2021 Erste Bank Open...ATP 500...Vienna, Austria Men's Finals...Alexander Zverev vs. Francis TiafoeEverybody expects Alexander Zverev to make his presence felt in a limited draw at this ATP 500 event, but it was Frances Tiafoe that emerged from the pack this week to keep it real. To keep it unpredictable. Zverev predictably advanced against a mediocre field in his half of the draw. The most impressive win was perhaps over Carlos Alvarez but to be frank...Alvarez never made it out of the gate. He was still stuck in his biggest moment of his young career with a huge win over a huge hitting Matteo Berrettini. It's understandable. Zverev, impressively, made "The Kid" pay for his lack of attention. A lack of being in the moment. Alvarez was not prepared to take it to the next level...yet.
But it was the top half of the draw that proved to be the big story as Stefanos Tsitsipas followed up his elegant match with Grigor Dimitrov with a resounding thud against Frances Tiafoe. Tiafoe pimped him out in the third as it is Tsitsipas' lack of ability to dominate with his serve match in and match out that cost him. This means that when the rest of the game might be stuck in third or fourth gear you can depend upon the serve to bail you out. He isn't there yet. Not even close. Tiafoe went on to the next round focused on the prize and made short work of one of the real pit bull's on the tour...Diego Schwartzman. He with the Kricksteinesque backhand. But it was in the next round that Tiafoe made the big splash and landed the big one...Jannik Sinner. Watershed? That's as good a word as any. What the hell was that?
I was on the computer watching this match in half screen. Half watching. I saw that point. Sinner seemed to be in total control of the match, although he seemed to wavering on his service game all of a sudden. What I saw was out of the corner of my eye and Tiafoe made a foray into the net, one of several, and Sinner hit a nearly impossible pass cross court followed by Tiafoe making an apparently somewhat violent gesture in the direction of Sinner. It was such a extreme gesture it didn't make any sense to me at first. I didn't see the ball land because I was in split screen and that part of the feed was covered by my reading material. So I switched it over to full screen quickly enough to see what happened. After Sinner made the pass and Tiafoe made the "madness" move at the net it appeared to surprise Sinner and it was all down hill from there. Realistically, it looked to me as if Sinner was losing just a bit of his edge before that. It looked to me as if his legs were giving way a bit after his long week the week before. Don't forget...this kid just turned twenty. He is racking up some serious miles in such a short time. The week before he was in Indian Wells.
Tiafoe is one stout fellow. To look at him, he has the physique of an NFL half back. The shoulders and arms on this guy are as developed as any that I have ever seen on a tennis player. He struts around the court as if there is a pole rammed straight up his ass and through his back. As if it is hard for him to rotate at all. That being said...it appears that this is part of his on court presence. A behaviour. Something that he controls. When Sinner made that pass his gesture was so over the top that I wasn't sure what it was he did. I am still not sure. Was he feigning an attack at Sinner? A joke in some way? That's my guess. But it was surely over the top. Much as his movement around the court is "over the top". stroke called it "preening". That's a good word for it. Strutting. Like a rooster. His wild gesture in the direction of Sinner was followed by a string of gestures for the crowd to follow in on. At one point he was high fiving the front row after one of his great shots. He is bringing something of the NBA to the game. Or is it Big Time Wrestling? It is a black thing...that's what it looks like. Like trash talking. A little intimidating. Interesting...culture is. In short...he beat Sinner up. He got into his head and then he overwhelmed him with strength. Sinner lost his concentration and that is his big strength. Particularly if you are fatigued, once you lose your concentration, it slipped away. Sinner is going to grow up into his body. Physically he reminds me of Zverev several years ago. Maybe not so gangly.
Zverev held his ground. This young man has really grown up in his ability to handle the big moment. He had some initial success a few years back that he found difficult to duplicate week in and week out. But he is a proven entity now and a threat in any given tournament. He doesn't have that fragility about him that often sent his racquets crashing as well as his results. In a word...maturity. At least in the tennis world and who knows...maybe in his private life as well. A fair share of surprises this week as well. This is the "New Normal" on the ATP Tour now. Week in and week out.
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