Nothing about those results nor anything Pouille has accomplished since the Australian Open (semifinals) suggests he can seriously challenge Federer.
Pick: Federer in 3 losing 11-14 games
[polldaddy poll=10357278]
I was so wrong about tsonga…rafa just cruised through him.
Vamos.
that was NID. Tsonga a shadow of his former self.
While Fed obviously can beat Rafa at this Wimbledon, I still wouldn’t bet money on Rafa losing to anyone outside of Djokovic. As I was from the beginning, I am expecting a Rafole Final. And I only give Novak the slight edge in that one because he’s won 3 of the last 5 years, and hasn’t lost to Rafa at a major since 2014. This could very well be Rafa’s year at Wimbledon.
On current form, Nadal has the edge. But I think Fed will up his level if they meet in the SF. Right now there’s not enough drive on his FH and he is shanking too many on the BH. The fact remains that he hasn’t lost on grass this year and has only dropped one set here. Imo, Fed’s best level is still good enough to take the title.
OOF! That narrow angled BH was a beauty and a killer.
Boris Becker is right about Pouille, and we both agreed that Pouille isn’t doing himself any favor rushing the net.
Fed can do everything better than him when at the net; he should instead stay back and gets into rallies, constructs the points and then forces errors out of Fed. He coming to the net is playing into the hands of Fed imo.
So, when everyone was expecting that Edmund will keep the British pride alive, Evans show up nicely.
i don’t think anyone has ever expected Kyle Edmund to keep British hope alive in any way….
There was hope…. he himself said on BBC he has the game to win the title, but the mental factor has to be improved. I expected at least 4th round from him.
LOL
Berrittini is in a long hard battle with Schwarzman, looks like he’s about to win in five sets in 4+hours.
I think it’ll be Fed vs Berrittini and Rafa vs Evans in R4.
But Sousa showed up just a little bit nicer! Grats to him! Who knew these clay courters could play on grass?! 🙂 Grats to Shortman too, nice season on grass for him this year.
Sousa for Rafa. I think Nadal has the easier R4, but Querry could be tricky in the QF. He loves this tournament.
never thought i would say this…but Sam Querrey could be a problem for Nadal
He was in Acapulco in 2017, but Sousa and Sandgren come first. One. Match. At. A. Time.
No
Berrittini finally wins the marathon match. Schwarzman is fast becoming another Simon, he’s so very hard to beat, even on grass?!! Even players like Djoko and Rafa find it so hard to put him away. I will never want to see Schwarzman close to Rafa in the draw!
Schwarzman=miniature version of Ferrer, lol! Ferrer mini me!
Rafa’s press conference
http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2019/07/rafael-nadal-throttles-jo-wilfried-tsonga-advances-second-week-wimbledon-performance/83242/
Did anyone see the last point of the Sousa-Evans match? How did Evans miss that shot!!! Tough to watch 🙁 congrats to Sousa tho!!
The last point is pretty much ALL I saw of that match. Evans blew a makeable volley. Fatigue? Nerves? Doubt even Evans knows.
Rafa says Sousa is “very dangerous when playing well”. But so is Rafa.
Yes, Benny. That was the type of match where I want both players to win. So sorry for Evans. I hope he will achieve something great at some point.
that was an OH MY GOD moment
Someone posted this on Utube after Roger’s match today. Does anyone concur?
“Roger’s game is very worrying.
Balls are not penetrating the court and are sitting up, his first step to the ball is slow, his backhand has become a huge liability again (this really stood out today with all the shanks and missed second serve returns), his return game is in serious need of improvement, his forehand is to loopy and his intensity is low to a point where going into a tough 4 or 5 set match will handicap him. His serve placement and volleying are the only things on point right now although he can do more with his first serve percentage and add a few mph.
Nadal today on the other hand looked unbeatable. Hardly any unforced errors or shanks, his serve and return of serve can’t get any better, his first step to the ball and reaction time are lightning fast and his tenacity unmatched.
Roger really needs to step it up in almost all the departments.”
Fed is not so bad to be honest. He’s so quick around the court, served well, volleyed well, and not missing anything when at the net. Some of his gets were simply unbelievable for a man his age! He even moved better than a much younger Pouille!
I feel the Fedfans are too harsh on Fed; I predicted Fed would beat Pouille in straight sets and Fed really did that. Pouille has nothing to trouble Fed really, because Pouille, like many, won’t be able to handle it once Fed upped his level at end of sets or at end of match. Imo, only Rafa and Djoko could beat this Fed; or maybe Stan or Delpo at their best could hit Fed off the court; I doubt the others could.
Someone predicts that a player might give Federer a match and doesnt performing like expected and all of a sudden you own ‘Fed’ and his performances. Nice. wWish I knew Fed like you do!
It takes a lot more knowledge, skill and courage to tip big upsets than it does to ride predictions that are paying 1.10 with the bookmakers. But carry on, dont let me spoil your party.
Its a slow grass court, that’s all.
