Roland Garros Claycourt Run-Up Tournaments 2024

[Rajiv]

^^^^, As i wrote earlier Monte Carlo happens quickly after the hard court biggies in USA and only hard core claycourters just wating for the starting opening bell for Europe Red Clay make the immediate switch to red clay (as is the case of Sumit) where as the rest take it slowly in the build up to the FO.

@Jay,Tulasne never became Borg , cause at 16/ 17 yrs came world wide adulation and massive huge monster endorsment deals
(LaCoste was huge) ,so just lost the motivation to work hard, as being touted as next Borg was emphasized by Vitas & Pannata who lost to Tulasne and were the closest to Borg on the tour and could immediately spot out the similarities between the 2.

[jayakris]

^^^ Thanks for the details on Tulasne. I only vaguely remembered the name!

[jayakris]

Here is the video of today's Q1 match against Cobolli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OPYHtTochA

Watching the match, it looks like Cobolli made umpteen unforced errors. But that dude had some power tools that I initially thought Sumit might not be able to handle. But he handled the power shots, and very well at that too. Sumit was in a zone with his shot accuracy, which meant it was Cobolli who had to play error-free, handling the little mustard Sumit is now able to add to many of his shots in terms of slight variations in speed and bounce. From that standpoint, the errors from Cobolli weren't always unforced.

Except for 2 or 3 service returns, it would seem at first that Sumit hardly hit winner shots. But that is a bit unkind too, because his forehand to the right lines is definitely a winning shot. I am not sure what the heck Jaideep Mukherjea was saying the other day, that he should "get a coach to teach him a winner shot". The forehand shot is not always unreturnable, so it doesn't look like a winner, but people can't do much with it and they ultimately lose the point sometime soon after Sumit hits 2 or 3 of them in a row. Sumit wins a lot of points with that forehand, and it is like he can hit them from anywhere on the court at any point. He is that steady with the inside out forehand.

One thing I noticed today is his retrieval game that was a level better than we have seen before. The shot from the bottom left corner that curved and fell in by an inch at the left corner across (at a crucial juncture in the second set) was a beauty that his mentor Somdev would be proud of - as he was the master at the retrieval game. Sumit got away with a lot of mistakes in the first few games thanks to unforced errors and mishits from Cobolli, but later in the match Sumit hardly made mistakes in shots and shot selection and he was retrieving quite well. I think the rally that got him the BP at 4-3 in the second set also had a superb retrieval shot. Even the lob that Cobolli messed up on, at a crucial point in the second set. Well done!

Having said all that, boy, do I wish he could develop a good drop shot! He is terrible at that. He keeps trying it a couple of times every match though. He could finish some points easier if he would learn to use it as a surprise weapon, and get 3 or 4 extra points in a match. Every extra point counts at this level.

Tomorrow's match against Facu will not be easy. Sumit needs to make him mistake prone too.

[jayakris]

Sounds good to me!

[Sanjay]

Watched the match from the link above. Seems like Cobolli was playing angry. And like he couldn't believe he was losing to Sumit. That made him play worse.
Sumit played focused and completed a nice win. Next match is harder but not impossible to win. Let's do it!

[prasen9]

I did not see Cobolli get unusually angry or frustrated. He was making a whole lot of unforced errors and was understandably frustrated. There is simply no reason a #63 should make that many UFEs. Nagal, of course, deserves some praise because he did not give a single quarter. And, his accurate shots generally made Nobolli try to hit winners and take more risks, which leads to UFEs. But, on a good day, Cobolli does not make those errors. So, we got some luck. Good for him.

Nagal is at #91 live ranking, a career high. I hope he breaks 90 soon. Cobolli's CH is 62 and he is 63 now. Means he is near his CH. Nagal plays Facundo Diaz Acosta, whose career high is 52 and he is now 53 in live rankings.

On a side note, funny name. Facundo means talkative in Spanish. I suppose his parents saw the baby babble a lot in the first hour or so and thus named him. "Man, this guy is a total facundo." If I am interpreting this correctly. More seriously, I suppose the parents meant eloquent or smooth talker or something like that instead of merely talkative. lol. Ok, my Spanish is not that good, so it is perhaps a misinterpretation (if someone knows better, please correct), but funny nevertheless (to me). Anyway, the Argentines have another facundo at about #135 or so. Seems like a popular name. If you see your baby is talkative, name them facundo and watch them become a tennis pro. Maybe there is a correlation for some reason. We should send our scouts to find talkative babies and help form Team India 2050. Find those babbling babies, man. That is the key. The Argentines have 5 men in the top 55. Awesome. How on earth is Millei's Argentina with its chaotic economy, etc. producing these many top players? I know they are a rich country, at least much richer than us (their per capita income gni, ppp was 26,000 USD in 2022) despite the ridiculous 100-200% inflation. But I wonder if their current economic situation will affect the pipeline in say 5-10 years and the current juniors will suffer? Their poverty in Jan was 57% of the population - so a very unequal country. I suppose the rich upper class will still produce the players but with so much poverty, I wonder if it will have no effect still? Let us see. Good luck to them on fixing their mess though. 57% poverty and 200% inflation is not a good idea for the citizens there.

So, slightly harder match on paper. Hope Nagal brings his A game and is fresh. Here's hoping Nagal renders Facundo segundo.

[Sanjay]

In the first set, Cobolli served to Sumit who hit a good return and Cobolli just hit the ball into outer space in anger. He got warned for violation.

[prasen9]

Sure. Thanks. Happens.

[jayakris]

On a side note, funny name. Facundo means talkative in Spanish. I suppose his parents saw the baby babble a lot in the first hour or so and thus named him. "Man, this guy is a total facundo." If I am interpreting this correctly. More seriously, I suppose the parents meant eloquent or smooth talker or something like that instead of merely talkative. lol. Ok, my Spanish is not that good, so it is perhaps a misinterpretation (if someone knows better, please correct), but funny nevertheless (to me).

Well, well, the Spanish Facundo comes from Latin Facundus, which ultimately comes from Latin "fas" that in turn is from the proto-Indo-European root sound "bʰeh₂-" (speak)‎... The same root that leads to the Sanskrit verb "भनति " (bhanati) meaning to sound, call aloud, speak, declare, etc. Thus originates the word भाषा (bhAshA , language) too. It is also the origin of the Bengali ভনা (bhona), as per wikipedia.

The world is a whole family. Why do we fight over everything? We should just play tennis and look for love games!

[prasen9]

I am all for world peace but down with the babbler in Round 2. No tennis peace. I mean play a peaceful match but hope Facundo segundo-guesses his skills and loses. We fight it out on the tennis field and the chess board and live and let live.

[Anirban]

Coming back to today’s match, FDA is 2-0 H2H with SN. However, both the losses (On Clay) were in 3 sets - Once in Poznan Challenger (June’23) & the other time at ATP Cordoba (Feb’21)… Q2 is listed for 2:30 pm IST… Excited!

[pranavv]

Does anyone know where I can watch this match?

[sameerph]

One of the unoffical links-

https://en9.sportplus.live/tennis/atp-m ... g/5333901/

Sumit up an early break for 2-1 in first set.

[sameerph]

That stream is very shaky, not working well for me. But, Sumit lost 3 straight game, with 2 breaks to be down 2-4 now in first set.

[sameerph]

From 2-5 down, Sumit levells it up at 5-5 in first set.