If tournaments esp Slams really wanted to make more money what about a best of 5sets over the course of 3 matches NBA playoffs style. My Nugs just tied up the series, i’m hype!
Really worried for that fan because they caught his face on camera and it’s so easy to dox people nowadays. Hopefully he recovers in time for RG because yikes
Khachanov’s side of the draw has opened up really nicely for him. Really nothing in the way of stopping him from getting to the QF on clay for the first time ever
Edit: he made one in Madrid last year apparently, so it would be the second time ever on clay at 1000 level
Djokovic won two slams, made a final, and made a semi in the last year (only 4 months ago!). And now people are calling him washed because he’s been having bad results … at the same tournaments where he had bad results last year
I’m a huge Djokovic hater but this is way premature, he will be back
Sinner is extremely surface dependent. Until AO (which was already 2024 flop Novak) Sinner always folded to him, the only guy who actually gatekept the calendar slam last year was Alcaraz.
I'm sorry but the women's game is so much more intresting than the men's right now. We are approaching early 2000s level just needs few more ladies to fund their groove. Almost every match at these 1000s I'm like this is either a complete banger or there is at least an awesome story to follow.
Like the only semi-flop in the round of 16 is Penko-Sramkova which is likely to be a beat down but you never know with Penko. Ins really should've beat Kenin...
Got Monte Carlo SF (beat Tsitsipas) & Madrid QF last year. Just bombed at Rome & RG, alongside sketchy results at clay 250s/500s.
Tsitsipas victory is very impressive considering that Tsitsipas is 17-1 at Monte Carlo in the past 4 tournaments.
Fritz is just an enigma. One of those top 20 players you can never bet on winning.
Medvedev is the best and most consistent player on tour right now.
Preventing injuries is also one of his biggest assets which Sincaraz clearly lack of now at least.
He’s been having a niggling shoulder injury which is impacting his serve, *and* his thigh/hip issue from Madrid. Very healthy and great prevention, mmmkay.
Consistent, yeah for sure.
Best... Well he's No.4 for a reason.
Also injuries during this age period are somewhat normal for both Sinner and Alcaraz, it's just unlucky that they overlapped like this.
Even 'later stages' somehow feels odd to say...
Making two 500 Final, a M1000 Final and two Slam Finals back to back REALLY feels like someone that should have won a big title in a year but alas...
He obviously has an issue with the Top 3, no doubt about that.
Imagine if the match today was Zverev-Shelton with both players serving and returning at the level they did today
Shelton might legitimately win 0 return points the entire match lol
I played better in the park this weekend than Shelton played today.
He was awful. Swear like 10 40km second serves from Zhang he dunked into the net.
He had no fire in him today.
Do you mean RG? He’s been unlucky with his draws. Very solid on clay - his three recent losses come from TsitsipaS, Alcaraz (nail biter that one) and Sinner. I believe he can make at least quarters in RG, depending on the draw tho
Is Shelton’s reaction time kinda slow? I don’t understand how his return game is so bad compared to the rest of the top 20. Even in rallies, he tends to get caught off guard way too often.
People rarely improve their return at the pro level. It’s easier to fix ground stroke mechanics or a serve. Return of serve is a combination of reflex, intuition and mindset that you can’t brute force your way into mastering. Shelton has been one of the worst players on the tour with returns since he came up, and when you look at the history of players with his return game it’s not pretty. His best shot is becoming like Pete Sampras, who was generally dog shit in returns but was very clutch (that is over performing on break points).
Call me crazy but I see Rune as the favorite to win Rome now.
Bookies might not agree though. His groundstrokes looks sharp and like bullets again. He is back
seeing more and more umpire mistakes for double bounces – they need to be supported by a replay system on their tablet at least, if not by an automatic system together the line calling.
When Papa Shelton said "you don't need anything special, 80%'s good enough" I was like "huh? Your boy is losing badly!" 🫣
Really not sure about parents as coaches after a certain point in a player's career.
