ATP/WTA Madrid and Rome

pepsi

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 4, 2008
13,241
15,192
Maribyrnong
AFL Club
Essendon
Well the clay season really ramps up over the next 2 weeks with the biggest clay tournaments outside of Roland garros taking place.

Honestly the men's and women's tour is unpredictable and don't think anyone could confidently pick the winner of these 2 tournaments.

Kyrgios, millman, de minaur are in action on the men's side. Barty, tomjlanovic and gavrilova in the women's. Funnily enough ash and dasha play each other in the first round.

The men's draw sees the return to clay by Federer and he has a tough section of the draw.

IMG_20190505_004134.jpg
 
Last edited:

Me Myself and I

Club Legend
Feb 3, 2016
1,642
3,217
Singapore
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Other Teams
Luton Town
Tomic blows two match points on his serve at 5-4 and ends up losing to Haase in qualifying.

Barty over Gavrilova just one way traffic.

Schmiedlova wins her qualifier in 3hrs 15mins. Plays Mertens tonight but how much has she got left in the tank.
 
Apr 28, 2008
11,211
8,194
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Arsenal Kilmarnock
Ferrer gets RBA in his last match, that sounds rigged to me (in a good way). When RBA shot up the rankings in 2014, I remember him saying Ferrer and JCF had been the players he most admired.

Then again, RBA has gone deep this week, so could pullout or lose. Zverev after their several meetings already in 2019 would be cool as well in the next round. Either way, glad that Ferrer will retire against a worthy opponent. Coric/Pouille/ADM if he survives that far.

Shapovalov-FAA should be fun.
 
Last edited:

Me Myself and I

Club Legend
Feb 3, 2016
1,642
3,217
Singapore
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Other Teams
Luton Town
Barty beats Collins with one of those only in the WTA scores. 6-1, 1-6, 6-1. Plays the bad tempered Kazakh next.

Kyrgios and Tomic teaming up in doubles, could be interesting. Against Kontinen and Peers tonight.
 
He's ok once this is week is done and he loses those points from that challenger win till the US Open but he's going to need a run somewhere to try and get him back in the main draw for Masters 1000 swing in the US. Fognini was the start of his run in New York, so hopefully that's some sort of sign.... Probably not.

De Minaur game doesn't suit clay but for a guy who trained a bit on it, his results have been awful.
 

AlwaysHawks15

Premiership Player
Nov 12, 2014
4,907
6,595
AFL Club
Hawthorn
You wouldn't know Federer hasn't played on Clay for 3 years would you, just a lazy routine straight sets win over Gasquet on his return.
Gasquet has just come back from a long injury layoff. Was never beating Fed. Realistically I only see 4 players beating him on clay ATM (Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem and Tsitsipas). The standard isn't great right now.
 
May 10, 2007
24,080
30,209
Bonbeach
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Other Teams
Arsenal Fc Portland Trailblazers
Gasquet has just come back from a long injury layoff. Was never beating Fed. Realistically I only see 4 players beating him on clay ATM (Djokovic, Nadal, Thiem and Tsitsipas). The standard isn't great right now.

Yeah that's all very valid points, maybe a fully fit JMDP also, but yeah that probably won't happen now.
 

pepsi

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 4, 2008
13,241
15,192
Maribyrnong
AFL Club
Essendon
Halep too good for Barty on the clay. Simona is such a pleasure to watch on the clay, she plays the surface so well. She moves her opponents around with variety, shape and keeping them off balance. Ash was decent today.
 

pepsi

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 4, 2008
13,241
15,192
Maribyrnong
AFL Club
Essendon
Cilic is out with food poisoning so Djokovic progresses to the semis

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Has been a dream run to the semis for him here. Though i feel az if he would have preferred some tough match play to prepare him for Paris. He needs to have a couple of big wins over the next 2 weeks to get him ready for rg.
 

Me Myself and I

Club Legend
Feb 3, 2016
1,642
3,217
Singapore
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
Other Teams
Luton Town
Rome.
The Williams drawn to meet second round. Venus v Mertens first round though, Serena against a qualifier.
Barty gets a bye into the second round due to Kerber being a scratching.
Gavrilova and Stosur in qualifying.
ADM and Kyrgios both against seeds.
 

pepsi

Brownlow Medallist
Feb 4, 2008
13,241
15,192
Maribyrnong
AFL Club
Essendon
Rome.
The Williams drawn to meet second round. Venus v Mertens first round though, Serena against a qualifier.
Barty gets a bye into the second round due to Kerber being a scratching.
Gavrilova and Stosur in qualifying.
ADM and Kyrgios both against seeds.
One of my favourite tournaments of the year. Is this Serena's only tournament pre Roland garros?
 
Back