PARIS – Before the round of 16 matches began, the bookmakers valued Cecchinato’s win over Goffin at 4.5, while Goffin’s was 1.16. I am surprised that the odds didn’t take Goffin’s words into consideration, after the Belgian saved four match-points and emerged unscathed from a tough battle against Gael Monfils of France. The whole stadium was cheering and screaming for their local player throughout the entire match and Goffin had to dig extremely deep to advance to the round of 16. “I will probably be more tired mentally than physically,” the Belgian said in his post-match press conference after the match against Monfils.
During the match against Cecchinato, Goffin called a medical time out for a problem that was affecting his right shoulder and arm. “It was nothing serious though. I felt tired because of yesterday’s match. Even if I slept well after the Monfils match, today I wasn’t able to find the necessary energy and fight at the best of my ability. Yesterday’s battle took a lot out of me and it wasn’t easy to step back on the court after a few hours today,” Goffin candidly admitted.
“Even if at the beginning of the match I was able to hold serve, my motion wasn’t as dynamic as usual. I was too defensive and couldn’t raise the level of my game and be more aggressive. He was very consistent and raised his level as the match went on. Whenever I tried to be more aggressive, I made too many mistakes. My arm was hurting, and my legs were heavy. It wasn’t a very good match for me. In Rome I managed to beat him, but today he was a different player. His shots were very deep, his backhand was always painting the lines. His forehand was very precise too. He has very good hands, a good drop-shot and skillful volleys. His serve was very efficient, he might not have the fastest delivery, but he uses very well the spins and always served near the lines.”
Goffin’s post-match analysis shows how the Belgian was certainly caught off guard by Cecchinato’s brilliant performance. The Italian is one of the biggest surprises at this year’s French Open. The 25-year-old from Palermo did win his first ATP title in Budapest a couple of months ago, but nobody expected him to upset top-class players such as Carreno Busta and Goffin in a Grand Slam event.
Italy is living a dream French Open this year. Italian fans are now hoping that Fabio Fognini will prevail over Marin Cilic and join Cecchinato in the quarterfinals. The last time that Italy had two male players in the quarters was in 1973 with Paolo Bertolucci and Adriano Panatta.
Cecchinato’s next opponent will be none other than Novak Djokovic. If Djokovic was playing at the same level as he did in 2011 or 2015, Cecchinato wouldn’t stand a chance against the Serbian. But we all know that Novak is not nearly the same player, while Marco is playing the best tennis of his life.
In other round of 16 matches, Sascha Zverev won another five-setter after being down two sets to one. The German will now face Thiem, against whom he won’t be able to afford a slow start. Zverev had to fight for 15 sets to prevail over three non-seeded players and might pay the price during the second week of competition.
Today’s most anticipated match will feature the clash between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. The last time that the Russian was able to beat her rival was in 2004. After that, she lost 18 matches in a row. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the rain won’t cause too many delays. The forecast doesn’t look very promising.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com )