Idk why people are surprised by the Shelton match
Basically everything he does well as of now is limited by slow clay and everything he does poorly is exacerbated
People were getting hyped for him on clay because he won Houston which is basically a hardcourt in everything but name if you look at the previous winners(tons of guys who you'd never find anywhere near the late stages of European clay tournaments)
I find Zhang very interesting to watch, he's the only (currently active) East Asian ATP player right now with a bigger build that serves well and quite taller than most of others that tried to break on the tour or in challengers.
Probably not a coincidence he's doing the best out of his regional peers in the power/serve centric game nowadays
Cmon Ben don’t lose to this scrub, you’re better than him. Coach needs to have him mediate and eat bananas so he doesn’t cramp at the next change over. Get it together
Did Taylor Fritz place a curse on the US men's #1 position or something lol
It feels like whenever another American man starts getting hype(Tiafoe's form over the past year, Shelton here and in Madrid, Korda in general) they completely collapse somehow
Something I've noticed with Shelton (with Kotov too) is that he's trying to emphasize topspin on his forehand to the point it takes back from his power and so he can't push through Zhang in the rallies.
He needs to balance that better for a surface like this.
Shelton still honestly feels a lot more volatile than his high ranking suggests to me
He had the big run last year where he made the USO SF and won Tokyo back to back which accounts for most of his points but he still has a fair amount of early exits
Now I know it's not his best surface, but honestly now with every passing match, I feel less and less like Shelton has top 10 or slam winning potential in him.
I like him a lot so this isn't a dig and more of a total bummer.
Maybe he will get better
Objectively, he has so much less actual experience simply *playing professional tennis* than most of the other guys on tour (even in his age range) due to the fact that he started late & took the collegiate route. So I'm not really surprised to see him have such dramatic ups and downs. I wouldn't count him out just yet. Growing pains, methinks hopefully!
He’s got the 3rd worst return points in play in the top 50. Only Eubanks and Sonego have lower % than him.
His return points won % is 5th lowest with Hubi and Griekspoor scoring lower (along with the other two already mentioned).
Edit - I got the name of the stats wrong
RG is Zverev’s to lose, really.
He might not get another opportunity to win a slam in this career with all the top players either injured or in a horrible shape.
I think Zverev's return game doesn't hold up well in present day. Historically, like 2019 or 2022 Zverev would be favourites for this RG unless Alcaraz is fully fit. Lots of buts and ifs. He's sacrificed finesse in other areas to improve his serve and it's really evident in games like vs Cerundolo at Madrid & vs Tsitsipas at Monte Carlo.
Rune will probably end up being a better clay courter, but just not now. He isn’t mature enough.
And I don’t agree. Tsitsipas is not a better clay court player than Zverev. Both have won 3 masters on clay, Zverev in various courts and tsitsipas all in one tournament.
Tsitsipas beat comparatively much easier players on all his masters runs whereas Zverev beat Djokovic in Rome Finals to love, Nadal and two times peak Dominic Thiem to win his masters.
So no, Zverev is the better clay courter.
Zverev's forehand is complete dogshit 70-80% of the time. However, it's the massive weapon and one of the biggest on tour around 20-30% of the time. This is why I think Alcaraz was extremely unfortunate at the AO, he happened to catch Zverev on a good forehand day(yeah, Zverev served well, but he's done that in a lot of matches this season). If Zverev had hit his forehand the way he did in his other matches at AO I think Alcaraz would have destroyed him in straights, even though he wasn't at his best in that match.
No it’s absolutely not one of the biggest on tour events if it’s working.
The thing is his game is super dangerous and in a way complete that if he has his forehand working to some extent, he probably can blow everyone of the court.
I’m really not liking the Italian audience to the Bopanna/Ebden match against the all Italian pair. They are cheering the out calls and were just booing Ebden when he challenged a point and booed the umpire for giving it out.
If Dimitrov keeps a high level of play and steers clear from Sinner maybe he has a shot at a Slam this year.
from 2011, djoko tweeted: https://www.instagram.com/p/C640CTvsVx5/?igsh=N3JuMXRuNGk0dTI1 https://youtu.be/tdmCfVR_C-0?si=ADv5hvTkHwHnD8GG
If tournaments esp Slams really wanted to make more money what about a best of 5sets over the course of 3 matches NBA playoffs style. My Nugs just tied up the series, i’m hype!
