Rome Masters 1000 2015

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Djokovic has been drawn in the same quarter as Nishikori and the same half as Murray. Djokovic could get Almagro in his first match as well.

Nadal drawn in the same quarter as Wawrinka and same half as Federer. Seems as though Nadal has a better draw.

I'm not expecting anything from Rafa and I do feel more calm during his match when I'm not expecting him to win. I guess his fans have now learned not to expect much from him, until he gets his consistency back.

Never a truer word

Very entertaining match between Murray and Chardy, but Andy is just a bit too good. Barely any unforced errors from his racquet, and he's hitting with precision and power.

Vesely just had a set point against Kei, but failed to convert. Could live to regret it...

Murray through 6-4 6-3. Excellent match for the first set and a half with both playing some fine stuff, but once Murray got the break at 2-2 in set 2 Chardy rather wilted and Murray just stayed solid from there on. TBH once Chardy had failed to convert a couple of BP chances at 3-2 in the first, only for Murray to pounce and break in the next game the writing felt on the wall. A confident start for Murray certainly, hitting his BH as well as I can remember at the moment, excellent numbers, with 19 winners to just 10 UEs. His tenth consecutive win on the red dirt...

Nadal facing BP on first serve.

Another solid win for Andy Murray against Jeremy Chardy - his tenth clay court win of the season. He answered all questions asked of him with minimum fuss. The serve continued to look very good and decent aggression as well. Next up probably Tsonga.

Jahu wrote:Nadal facing BP on first serve.

How did Rafa get on? I am travelling so missed it.

Nadal barely wins

CaledonianCraig wrote:

Jahu wrote:Nadal facing BP on first serve.

How did Rafa get on? I am travelling so missed it.

He won 6:2, 6:0, took 3-4 games to warm up, but not bad.

Cheers Jahu.  

Dimitrov- Fognini is turning into a classic, big crowd, close match, great tennis

Holy spaghetti, Foggy toying around with Dimi.

Total magic from him on the 3'rd set, Foggy 4:0 up and to serve.

Dimi being Mashas toy, has run out of batteries

Dimi bageled, 7:6, 4:6, 6:0.

Foggy magical.

Fed sluggish.

He should skip the dirt and do only grass till W.

Fed wins 7:6, 6:4.

Jahu wrote:Fed wins 7:6, 6:4.

Cuevas did play well, at least the first set was pretty well contested. Federer did not face a BP, so a bit better. Anderson next.

Yeah was acceptable match, Cuevas did hang good in Istanbul against Fed too.

Just that zest is missing to convert BP's and more focus on tight points, but that's age i guess, legs ain't working like 5y ago.

Just watching the Djokovic-Almagro match, not sure why Djokovic lost the second set.

Murray withdraws before the Goffin match. Probably the right decision. Got a little bit of sea-level clay court practice, 90 points for one match and can now recover for Paris.

Nadal through in straight sets v Isner and as BS notes above Murray withdraws.

Not the biggest surprise ever - I honestly can't imagine that Andy or his team expected him to play quite so many matches over the previous two tournaments, and there was also the issue of the delay to the Munich final.

I'm somewhat surprised, given how well he played against Chardy, and with the week off coming up. I don't blame him though, he must be knackered.

Good decision by Andy, he got enough clay matches this year, and beat the clay Goat, so all good, rest before RG.

Fed 6:3, and 5:2 up, serving for the match and manages to break himself with UE's and DF.

Then again at 5:4 serving for the match same, wild UE's.

Now breaks Anderson at 5:5.

Serving for the match now, I think he needs a 5:0 or 5:1 lead just to be safe to serve for the match

Fed wins 6:3, 7:5, with sudden 10 minute sleep at 5:2.

Come on Foggy, do some magic.

Foggy does it, from 1:2 down to 3:2 up, sure a set down still.

Holy gelato, Foggy breaks.

4:2.

Foggy takes the second set from 1:2 to 6:3.

Berdy wins on TB third set.

Match of the month this one, only if Foggy had a little more nerves.

Good win for Berdy on clay, that. He'll be confident going into his next match I'm sure.

