Madrid ATP 1000

[stroke]

Joao Fonseca picks his perfect player:

* Juan Martin del Potro - Forehand
* Djokovic - Backhand
* Roger Federer - Volley & Slice
* Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard - Serve

Somewhere here on The 'Gram.

Nitpicking, but volleys, Fed is not quite McEnroe or Pat Cash. Forehand, I still have to go with Nadal.

[stotty]

Joao Fonseca picks his perfect player:

* Juan Martin del Potro - Forehand
* Djokovic - Backhand
* Roger Federer - Volley & Slice
* Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard - Serve

Somewhere here on The 'Gram.

Rafa Nadal - Forehand
Novak - Backhand
Volley - Frank Sedgman
Serve - Pete Sampras
Mental - Borg/Nadal
Speed - Carlos

[jimlosaltos]

Rafa Nadal - Forehand
Novak - Backhand
Volley - Frank Sedgman
Serve - Pete Sampras
Mental - Borg/Nadal
Speed - Carlos

The "Build the Best/Perfect Player" exercise is often interesting.

From imperfect memory, Fed once included "touch" as a category and named Marcelo Rios, I believe. I quite liked that. Fed may have named Delpo and Fernando Gonzalez for forehand? I'm 80% on that.

Volleys, Cash, McEnroe, Sedgman ... true greats stroke, stotty.

[jimlosaltos]

Both players from last week's Barcelona final now out with injury, as Holger Rune retired after one set due to "discomfort in his right leg".

Again, Carlos pulled out before play with an "abductor" and some leg muscle pull.

[jimlosaltos]

Jakub Mensik topped So Cal's Ethan Quinn in a serve fest.

Mensik averaged -- averaged -- 131 MPH over 35 first serves in , Max 139 MPH. Quinn's improved service (moved to pinpoint) 125/134 MPH.

[jimlosaltos]

Novak Djokovic out pretty tamely in his first match in Madrid 3 and 4 to Matteo Arnaldi, ranked 44.
This is Djokovic's third consecutive defeat - to Mensik in Miami, to Tabilio in Monte Carlo's first round, and now to the 24 year old Italian.

Yet again, Djokovic did well enough behind his first serve but lost on both sides of second serves. He's being consistently outrallied.
Today, Djokovic with 32 UFEs, 17 on his backhand.

Madrid is now without both finalists from Barcelona -- Alcaraz and Rudd - both by injury, and now Djokovic.

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[stroke]

Novak played pretty well, but he just is not motivated enough to me to grind/lock down as necessary at anything other than Majors at this point. I think his rope-a-dope days may be behind him. Wimbledon looks like his last hurrah. Draper, Musetti, and Tsitsipas all with impressive wins. Fonseca still to come.

[jimlosaltos]

Novak played pretty well, but he just is not motivated enough to me to grind/lock down as necessary at anything other than Majors at this point. I think his rope-a-dope days may be behind him. Wimbledon looks like his last hurrah. Draper, Musetti, and Tsitsipas all with impressive wins. Fonseca still to come.

The way ESPN puts it makes it seem like his game is like a pencil rolling off the edge of a table : "Djokovic is still seeking his first title of the season after winning his 99th title in August at the Paris Olympics. He has lost four finals since then. The only two players to reach the 100-title milestone are Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103)."

Both those marks seemed in reach, now I'm not sure.

[stotty]

Novak played pretty well, but he just is not motivated enough to me to grind/lock down as necessary at anything other than Majors at this point. I think his rope-a-dope days may be behind him. Wimbledon looks like his last hurrah. Draper, Musetti, and Tsitsipas all with impressive wins. Fonseca still to come.

Actually, I think he's tournament rope-a-dopiing as oppose to player rope-a-dopiing. Everyone thinks he's reached his decline but come the slams he'll suddenly perk into to life.

[stotty]

Not the best first set from either player. Plenty of unforced errors, and Fonseca failed to consolidate here and there when he had good chances in games and in the tiebreak.

[stotty]

Solid performance from Paul in the end. He served well and hit his forehand well too. I was slightly disappointed in Fonseca. His error count was high and always at times when it was costly. Paul's forehand was better then Fonseca's overall on the day. Still, Fonseca is young, very young.

How different the 1000 events are these days. All of a sudden any number of players can win one.

[jimlosaltos]

Actually, I think he's tournament rope-a-dopiing as oppose to player rope-a-dopiing. Everyone thinks he's reached his decline but come the slams he'll suddenly perk into to life.

I'm sure Djokovic will play better in the few majors he has left. One challenge, though, is that he no longer is guaranteed the advantage of a cushy draw (earned by his rank) so he can't afford to work himself into tournament sharpness. And beating, say, Alcaraz and Sinner back-to-back (should he get there ) is an ever tougher task.

[jimlosaltos]

Solid performance from Paul in the end. He served well and hit his forehand well too. I was slightly disappointed in Fonseca. His error count was high and always at times when it was costly. Paul's forehand was better then Fonseca's overall on the day. Still, Fonseca is young, very young.

How different the 1000 events are these days. All of a sudden any number of players can win one.

Haven't seen yet, but Fonseca must have been in Paul's service all day? -- Paul saved 10/11 BP, Joao 0/1 ?? Experienced helped on big points, perhaps?

As for your comment on UFEs: Paul was +4 ( 32 winners- 28 errors), Joao minus 12 (25 winners - 37 errors)

Amusingly, both players have virtually identical serve stats with both speed and winning percentages only separated by 1 digit cumulatively.

Serve Velocity

Fastest:

Paul 139 MPH Joao 138 MP

Ave First
Paul 121 MPH Joao 121 MPH

Ave Second
Paul 104 MPH Joao 104 MPH

Serves won %

First Serve
Paul 74% Joao 73%

Second Serve
Paul 48% Joao 48%

[stroke]

Actually, I think he's tournament rope-a-dopiing as oppose to player rope-a-dopiing. Everyone thinks he's reached his decline but come the slams he'll suddenly perk into to life.

I too think he can still go into lock down mode at Majors, like Wimbledon. The FO, we will see. That is a lot. What I meant about his rope-a-dope days being behind him is kind of fading in and out of matches. He did not have any sense of urgently 1st set vs Arnaldi. He tried step up in the 2nd set, came close to a late service break, but could not get it.

[stroke]

https://open.substack.com/pub/hughclarke/p/fonseca-vs-paul-alcaraz-documentary?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1t7zzc