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

[arturohernandez]

Nadal looks like he is playing as himself in a video game. He complained that he would rather play as Federer because in a tennis video game, Rafael Nadal, just runs all over the place.

[stroke]

Novak seems to be in a good place mood wise. As Stotty said, he absolutely has to win this 2nd set. He is moving Nadal around good. Nadal is still a very good mover going forward, but it is all about moving him east to west constantly to have a chance.

[arturohernandez]

Slowly Novak is arriving in this match but a 2-0 lead surrendered so tamely here in the second set won't help his chances. He needs to be at his clinical best in this match. He can outmoneuvre Rafa if he gets things absolutely right. Vital he gets this set...critical.

Looks like he finally is settled in to this set. Yes, he has to win the second set with the hope that he can make Nadal stay out there longer.

His lack of a backhand volley is very apparent at the net. He keeps hitting two handed defensive ones and just tried a two handed backhand smash.

Hard to really on the drop shot if you cannot follow it with a reasonable one handed backhand volley.

[stotty]

Novak starting to make life a little awkward for Rafa. Those drop shots of his are risky, though.

[don_budge]

Proposition for the ATP and ITF...

Reduce the shot clock for the second serve to 10 seconds.

[stotty]

Slowly Novak is arriving in this match but a 2-0 lead surrendered so tamely here in the second set won't help his chances. He needs to be at his clinical best in this match. He can outmoneuvre Rafa if he gets things absolutely right. Vital he gets this set...critical.

[stroke]

Nadal is now, after winning the 1st set, an implied probability of 86+% chance of winning vs Novak.

[arturohernandez]

Meanwhile, the Djoker looked like he might break the first game. Then Nadal ran off a bunch of games in a row. Now Nadal is just cruising toward a first set win. He has a loopier deep ball that is effective against Novak's flatter shot on clay.

Slowly, the big three are retreating to their favorite surfaces.

[stroke]

Very good match. Great fight back by Alex. Stef took the 5th set and the match. Beautiful clay court tennis. I do not think fatigue will be a factor in the final. Stef is in tremendous shape and moves so efficiently. Obviously, I feel Stef would have a much better chance and match up vs Novak. His backhand is splendid, but no backhand looks great vs the Nadal hook forehand over toward the box seats.

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Alexander Zverev...2021 French Open Semifinals

There is a glaring weakness relative to the rest of the Stefanos Tsitsipas game and that is his service motion. He was rolling along and up two sets to love and then the tables turned. What happened?

Tsitsipas is lacking a motion that makes his serve even better under pressure. Like a golf swing...if there is some pressure or nervousness and the motion is flawed, beware. It seems his serving became a bit more tentative and as the serve goes so goes the rest of the game. He definitely was not as assertive in the last two sets as he was in the first two. He has lost control of the match and now it hangs in the balance. He starts the set serving and we might just get a pretty good clue how the deciding set will play out.

The problem is Stefanos just does not have the kind of serve to match the rest of his game. Roger Federer, even in the later stages of his career, could always count on quick service games. He had a first serve that could knock his opponent completely off balance or win outright. The same cannot be said for Stefanos. He serves well at times but he is pretty inconsistent when it comes to maintaining a very high degree of performance and particularly so in high profile and tense situations with higher or highest rank players. He just double faulted for love-40 in the first game of the fifth set. I hope he doesn't make a prophet of me.

He needs a high percentage flat serve that wins outright when he needs it. For the matter he needs a second serve that he can be very aggressive with as well. At 6' 4" tall this should be well within the realm of possibilities but the fact of the matter is it doesn't exist. He often in tense situations is serving into the fat part of the court as if he has lost his confidence in going for the lines and corners. This is where the perfect and frictionless motion, ala Federer, just gets better and better. When the chips are down it just galvanises the motion. The confidence rises as the player knows that he is going to win his serve and win it quickly. Tsitsipas managed the first game so we shall see what we shall see.