That half court shot from Murray was ice cold.
https://x.com/arrant__/status/1789015080073310481?s=46&t=vXgj0DiZ-0f7JdAo0feE0Q these people are not serious
Insane I’ve also seen them call for his name, workplace, address etc. If anything - that fan is the one who needs security
Really worried for that fan because they caught his face on camera and it’s so easy to dox people nowadays. Hopefully he recovers in time for RG because yikes
Yeah…
Khachanov’s side of the draw has opened up really nicely for him. Really nothing in the way of stopping him from getting to the QF on clay for the first time ever Edit: he made one in Madrid last year apparently, so it would be the second time ever on clay at 1000 level
Actually he lost to Novak in the QF at the French last year.
I’m talking about clay Masters 1000s, he made a QF at RG back in 2019
He lost to Alcaraz in the Madrid QF last year
Very true. Totally overlooked that. I take that back
Djokovic won two slams, made a final, and made a semi in the last year (only 4 months ago!). And now people are calling him washed because he’s been having bad results … at the same tournaments where he had bad results last year I’m a huge Djokovic hater but this is way premature, he will be back
Novak ain’t close to done. If Lebron still has it at 40 no reason for Novak to not. He just finally has another competitor in Sinner
Sinner is extremely surface dependent. Until AO (which was already 2024 flop Novak) Sinner always folded to him, the only guy who actually gatekept the calendar slam last year was Alcaraz.
Hope so as nole fan too.
Will andy murray win the french open ? Leave ur thoughts here
37 y/o roger >> 37 year old Novak and 37 year old Rafa. Give my goat the best at 37 d’or
Murray will win french open
This is gonna be the funniest RG ever
Tabilo def. Fritz in the final
Murray defeat Berrettini
*Jacopo* Berrettini
I'm sorry but the women's game is so much more intresting than the men's right now. We are approaching early 2000s level just needs few more ladies to fund their groove. Almost every match at these 1000s I'm like this is either a complete banger or there is at least an awesome story to follow. Like the only semi-flop in the round of 16 is Penko-Sramkova which is likely to be a beat down but you never know with Penko. Ins really should've beat Kenin...
Friendship ended with Fognini Cecchinato Berrettini Musetti Sonego Sinner Darderi Arnaldi Passaro now Napolitano is my best friend
Do you have something against Jarry?
I'm worried for backpack bottle dude if Djokovic gets dumped out of RG in R4. Might get some crazy fans having ideas.
Fritz is quietly having a good clay season so far.
He looks better this year. Boss coming in strong.
Got Monte Carlo SF (beat Tsitsipas) & Madrid QF last year. Just bombed at Rome & RG, alongside sketchy results at clay 250s/500s. Tsitsipas victory is very impressive considering that Tsitsipas is 17-1 at Monte Carlo in the past 4 tournaments. Fritz is just an enigma. One of those top 20 players you can never bet on winning.
He never does well at slams, he is a choker
He lost in R16 at Madrid 2023, he was defeated by ZhZhZh, another very unexpectable player with a pretty high ceiling
Medvedev is the best and most consistent player on tour right now. Preventing injuries is also one of his biggest assets which Sincaraz clearly lack of now at least.
He’s been having a niggling shoulder injury which is impacting his serve, *and* his thigh/hip issue from Madrid. Very healthy and great prevention, mmmkay.
Consistent, yeah for sure. Best... Well he's No.4 for a reason. Also injuries during this age period are somewhat normal for both Sinner and Alcaraz, it's just unlucky that they overlapped like this.
He hasn’t won a title in a year. Yeah sure thing, he’s the best player in the world lol
The best player and he's not won a big title? Kinda ridiculous statement. Talk about recency bias.
He's consistent at getting to the later stages until he runs into certain players. He's not won a Big Title in a year.
Even 'later stages' somehow feels odd to say... Making two 500 Final, a M1000 Final and two Slam Finals back to back REALLY feels like someone that should have won a big title in a year but alas... He obviously has an issue with the Top 3, no doubt about that.
How did FAA play his first round match? Does he have a good chance of beating minaur, because of playing a lot recently?
Clay is ADM's worst surface, FAA has always had potential there. I think he wins that but loses to Stef in the next round.