Hi, rafafans and fellow tennis fans! How nice that Tsonga – contrary to some expert’s predictions here😀 – didn’t turn out to be a major obstacle. The tricky match and hard earned win over Kyrgios may have liberated Rafa. I can’t remember when I last saw him play that well on grass. A spectator yelled: “Jo, it’s not your fault. He’s too good!” Rafa looked even more impressive so far than Fed and the Djoker, especially since his opponents were a lot trickier. But I fully expect Novak and Roger to rise to the occasion if they see Rafa on the other side of the net. At the AO Rafa also looked absolutely brilliant in every match and stronger than all others – until he met the Djoker in the final and got scorched.
In London I fully expect a Novak vs Nadal/Federer final. Anything else would be a huge surprise. We have to wait and see how Rafa will fare against one or hopefully both of the two other GOATs. But it’s totally impressive how well Rafa plays on grass at the ripe age of 33! It may help, though, that the grass is really slow this year. Does anyone know, why this is the case?
FWIW Rafa says the grass is the same as it’s been since 2003 in his opinion, but the balls are sometimes heavy.
Ramara,yes,Rafa said it’s the same as always. But others see it very differently. Especially Fedfans freak out about this years’s “green clay”. While this is most certainly wildly exaggerated, the surface does seem to be really a bit slower for some reason. They did some timing. The bounce is also said to be a bit different, but it’s still lower than on “red clay”.
I think the grass seems slow because of the hot weather there. I think the grass dried up quicker than normal, not so sleek and therefore the bounce gets higher too. They may be using a heavier ball? Fed mentioned the heaviness of the ball I believe.
I also feel the same. No clouds and dray weather takes away the slickness of grass and I guess it makes it less slippery also.
Meanwhile Rafa has a nice fourth round opponent who would help him with a lot of baseline stuff and would give him a good workout before a potential match with Querrey.
What Rafa has to say about court speed at Wimbledon:
Video
http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2019/07/rafael-nadal-throttles-jo-wilfried-tsonga-advances-second-week-wimbledon-performance/83242/
I agree with Rafa that even between players they dont have the same opinion on the speed. It clearly depends on where your game is at and how you feel the ball.For good long years, like he says its a story. the moment baseliners started winning they say the court was slowed down on purpose. I remember everytime Nadal wins people used to talk about court speed and how it was made slow on purpose. Ok he won Wimbledon, he can definetely not win on hard courts. ok he wins Aus, lets see if he wins the US 🙂 and then guess what they slowed it down everywhere to suit him 🙂
But yes the conditions vary with weather, balls and court speed. The only thing key that I had noticed is the baseline wears out way quicker because everyone plays more on the baseline not just Nadal. and it becomes easier for his movement like he would on a clay or hard court.After first couple of days the moment I see mud on the baseline I begin to think better days for Nadal from now on. But again thats because he is still here. Even the years he won he survived tough five setters and then kept getting better.
PK, my thoughts, exactly.
Rafa is tired of the Kyrgios saga
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1147545694032449537
I can understand that Rafa is thoroughly tired of being asked about Kyrgios all the time. Unfortunately this story probably won’t go away anytime soon and will gain legs whenever Rafa and Nick face each other in the future.
As to the Wimbledon court speed discussion: I watched an analysis at a YouTube tennis channel where they tried to get some objective answers, since the assessments of the players vary. They measured and compared the speed of the ball and the height of the bounce with last years’s data and created some nifty graphics. The ball seems to be indeed slower but has a lower bounce. This can be very well explained with the use of heavier balls – and this isn’t necessarily an advantage for Rafa. However, it doesn’t favor very tall players with a powerful serve. And except for Raonic many tall and big servers have already made a very early exit. And in some surprising cases they went out against smaller, more mobile players without a powerful serve. I think these results are very compatible with the available data.
It’s true that tournaments often change the conditions from year to year for various reasons. Since 2017 the AO suddenly became a lot faster, which is certainly one reason why Fed started to win there again after many years without slam titles. Many – like Hawkeye – have speculated that this was done specifically for breaking Novak’s reign and accomodate Fed, who at his age definitely liked that the rallyes became shorter and that the effectiveness of his serve was enhanced, and he honestly acknowledged that he Approved of the new AO conditions. But personally I believe it’s more likely that the Australians wanted to favor their local boy Kyrgios who is certainly more comfortable on a fast and slick court – at least on those days when he does indeed feel comfortable to be on a tennis court. The US Open on the other hand became slower since 2017 and thus traded places with the AO as far as court speed is concerned. And in the past the French famously tried to speed up their FO clay courts with various measures: mainly with a thinner layer of clay and lighter balls. A couple of years ago Rafa made specifically some comments about these changes. Many thought that this was an attempt of the French to make life a bit more difficult for Rafa in Paris, lol! If that’s true it clearly hasn’t worked at all and the French have probably given up a while ago on trying to derail the Rafa train 😁!
Overall the Big Three have been remarkably immune against all changes. Rafa made it into the final of the AO twice in three years despite the slick and fast court, and Novak won again the title this year. As to Wimby, we have to wait and see how it will play out and how the conditions will be in the second week. If the conditions are a bit slower it might help Rafa somewhat in a potential semi-final against Fed. But it won’t help him against Novak. And I have the impression that his current splendid grass form has not a lot to do with court speed.
