Talk About Tennis 2.0

Who ever said anything about Ruud that would make you feel he was being over-rated? With that game, he has over-achieved, if anything. Three slam finals and one YEC finals; that is pretty good for a guy that has the upgraded game of Mats Wilander.
But nobody has ever said he is a slam champ in the waiting. He is... Casper Ruud. He is good. He is Ok. Nothing more.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 2:01 pm Who ever said anything about Ruud that would make you feel he was being over-rated? With that game, he has over-achieved, if anything. Three slam finals and one YEC finals; that is pretty good for a guy that has the upgraded game of Mats Wilander.
But nobody has ever said he is a slam champ in the waiting. He is... Casper Ruud. He is good. He is Ok. Nothing more.

I agree and disagree with you at the same time.

First off, Ashkor could have been responding to my post in this very thread, when I wrote Ruud was the best clay-courter left in the field after he reached the quarterfinals and would win it if he competed well rather than being content to be good but not great.

By reaching three slam finals and a year-end final, he definitely qualifies as an overachiever, particularly by getting to a U.S. Open final. It's amazing. No argument there.

But the comparison to Wilander in terms of game is off base in my view. Ruud is hurt in perception by his self-effacing manner on and off the court. His forehand is absolutely ferocious on clay, with more topspin than anyone other than Nadal, and is a massive problem for anyone he faces. He also has a big first serve. If he had not gotten injured at Roland Garros during his semifinal match with Zverev last year, he likely would have reached three finals there. When he is healthy and confident, I believe the only players who should be able to beat him on normal clay (Draper could be an exception on the fast courts of Madrid) are the true champions like Alcaraz and Sinner. The thing is, Ruud doesn't seem to believe in his own ability.

Ferocious topspin forehand, and a great first serve.
Are you sure my comparison to Wilander is not that accurate?
Those were Wilander's weapons too. And, like Mats, Casper is willing to stay out there as long as is needed. So, I don't see much of a disagreement.
I would like for him to win tomorrow; I think Draper's left-handedness will be tough to handle.
And, Ruud has one weak area. His net game is suspect. And with everybody hitting more and more drop shots, once he is brought in he gets himself in trouble. That may also be a factor.

Sabalenka won 17 points in a row in the first set against Gauff, and that was the only part of the match I saw.

Surprised she made it as tight as she did at the end. Sabalenka is simply the better player on all surfaces. When she loses to Gauff, it's her fault.

NM. Messed up post.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 5:56 pm Ferocious topspin forehand, and a great first serve.
Are you sure my comparison to Wilander is not that accurate?
Those were Wilander's weapons too.

I don't recall Wilander having either of those attributes, but since he won three slams in one year, he had to be more than just the dogged retriever who learned how to hit a one-handed slice approach, which is how I remember him.

It was a different era. We have to factor that. Mats FH was very heavy; it was the time in which some of the Europeans were hitting topspin for the sake of hitting topspin. Remember that Swede, Ken Carlson? His shots would be 12-15 feet over the net. It was ridiculous.
Back to Mats/Casper. Casper hits a more modern topspin FH, but that is by definition. The racquets of the 80's were too flexible to be able to put spin in the same way as today, and the strings were terrible in comparison to what we have now. So Casper can hit both with spin and power, while Mats had to choose. And he was good at that. In his annus mirabilis, one of the things he did was to flatten his FH a bit, so he could compete with Lendl (who was the first guy to hit with both spin and power).
And Wilander's serve was better than average. The thing is that, with Mac, Becker and Edberg also around at the same time (and, again, Lendl), his serve was not one of the best.

Aryna gaining separation from the pack. Don't see her winning RG (but she might), but at W she will have a very good chance.

Madrid was never an indicator on how RG would pan out.

True, but I don't think Swiatek is a favorite for anything any longer. Not even on clay.

And what would be an indicator right now? The only thing we know is that Aryna is playing deep in all tournaments. But she lost Stuttgart to a player that then went out in 1R at Madrid. Mirra is playing quality tennis, but has not won big on clay this year (she has played well). Ostapenko can be all over.
The list of players that are performing well all the time is small. Pegula played well in the USA, but that did not translate (so far) into a good European tour. As Suliso says, Iga is no longer a cinch on clay; it was not only the loss to Coco, it was the set lost to Eala, and the bagel delivered by Maddie.
Only thing that I will bet is that this will be the RG with the most even odds amongst several players in a long time. And, once again, I say that "OTHER" has a good chance. I will not rule out an Iva Majoli or an Anastasia Miskina.

ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sat May 03, 2025 6:38 pm It was the time in which some of the Europeans were hitting topspin for the sake of hitting topspin. Remember that Swede, Ken Carlson? His shots would be 12-15 feet over the net. It was ridiculous.

Very much remember Carlson. His shots often landed inside the service box, and he played exclusively on clay partly because of his game and partly because of his knees.

Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos Men's Doubles Champions

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Fri May 02, 2025 11:55 pm Madrid is a strange tournament. I still remember Aravane Rezai...

When Nalbandian single-handedly took down the Big Three in Madrid
Argentine toppled Nadal, Djokovic and Federer en route to title in 2007
May 03, 2025


David Nalbandian defeated Roger Federer to claim the title at the 2007 Mutua Madrid Open.
By Marcos Zugasti

David Nalbandian’s name is etched into the annals of the Mutua Madrid Open for many reasons. One of them, and surely the most famous, was one of the most incredible title wins in the history of the ATP Tour.

Nalbandian became just the third player to beat the top three in the PIF ATP Rankings at one tournament by defeating the ‘Big Three’ of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. He joined Germany’s Boris Becker (Stockholm 1994) and Djokovic (Montreal 2007). Since then, only Daniil Medvedev has repeated the feat, at the 2020 Nitto ATP Finals.

“I was really focused, knowing that I would have to play incredibly well to win, and everything went well for me. It was a great boost for me beating so many good players that week,” Nalbandian, who had reached No. 3 in the PIF ATP Ranking in 2006 before plummeting after 15 months without a coach, later said.

Once he started working with Martin Jaite, Nalbandian claimed his special Madrid triumph. However, it was not the first time the man from Cordoba had stunned the tennis world. Two years earlier, Nalbandian was in patchy form when he arrived at the Nitto ATP Finals in Shanghai. He would go on to beat Federer in the final to claim the title at the season-ending event.

In Madrid in 2007 (when the ATP Masters 1000 event was still held on indoor hard courts), the tough draw and the big names proved powerless to stop Nalbandian, a player in possession of a textbook backhand that many would argue is one of the best of all time, if not the best, never to have won a major.

His week started with an encounter against Frenchman Arnaud Clement, a former Top 10 player. Nalbandian came back after a slow start to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 17 minutes. Next up was powerhouse Tomas Berdych. Again, he ground out a result, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2), this time in two hours and 10 minutes. In the Round of 16, the Argentinian produced another display of his prowess against his countryman and rising star, a 19-year-old Juan Martin del Potro, for a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

The best, though, was yet to come. In the quarter-finals, Nalbandian put on a tennis masterclass, dispatching Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-2 in just 71 minutes. “I knew that if I had a chance to beat Rafa, it was here. On a fast court, indoor, at altitude,” remembered Nalbandian, who finished his career an 11-time tour-level champion. “All of that means that the conditions were better for me than for him. That year Rafa had not played much in the previous weeks and was probably not on top of his game. I knew this was my chance to beat him because of the circumstances. It was only one hour and 11 minutes. Unbelievable. I don’t think I missed a shot.”

In the semi-finals he sunk Djokovic 6-4, 7-6(4) at a time when the Serbian was starting to show signs of being a threat to Nadal and Federer. "With Djokovic it was more or less the same,” reflected Nalbandian. “The conditions here were better for me than for him. I was playing great, with a lot of confidence after beating Rafa like that. I was ready to fight, and I think it was one of my best moments against him. I played incredible tennis.”

In the title match against Federer, it was a different story. It always was against the Swiss, with whom Nalbandian had a long history. The Cordoba native had lost his past five matches against Federer, but he defeated the Swiss 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to improve to 7-8 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series and get his hands on the Madrid trophy.

“Every time he stepped on court, I knew I had a chance, a big chance,” Nalbandian later said of the Swiss, against whom he finished with an 8-11 record. “I knew he didn’t want to play against me.”

Editor's note: This story was translated from ATPTour.com/es

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/nalband ... ck-feature