Madrid ATP 1000

[jimlosaltos]

Men's finals are Draper vs Ruud.

Rudd vs Cerundolo was astonishing. Rudd hurt himself in warm-ups (rib area), faced break points in both sets, and yet won 6-4, 7-5.

Per Robbie Koenig: "It was the most Break Points (18) that Casper has ever faced, in a 2/3 set match!" The cherry on top of Casper's "performance on break points today is that Cerundolo was Forum in BP conversion rate this season"

Best part, when the mild-mannered Ruud told the chair about a spectator trying to interfere with his serve: "You wouldn't see a Norwegian spectator do it to his opponent and laughed out loud when he mentioned Sabalenka."

P.S. And the shot of the day might be Ruud, scrambling for a drop shot, both players at net, hit -- something, I'm trying to vid a decent video to figure it out -- where he faked pushing it to his left and somehow hit it backwards behind Francisco. Flipped his wrist to hit in almost backwards, perhaps?

Per Bernard Faschen/ Euro journo

Players this century to reach the final in Monte-Carlo, Madrid (on clay), and Roland-Garros:

Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Novak Djokovic
David Ferrer
Stan Wawrinka
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Carlos Alcaraz
Casper Ruud


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[jimlosaltos]

Scorecard: Faced 18 BPs and won in straights.

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[jimlosaltos]

Women's final is Gauff vs Sabalenka to be played tomorrow (Saturday)

Coco leads H2H 5-4, splitting last 2 and Aryna winning the 2024 AO final over Coco.

[jimlosaltos]

Sabalenka wins Madrid in contested but straight sets.

Coco, who'd served quite well in making the final, hit 8 double faults in only 11 games.
She also won a lower percentage on her first service than Aryna did on her second.
Despite that Coco had a set point in the second and took it to a tiebreak. Cup half full?

I fear I have to post some video/ images of Coco's serve. Sigh.

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[jimlosaltos]

Casper Ruud, in tomorrow's finals vs Draper in Madrid, gives more detail on why he had to change his game.
Ruud joins Sasha Zverev, Daniil Medvedev, and Andy Roddick in saying the pro tennis balls slowing substantially after the Covid epidemic disrupted the supply chain, and have stayed slower since.

Casper has been going for winners earlier, hitting more flat balls, because it's easier to attack heavy topspin.

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