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Cecchinato was going down like a stone in the fourth set (down 1-3, after losing the third 1-6). But a rain delay helped rejuvenate him, and he roared back to win the fourth set in a tiebreaker -- and finish the match. So he is in the semifinal!!

French Open for Nadal. Roland Garros should be renamed as Rafael Garros.

The rain saved Cecchinato yesterday. Today it may have saved Nadal. Schwartzman won the first set 6-4, and was a break up, serving at 3-2 in the second set, when the rain came down. The half-hour break is probably just the tonic Nadal needed.

We'll see. S was playing very well!

Terrific play by Cecchinato in the first two sets of the SF. He had his chances in the tiebreak (after coming back from 2-5 and 3-6 in the TB; he even had a set point on his serve, but did a poor job with that point, and then lost it quickly).
What I found surprising and admirable is how Marco C matched Thiem in those two sets, using the drop shot repeatedly to good effect. He also had a more reliable volley than Thiem did. In the end, Thiem pulled a couple of beautiful drop shots during that second set TB as well. It was absorbing until that point, but Marco was disheartened by missing those massive opportunities that he had created.

Cecchinato has won slightly less than a million US$ in his career before this tournament, but has earned US$650,000 here -- and basically transformed the rest of his career. (Yuki has earned a bit more than US$700,000 in his career so far). Cecchinato has a big match-fixing allegation against him -- almost certainly fixed a Challenger match with a friend who bet (perhaps on his behalf) that he would lose; Marco had also bought a flight ticket out for that evening (before the match started), and incriminating messages between him and his friend were found. He has served a suspended sentence of some sort, but apparently the final judgement on the matter is still awaited.

So much for cheats never prosper. Let's hope he gets his come comeuppance soon.

So the more or less expected final of Nadal vs. Thiem. Sasha is too raw and Djokovic is not Djokovic. This is the only guy who can match him shot for shot if he plays at his best. But, I do not know whether he can maintain that for five sets. Should be fun.

Rafa takes care of business. The only scare was in the third set when his hand was cramping. But he pulled through. At some point, his serve was being affected and was 93kph or so.

I loved the disappointment and determination in Thiem's face. He clearly was not satisfied by just being in the final. The mark of a champion. I strongly believe he will be back. Although at the ceremony, he recovered and said that he was happy to be in the final. When he was 11, he saw Rafa and did not even dream he would be there one day. True. Good luck to him for the future.

At one stage (early in the third set), commentators showed that Rafa had taken over 32 seconds ON AVERAGE between points. The maximum permissible is 25 seconds -- yet Rafa wasn't penalized, but received a single warning. Then he suddenly stopped playing in the middle of a point, sat down and started complaining about his fingers. Still no penalty! What this man keeps getting away with. There either are rules that apply to all, or just drop a rule when it becomes too onerous for the King of Clay to comply with!

In the first set, at 2-3, Thiem won a point (and the game) after a shot was called out by the linesman; this was confirmed by Hawkeye (as used by the commentators, although not officially used in the tournament). But the umpire over-ruled the linesman and called it in -- giving the point to Rafa (which effectively made Thiem win that game all over again after several Deuces). Had Thiem been treated fairly, it would have been 3-3 after that point, with all the momentum with Thiem (having just broken Nadal and held serve twice). Such shocking errors are best avoided -- as they make a huge difference to the direction of a match.

PKBasu wrote: ↑Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:36 am At one stage (early in the third set), commentators showed that Rafa had taken over 32 seconds ON AVERAGE between points. The maximum permissible is 25 seconds -- yet Rafa wasn't penalized, but received a single warning. Then he suddenly stopped playing in the middle of a point, sat down and started complaining about his fingers. Still no penalty! What this man keeps getting away with. There either are rules that apply to all, or just drop a rule when it becomes too onerous for the King of Clay to comply with!

Completely agree. Bending the rules for Nadal is so ridiculous - he has broken the time limit rules on just about every point since they were instituted, but nothing ever happens. They should just scrap the rule if they are unwilling to enforce it on him. And, while it is more egregious on clay, he breaks the time limit on every kind of court.

I was also annoyed by the overrule on the line call. I wish they would just use Hawkeye on clay courts rather than relying on their ability to stare at marks on the clay like reading the tea leaves.

How strictly is that rule followed by the ATP for others? Have people been fined points or whatever for that before? Do they have an official clock to time things? If they want to enforce the rule, players should be able to see the clock winding down as in basketball's shot clock when they serve. Players should not have to guess when 25 seconds are up. The umpire should have a reset button, which she or he should start once the receiver has taken his or her position. Otherwise, the receiver could waste time and the penalty will be on the server. The alternative is to allow the server to serve even when the receiver is not ready as in American football, a quick serve. Tennis will be different. But, true. If they have the rule, it should be enforced for everyone uniformly. Or else, it should be scrapped.

There should also be medical timeouts and rules for that. I think there is. Those should be enforced too.

Murray withdraws again. 2nd time in 4 slams he has withdrawn after the draw. ATP need to clamp down on this because it isn't fair to other players and fans.

Djokovic clearly breaks the 25-second rule between points. He regularly bounces the ball 14 times before serving. (Nadal was bouncing it 23 times in the FO final).

Djoker down a set against Kyle Edmund, who is an impressive looking player now.

Big upset today. I will support whoever wins in the Nadal/Djokovic semi against the big servers. Serena still going strong!

Nadal & Serena all the way...