ROME – When the men’s tournament showcases the No. 1-seed against the No. 2-seed and the women’s event features the No. 1-seed against the No. 4-seed in a repeat of last year’s final, we can safely say that the best players have made it to championship Sunday.
Rafael Nadal will always be the overwhelming favourite in every clay-court tournament he enters. Zverev has been the most consistent player on tour during the last few weeks: after capturing back to back titles in Munich and Madrid, he survived a tough draw in Rome with plenty of hard-fought matches. The German was put under pressure by Edmund, Goffin and Cilic, but at the end he emerged as the winner in all three clashes.
Zverev is showing the same qualities that separated the Fab Four – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray – from the rest of the pack for the past 10 or 15 years. He is the most consistent among the Next Gen players and has the innate quality to dig himself out of a hole every time he is trouble, even against valuable players.
Four-time Italian Open champion Novak Djokovic and three-time champion Maria Sharapova are the big losers of yesterday’s semifinals. Despite the tough losses, both Novak and Maria seemed quite happy in defeat. Djokovic reached his first semifinal and played his best match of the year against Nadal, “the greatest clay-court player of all-time,” the Serb said in his post-match press conference. Sharapova came into the clay-court season with a three-match losing streak and at the Foro Italico she dismissed a bunch of very good players, including Barty, Cibulkova, Gavrilova and Ostapenko. In the semifinals, the Russian pushed world No. 1 Simona Halep to a third set that could have gone either way.
After her Meldonium-related doping suspension, Sharapova’s comeback to the top of the game looked improbable. The same applies to Djokovic, who seemed completely out of source after the deep crisis that started affecting him in mid-2016.
Despite being far from reconquering their former glory, both superstars showed some very encouraging signs this week in Rome. As for their chances at the French Open, I think much will depend on their draws. Sharapova should be seeded 28 or 29, while Djokovic should be at 22 and could in theory run into Nadal as early as the round of 32.
Between the two of them, I think Maria has more chances to do well, for the simple fact that there is no clay-court legend like Rafael Nadal in the women’s tournament. Sharapova can truly defeat anyone on any given day. In Paris she will also benefit from a day of rest in between matches, which she didn’t have this week in Rome. Sharapova reached the semifinals after spending more than nine hours on the court, while her opponent Simona Halep only spent two and a half hours.
In yesterday’s semifinal, Nole played a great first set, taking advantage of the fact that Nadal wasn’t playing his best tennis. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the second set the Serb only won three points in the first three Nadal’s service games. Djokovic never recovered after being broken early in the set.
Despite the loss, Djokovic’s backhand was in full display both down-the-line and cross-court. He also served at 200 km per hour at times, showing that the elbow is not bothering him anymore. On the other hand, his level started to decline in the second set, which makes me wonder whether the Serb is fully ready to compete in five-set matches against the best in the world or not.
According to Nadal, Djokovic’s problem was more mental than physical: “When you are not very confident and haven’t won many matches, your mental effort has to be much bigger, especially when you are playing shots that are not very natural for you. When you are confident, you don’t have to think that much and as a result you become less tired. I have been in that type of situation before. When you come back from a long break and haven’t won too many matches, you are more under stress. I think Djokovic is ready for Roland Garros.”
I am curious to see how Zverev will fare against Nadal today. Time is only playing in Zverev’s favor and it will be interesting to see if the gap with Nadal is still as wide as in their four previous encounters, which were all won by the Spaniard.
The women’s final between Svitolina and Halep seems to be very even, at least on paper. After winning the first set in last year’s championship match, Halep injured her ankle and never looked quite the same player. The 3-2 head-to-head in Svitolina’s favor is also partially misleading because of that incident.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