Littlefoot, Rafa won his USO in 2010 and 2013 too, when the surfaces there weren’t as slow as 2017/2018. When Rafa won the USO in 2010, some people claimed that’s because USO slowed down the surface! It’s as if when Rafa won something, it must be slow surface!
Don’t they know in 2010, Rafa had his big serve to help him win the USO? He’s serving at 130-135 mph his first serves and that really helped him against the best returner of serves ie Djoko, in the final. Rafa also served well in USO2013, though not as big as his 2010, but still in the 120-128 mph range.
I do think the slower surface, not the heavier ball, is the reason why some of the big servers don’t do well this year. But, I’ve to say it’s still the form of the players concerned that’s more important than the slow surface.
I mean Raonic and Querrey are two big servers too, but they have no problems winning their matches and into R4 now. Cilic has his own problems and is in poor form this season; both Anderson and Isner are just back from injury break; Karlovic has not made much progress at Wimbledon all along. Kyrgios lost to Rafa not because he couldn’t serve big, but rather he didn’t play the big points well, and Rafa played better than he did. Rafa was also serving well to hold his own serves so often in the match.
Don’t blame it on the surface, blame it on their own form.
I’m glad Rafa has confirmed what I’ve always thought. I have never bought into this court speed saga. Commentators sit in the commentary box and decide how fast or slow a court is. They don’t seem to have a way to determine the speed. It’s all bollocks.
The commenters and journos – unless they have taken the trouble and have done some actual research and haven’t just listened to rumors – are indeed no reliable source re: court speed. But there are ways to measure and determine exactly and objectively what’s going on. And if the balls are indeed heavier this year (a fact which can be easily confirmed or debunked) it does make sense that the game is indeed a tad slower this year and that the bounce is affected, too.
For Rafa, like for any other player, there are conditions which are better suited for him while others are detrimental. We all know that he prefers warm temperatures, dry weather and an open roof☺ He has also said that Wimbledon is always more complicated for him because of the lower ball bounce on grass courts, which isn’t good for his knees. He actually said, that the lower bounce affects him more than the court speed, since contrary to common perception he is not against faster conditions. Therefore, if the balls are really heavier than last year, Rafa would not necessarily profit from this change. But so far he is doing just fine and seems to be physically and mentally in a good place.
Order of play tomorrow:
https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/scores/2019/schedule/pdf/schedulePDF15.pdf
Works for me. At least in theory – ESPN (USA) will now be showing Wimbledon on 2 channels – yay! One for centre court and the other for the rest. No guarantee they won’t still split the screen to show Serena on BOTH channels as they did last year, splitting the screen between Roger/Kevin and Rafa/Delpo despite devoting an entire channel to Roger’s match. G’rrrrr.
So, I doubt the Wimbledon committee has done anything different to the grass this year, its more to do with the weather. Perhaps they are using heavy balls too.
Drier grass maybe benefit Rafa? But, heavy balls don’t, so Rafa has to play well to get to where he is.
I mentioned before, that heavy balls don’t favor players like Rafa and Fed, but players who could hit hard (like Hurkacz for example, who could then go toe to toe with Djoko for two sets).
Lucky, I listened to a lengthy German Fed interview for Sky. And he had some interesting things to say about the court conditions. He isn’t bothered by the conditions, but he said, that the courts have been for some reason very soft at the beginning and were therefore initially a bit on the slower side, but he thinks they will become harder and more condensed in the second week after many players have stomped on them. He thinks that nobody tinkered deliberately with the surface, but he also thinks that the balls are different and a bit heavier this year. This baffles me. How come that nobody knows for sure if the balls are different or not??
It is what it is, and all players have to deal with the same conditions.
Unfortunately the dry and sunny weather won’t continue next week, and there might be a few rainy days midweek and we might see a few matches under a closed roof. But the Sunday might be temperate and sunny.
Lucky, basically Fed confirmed what you said: Nobody changed deliberately the surface conditions but the balls are heavier. Neither Rafa nor Roger profit from this. But Rafa played very well nevertheless. Roger’s current level is more difficult to assess since he hasn’t really been tested so far. His next match will tell us more, but I fully expect that he will have reached a high level if he reaches the semis.
What about Wednesday n Friday…will it be sunny .Sunday is far off:-)
it will be good the whole week except maybe Wednesday
Henman has said categorically that the courts are the same as they’ve been for over a decade.
I think Fed’s form now is not how he will be playing once he gets to the latter stages. We know that the top players raise their level of play the deeper they go. So I am not going to assume that the way Fed is playing now is the way he will play in the semis.
It’s really wonderful to see Rafa playing so well here. After a few tough years people forgot just his well he can play on the grass. Rafa is healthy and feeling great after winning RG. His strategy to skip the warmup tournament seems to have worked well. The match with Kyrgios gave him all the match play and big test he needed.
I do agree with those who have said that it would be a shock if anyone other than Rafa, Fed and Novak end up in the final.