Bellucci serving for the set against the #1...annnd he's 0-15 down. I think I can see where this is going

Bellucci takes the set 7:5.

Djoko flat as a pancake.

Berdy next to met Fed, so I hope he is tired 

Wanted Foggy-Fed match tomorrow.

I stand corrected! 7-5 it is.

Berdych - Fed eh? They're usually good matches, should be fun to watch

Fed was superb today, apart from a 5 min meltdown to close the match on 3'rd try!!

Berdy seems a little heavy on clay.

summerblues wrote:Nole's draw looks horrible on paper, BUT:

Both Nishi and Andy have now gone deep in back-to-back tournaments.  I would not be surprised if they both chose to take it easy in Rome, in which case Nole's draw could open up nicely.

I was at least half-way correct

Let's see how hard Nishi tries tomorrow.  I would be quite happy if my prediction were wrong and Nishi did his best to beat Nole.

I am not sure why you would think that Nishi would not want to beatt
Novak. A win here would be a great psychological booster for him surely
And certainly he would want Novak firing off the back foot at the FO
However SB Im sure your enlighten me

I meant it in the context of what I had said after the draw was released - when I said that while Nole's draw looked hard on paper, I could see both Andy and Nishi taking it easy this week (as it is a third week in a row for them both, and they both went deep the previous two weeks).

I was right with Andy but maybe not with Nishi.

I can see the argument for Andy, but I still feel Nishi has a lot to prove and
a win over Novak would certainly do that. imo I don't think he can afford not to make the most of his opportunity

I think I agree. If Nishi had wanted to take it easy, he should have tanked earlier. Tanking against the world #1 would be an odd thing to do.

Djokovic v Almagro and Djokovic v Bellucci make me favor Nishikori in a tight 3-setter.

I am looking forward to Nadal v Wawrinka. Will Wawrinka bring a knife to the gun battle?

Strange schedule. The winner of Goffin/Ferrer at 12 noon will play the winner of Djokovic/Nishikori at 4pm. The winner of Federer/Berdych at 2pm will play the winner of Nadal/Wawrinka at not before 9pm. Bearing in mind that the match before the Nadal/Berdych match is between Sharapova/Azarenka at not before 7.30pm it is unlikely to start before 10pm. I wonder if Federer made the schedule  

This probably isn't the right place but I've just read a fans account of Nadal's practice before the Madrid final. Apparantly when he turned up the organizers had "forgotton" to allocate him a practice court. Towards the end of the tournament only the three show courts are in use and prepared for play. Centre court was about to be used for a doubles match, Murray was practicing on court 3 and for some reason they had closed court 2. Nadal and his team went off to an outer court that hadn't been prepared for play. It was baked dry and had to be watered and levelled. Nadal, Toni, his hitting partner and two other members of his team did it themselves. The fan also noted that unlike usual practices there were no officials, no security, no cleaners etc around. This would be poor treatment for any player let alone a home finalist. Very odd. Most people in Nadal's situation would have felt p****d off!

Dont worry, whatever they 'do'to Rafa, as long as hes playing well CONSISTENTLY, he still can beat everyone to reach the final.

Big day for Rafa's top 4 aspirations. If either Berdy or Kei win then he cannot be top 4 for the French.

Rafa is getting better and better since Miami, SF in Monte Carlo up until the final in Madrid he played great and so far in Rome I think he looking even better. Rafa fans just need to hope he doesn't throw in a dreadful performance out of nowhere like he does lately.

Oh Thomas... capitulated here and all Rogers done is put the ball in play. Ive seen this script before.

Fed takes first set 6:3 from 2:3 down and 0:40 down.

1 more papi.

Federer is serving like crap, playing a very average match and still winning. Where's that confidence that Tomas used to have against him?

You can't expect extraordinary tennis from Fed now, a serve here, a magic shot there, and hang on, thats about it.

Fed breaks with some super play 4:3 up.

Will Stan make a spanish bull paella tonight? Or will Ninja slash Djoko with 1000 cuts.

Fed wins 6:3, 6:3, Berdy quite flat and not in the mood, Fed floating by.