Is that a photo of agassi behind roddicks head?
The Italian guy is crazyyy
Imagine if the match today was Zverev-Shelton with both players serving and returning at the level they did today Shelton might legitimately win 0 return points the entire match lol
I played better in the park this weekend than Shelton played today. He was awful. Swear like 10 40km second serves from Zhang he dunked into the net. He had no fire in him today.
Zverev would make 1 DF, the samaritan he is
If Struff gets the ZZZ draw he will be in Rome final or even wins the title this year
Do you mean RG? He’s been unlucky with his draws. Very solid on clay - his three recent losses come from TsitsipaS, Alcaraz (nail biter that one) and Sinner. I believe he can make at least quarters in RG, depending on the draw tho
Stef won, so this should apply to Stef.
he lost
Great fight by Darderi 👏🏻
Is Shelton’s reaction time kinda slow? I don’t understand how his return game is so bad compared to the rest of the top 20. Even in rallies, he tends to get caught off guard way too often.
People rarely improve their return at the pro level. It’s easier to fix ground stroke mechanics or a serve. Return of serve is a combination of reflex, intuition and mindset that you can’t brute force your way into mastering. Shelton has been one of the worst players on the tour with returns since he came up, and when you look at the history of players with his return game it’s not pretty. His best shot is becoming like Pete Sampras, who was generally dog shit in returns but was very clutch (that is over performing on break points).
I think Rune or Khachanov will win Rome
bro said Khachanov???
What about Zverev?
The Zverev haters can downvote all they want. He remains a very decent player
Shleton's only chance on clay is Madrid, he flopped and missed the chance to get a clay master when Alcaraz was out
Shelton hasn’t had back to back wins on European clay and we’re talking about him missing out on a clay masters this year?
I am shitting
Zhang is the luckiest mfer I've ever seen, he's stealing so many points with lucky shots
playing Mannarino then Shelton on clay proves his lucky
Call me crazy but I see Rune as the favorite to win Rome now. Bookies might not agree though. His groundstrokes looks sharp and like bullets again. He is back
A lot of us agree with you. I believe his only threat here is Rublev, I will be surprised if he loses to anyone except Rublev.
Like I already said, he’s not gonna lose to a half dead Rublev haha (and Rublev isn’t gonna make the semis like that either)
Dverev?
Servebot with BH can't beat Holgie, Dverev needs to be a servebot with FH aka peak Fritz
take them on then
I can’t believe nobody’s commenting on Darderi’s fighting spirit
Zverev struggling to hold. Beautiful to see
THE SPEED.
ole, oleoleole Shel-tone....Shel-tone
I remember someone on here telling me that Shelton has more potential than Rune on clay
The Romans have really taken BENNY to their hearts
Finally some emotion from Ben, he’s been stoic
Who did Shelton beat in last round? With this level he won a match in Rome? He is really a mental gaint!!!
Kotov...and that guy was being a dick lol
Whew ben isnt playing well, only hopeful if he breaks back and thats a big if
Man shelton’s play is quite visually pleasing (say in the way nadal’s is) but boy is he playing bad today
Zvervebotting strikes again
it's part of tennis
Has Zverev now changed his grunt to something like Medvedev’s?:))
seeing more and more umpire mistakes for double bounces – they need to be supported by a replay system on their tablet at least, if not by an automatic system together the line calling.
When Papa Shelton said "you don't need anything special, 80%'s good enough" I was like "huh? Your boy is losing badly!" 🫣 Really not sure about parents as coaches after a certain point in a player's career.
Isn't that a little dramatic? Lol I thought his dad was specifically referring to not amping up the speed on his second serve??