The father and coach needs to recognise this glaring deficiency in the son and advise him accordingly. Otherwise he needs to find someone who can do it. The celebrity coach in the corner now doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to service motions and tactics. How do I know this? The "Tennis Bible" tells me so.

The other side of the coin is that Alexander Zverev has an equally or even more defective motion. The way I see it his game is less dependent upon his serve than the Tsitsipas style. But that being said Zverev's serve has been the culprit in his demise at times. A huge contributor as he has battled double fault-itis in the past.

[don_budge]

Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Alexander Zverev...2021 French Open Semifinals

There is a glaring weakness relative to the rest of the Stefanos Tsitsipas game and that is his service motion. He was rolling along and up two sets to love and then the tables turned. What happened?

Tsitsipas is lacking a motion that makes his serve even better under pressure. Like a golf swing...if there is some pressure or nervousness and the motion is flawed, beware. It seems his serving became a bit more tentative and as the serve goes so goes the rest of the game. He definitely was not as assertive in the last two sets as he was in the first two. He has lost control of the match and now it hangs in the balance. He starts the set serving and we might just get a pretty good clue how the deciding set will play out.

The problem is Stefanos just does not have the kind of serve to match the rest of his game. Roger Federer, even in the later stages of his career, could always count on quick service games. He had a first serve that could knock his opponent completely off balance or win outright. The same cannot be said for Stefanos. He serves well at times but he is pretty inconsistent when it comes to maintaining a very high degree of performance and particularly so in high profile and tense situations with higher or highest rank players. He just double faulted for love-40 in the first game of the fifth set. I hope he doesn't make a prophet of me.

He needs a high percentage flat serve that wins outright when he needs it. For the matter he needs a second serve that he can be very aggressive with as well. At 6' 4" tall this should be well within the realm of possibilities but the fact of the matter is it doesn't exist. He often in tense situations is serving into the fat part of the court as if he has lost his confidence in going for the lines and corners. This is where the perfect and frictionless motion, ala Federer, just gets better and better. When the chips are down it just galvanises the motion. The confidence rises as the player knows that he is going to win his serve and win it quickly. Tsitsipas managed the first game so we shall see what we shall see.

The father and coach needs to recognise this glaring deficiency in the son and advise him accordingly. Otherwise he needs to find someone who can do it. The celebrity coach in the corner now doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to service motions and tactics. How do I know this? The "Tennis Bible" tells me so.

[stroke]

I felt at the beginning of the tournament he had the best small chance of taking Nadal. He is just playing solid, not his best. His numbers winners to errors are just ok, which is good enough vs Alex.

[stotty]

2 sets to love to Stephanos

Stephanos is just a better player at this point...a class above.

[stotty]

Stephanos is off to a solid start and Zverez just can't settle. He needs to play at his best as Stephanos has played consistently great throughout the tournament and looks every bit like a clay court specialist.

3-1 Stephanos

[stroke]

You're right, he is. I have never lost faith Novak can beat Rafa at the FO because they have had some mightily close matches there in the past. Novak is the only player with any kind of record at all against Rafa on clay. But it is a huge undertaking at this stage in the tournament. As stroke points out, Rafa seems even more invincible than ever, and the reason for that is he more aggressive than he has ever. He serves better these days and his forehand is deadly and without doubt the best the game has seen. Roger's, despite it's poetic beauty, can break down at times whereas Rafa's is just so secure and so physically hard to play against.




I make the odds about right. Stephanos is the player in form in my view and I love his positivity. I hope he wins as Zverez is likely to wilt is he gets through whereas I think Stephanos will put up a better fight against Rafa.

Novak needs to be at his immaculate best tomorrow. I am hoping he will hit his forehand quite a bit harder. Just hitting those handful of forehands harder towards the end of the match against Berritini made all the difference in the world and brought up the break of serve to win him the match. Above all, Novak needs his precision to be working perfectly.

I love Stef's game, to me a Guga 2.0, just a beautiful clay court game. I could see him being the pick over any clay courter ever except Rafael and that forehand.