ATP/WTA Madrid and Rome

[pepsi]

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.

 

[Me Myself and I]

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.

 

[Roobs321]

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.

 

[Firestarter]

Thank God Kyrgios is ranked too low for seeding...

 

[Me Myself and I]

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.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

De Minaur beaten in straights sets unfortunately.

 

[Roobs321]

Loved the Tribute to Ferrer, moving to see all the big stars and spaniards there. And a great victory to go with it. Alex Zverev awaits.

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

Millman won against Stevie J in two tight tiebreaker sets and will play Fognini next. Needs to win some good matches as his ranking is sinking fast.

 

[matt_897]

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.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

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.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

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.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

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.

 

[JackNah_8]

Ferrer played his last game in Madrid

https://sports.yahoo.com/david-ferrer-20-career-comes-024344902.html

 

[pepsi]

Halep and Barty on court now. If ash can win this, it would give her a huge amount of confidence that she can do some damage on the clay.

 

[JackNah_8]

Halep won the first set and ahead in the second.

 

[pepsi]

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.

 

[Hamingja]

Barty is a great chance at Wimbledon at $29 I reckon. Would honestly be my second fave behind Kvitova.

Halep to win the French in to Barty to win Wimbledon at $174.

 

[vaughany]

Cilic is out with food poisoning so Djokovic progresses to the semis

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[pepsi]

Cilic is out with food poisoning so Djokovic progresses to the semis

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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.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

The Federer vs Thiem match must have been a good one, Thiem progressing in 3.

 

[JackNah_8]

Thiem saved 2 Match Points to win.

 

[Me Myself and I]

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]

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?

 

[SunGirl89]

Halep saves 2 match points but Bertens wins 6-4 6-4, not dropping a set in the tournament, the first woman to ever do so at Madrid.

Osaka thus remains #1, Bertens rises to #4

 

[JackNah_8]

Novak def Thiem


Interesting match on at the moment, Tsitsiptas has taken the first set against Nadal