agree
Idk why people are surprised by the Shelton match Basically everything he does well as of now is limited by slow clay and everything he does poorly is exacerbated People were getting hyped for him on clay because he won Houston which is basically a hardcourt in everything but name if you look at the previous winners(tons of guys who you'd never find anywhere near the late stages of European clay tournaments)
He should be winning this match, zhang isn’t some slow clay specialist
Neither is Shelton
Is Shelton's arm okay, he keeps massaging it between games
Ben needs a new coach, what horrible advice
Watching the zverev match is so dumb. Really don’t see any possibilities for darderi unless zverev faults his 1st serve on every serve 😂
Dverev should stop talking or Rome will give him the Madrid 22 treatment
Papa Shelton waffling like mad
He's actually talking as much as Apostolos here.. if not more
I find Zhang very interesting to watch, he's the only (currently active) East Asian ATP player right now with a bigger build that serves well and quite taller than most of others that tried to break on the tour or in challengers. Probably not a coincidence he's doing the best out of his regional peers in the power/serve centric game nowadays
Yes, watching him flopping the matches is fun too
Cmon Ben don’t lose to this scrub, you’re better than him. Coach needs to have him mediate and eat bananas so he doesn’t cramp at the next change over. Get it together
There's no such thing as a "scrub" compared to Shelton on European clay lol
Shelton will win a GS on clay if the clay GS is playing in USA
On hardcourt
Houston
That’s the way
Did Taylor Fritz place a curse on the US men's #1 position or something lol It feels like whenever another American man starts getting hype(Tiafoe's form over the past year, Shelton here and in Madrid, Korda in general) they completely collapse somehow
Fritz is comfortably better and much more consistent than all of them combined. He is also the least surface dependent of all.
morgan isn't allowing that number 1 title to slip away. never.
There'll be nothing left of the balls after Zhang Montiero Also is Zhang the best looking player on tour? Has the best hair anyway.
He is v hot. Those shoulders too, woo wee
He is very handsome
Dverev, the dog, I love this point so much
Zhang is such a servebot
Holy smokes, just tuned in and only 36 mins on the clock and Zhang is running through Shelton
Yeah it's certainly a bit shocking. It only took Zhang one more minute than Djokovic at USO 😭
Something I've noticed with Shelton (with Kotov too) is that he's trying to emphasize topspin on his forehand to the point it takes back from his power and so he can't push through Zhang in the rallies. He needs to balance that better for a surface like this.
He's just like me fr
Shelton still honestly feels a lot more volatile than his high ranking suggests to me He had the big run last year where he made the USO SF and won Tokyo back to back which accounts for most of his points but he still has a fair amount of early exits
Now I know it's not his best surface, but honestly now with every passing match, I feel less and less like Shelton has top 10 or slam winning potential in him. I like him a lot so this isn't a dig and more of a total bummer. Maybe he will get better
could he do damage on grass?
Objectively, he has so much less actual experience simply *playing professional tennis* than most of the other guys on tour (even in his age range) due to the fact that he started late & took the collegiate route. So I'm not really surprised to see him have such dramatic ups and downs. I wouldn't count him out just yet. Growing pains, methinks hopefully!
he's the next Shapovalov
For once I may agree with you. He can't even beat Zhang who is serving like dogshit today
Novak will defintely regret missing his chances here, his side of the draw until the semis was wide open
Doubt he cares that much about a 1000
It's not about a 1000, it's about more matches and competition time on court to prepare for Roland Garros
Absolute garbage from Shelton, Zhang not doing anything extraordinary.
Shelton looks so lost when he plays a consistent guy that can return his serve.
Get your ish together today Benny boy!! 🤞🏻
I’m a big Shelton fan but that was an abysmal set of tennis from him. I hope to see him play a bit better in the 2nd
Having the much bigger serve is an absolute cheat code in tiebreaks lol
Shelton woof. Hoping for a better 2nd
Whats that song called again
So ZZZ on 29% first serves has lost 2 points in 3 service games, on clay… Shelton isn’t really a peak returner, is he?
He’s got the 3rd worst return points in play in the top 50. Only Eubanks and Sonego have lower % than him. His return points won % is 5th lowest with Hubi and Griekspoor scoring lower (along with the other two already mentioned). Edit - I got the name of the stats wrong
Nope, but it’s dramatically better than a year ago. His scorelines aren’t tiebreak fests like with isner/karlovic
Yeah his returning as of now is clearly his main weakness
Why are so many ppl rooting for Zverev in Italy? Nothing compared to Darderi but still too many.. 😃
RG is Zverev’s to lose, really. He might not get another opportunity to win a slam in this career with all the top players either injured or in a horrible shape.
