2021 Roland Garros...ATP 2000...Paris, France

[arturohernandez]

Djokovic looks 34 years old suddenly

[stroke]

Well this is something. Tsitsipas, Tsitsipas, Tsitsipas....

[arturohernandez]

More forehands, Stefanos breaks.

[arturohernandez]

The next innovation, towel robots.

[stroke]

McEnroe is right on chair umpire. Come on. Not surprisingly, Mary is ok with it.

[arturohernandez]

Djokovic locking Stefanos in the backhand corner. He has to find a way out.

[stroke]

Welcome to Lockdown City.

[stroke]

That set point for Stef was vintage Novak.

[stroke]

I don't mean to say purely from the but to me the baseline work will have to be a very big ingredient. The most significant.

[stotty]

Tsitsipas is gaining in confidence and finding his mark with his serve. Not sure he can when this purely from the baseline. For me, it's a 1-2 punch and trips to the net that would be the best tactical move for Tsitsipas. He is settling down nicely now though.

[stroke]

Ilf Stef beats Novak to me, he will absolutely have to do from the baseline. Tough no doubt. I have never seen anyone break Nadal down like Novak did. Nadal started making errors and at the end of the match, Nadal's winners to errors told the story of just what Novak had done to him. For that matter, Novaks numbers told the sane thing. I will be watching the winners vs errors numbers very carefully as this match proceeds.

[don_budge]

Three aces in a row for Stefanos to win the first game...after several deuces. The return game of Novak Djokovic is supposedly the "greatest of all time" but that is one dubious claim. The modern return game is not under the pressure of a net charging opponent. Novak is normally very tidy with his service game and he takes care of his service game fastidiously. This is where Stefanos is going to have to find some room to operate. He will have to make inroads on Djokovic's serve while taking care of his own as well. Look for Novak go into lockdown mode at some point and be very stingy with operating room in the court at some point. Opening jitters in play now. The players feeling each other out and also getting a gage on their own form.

Stefanos with nothing to lose but in unfamiliar territory. Novak, seemingly with more to lose but a tremendous amount of experience in these situations. Tsitsipas having reached the finals by defeating very convincingly his two main rivals in his generation and Novak having vanquished the "Saint of Roland Garros". Who has the motivational advantage? I would have to go with the experience of Djokovic. Tsitsipas advantage of youth is debatable. Novak won his last two matches in four sets against big hitting opponents. It's tough to beat Novak on the baseline. Nadal found that out yesterday.

[stotty]

Yes he cannot set up that key shot without great serving. He needs to serve well so he can peel away and go to work with his forehand.

[don_budge]

The idiot commentator just commented that the inside out forehand of Tsitsipas will be the key shot. The key to this match for Stefanos is always going to be his serve. This will be the acid test of his service motion.

[arturohernandez]

It is going to be very interesting. Novak was certainly in total lockdown mood vs Medvedev in AO final. He just accomplished the very tough ask, probably toughest in sports, of taking Nadal at FO. I too feel one would be paying a bit of a premium to bet on Novak here. Stef is ready and has the game to really compete here. I would have Novak as a slight favorite. I do not think recovery will be an issue for Novak. In his on court post match interview after taking Nadal, he looked very fresh. Hard to believe how fresh he looked after that very long physical match.

Adrenaline and joy. No we’ll see if he may end up quoting Nadal about being the age that he is.