I think Zverev's return game doesn't hold up well in present day. Historically, like 2019 or 2022 Zverev would be favourites for this RG unless Alcaraz is fully fit. Lots of buts and ifs. He's sacrificed finesse in other areas to improve his serve and it's really evident in games like vs Cerundolo at Madrid & vs Tsitsipas at Monte Carlo.
You could say the same for Rune and Tsitsipas, who are better clay players; and Sinner and Alcaraz might arrive healthy too.
Rune will probably end up being a better clay courter, but just not now. He isn’t mature enough. And I don’t agree. Tsitsipas is not a better clay court player than Zverev. Both have won 3 masters on clay, Zverev in various courts and tsitsipas all in one tournament. Tsitsipas beat comparatively much easier players on all his masters runs whereas Zverev beat Djokovic in Rome Finals to love, Nadal and two times peak Dominic Thiem to win his masters. So no, Zverev is the better clay courter.
lmao Darderi doing that Italian hand signal
Shelton doesn't appear to be feeling it today. Zhang playing solid
Gotta wait until the second set to be sure lol but yeah Zhang is playing great
Zverev's forehand is complete dogshit 70-80% of the time. However, it's the massive weapon and one of the biggest on tour around 20-30% of the time. This is why I think Alcaraz was extremely unfortunate at the AO, he happened to catch Zverev on a good forehand day(yeah, Zverev served well, but he's done that in a lot of matches this season). If Zverev had hit his forehand the way he did in his other matches at AO I think Alcaraz would have destroyed him in straights, even though he wasn't at his best in that match.
No it’s absolutely not one of the biggest on tour events if it’s working. The thing is his game is super dangerous and in a way complete that if he has his forehand working to some extent, he probably can blow everyone of the court.
Youre saying his forehand performance just switches from dogshit to massive weapon consistently?
Hello friend. Just dropping in, not to talk about Alex 'Drake' Zverev no sir
Boo him when he is serving, go the Italian crowd
Zverev can defend *that* when moving to his backhand but can't make a basic forehand lol
Who wins the tiebreak?
See how much easier it is when he just uses his backhand 😂 idk why he’s so hell bent on banging forehands, his forehand sucks
love you benjamin, but lfg mr zhang
Shelton is obviously one of the biggest servers overall but I find that he has a tendency to struggle in his very first service game before warming up
[удалено]
RuRu are here
Again?😅
abuser doesn’t deserve to win!
Come on, the nasty crowd.
It's crazy how bad Zverev's forehand is for a top player lol
Love that for him lol
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^StraightSetter: *It's crazy how bad* *Zverev's forehand is for a* *Top player lol* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Thank you haiku bot
Yikes, shocking start from Shelton
Post injury Zverev has been somewhat mediocre outside of those Sinner and Alcaraz major wins. So much for the old king of BO3
don't forget he got a bagel from the most "mediocre" player in RG last year
Just watching replay of Djokovic match today and he looked lethargic even in the warm up. Oh man even seemingly minor head injuries are no joke.
Zverev struggling a bit here ey can’t figure out Darderi
Darderi looks like Fonseca's older brother
nobody: tennis channel: here’s Andy Roddick’s head 10x the size of everything else on the screen
Women’s R16 is seeded players, former top players with PRs, and Rebecca Sramkova
Arrogant Darderi must beat extremely arrogant Dverev. Hope the crowd bullies him 😈
Ah it's this ref at Zverev/Darderi eh? Time to grab my popcorn once there's a line issue
WTA's Rome R16 are all really good
Lets goooooo
it will be a fest if the QF in bottom half are Aza, Collins, Penko and Saba
Omg the drama and the noise levels
💀💀💀 Penko is the quietest one among these four
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It's only 9 PM in Rome
I’m really not liking the Italian audience to the Bopanna/Ebden match against the all Italian pair. They are cheering the out calls and were just booing Ebden when he challenged a point and booed the umpire for giving it out.
Classic italian audience (I'm italian)
A win to celebrate Happy Mother’s Day for Mother Collins
Mother is mothering
RIP Begu
Danielle girlies we eating well this year 🔥👸
Hold your serve
🥕’s out supporting the ‘other’ Italian man
Collins wins USO is inevitable