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Murray 🎥 Pouille



Djokovic 🎥 Johnson



Wawrinka 🎥 Schwartzman



Nishikori 🎥 Rublev



Match Of The Day: Tiafoe 🎥 Shapovalov RESULTS 🎾 💥 = Beatdown

🤕 = Injury

‼️ = Upset



Shapovalov d Tiafoe 7-6(6), 3-6, 7-5



A crazy, up-and-down contest that had Tiafoe serving for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd, before Shapovalov stormed back to win the last 3 games in a row to close out it out. This match was a perfect microcosm of these two young players current strengths and weaknesses. The upside for both? Big weapons that will trouble any opponent if they're playing well. The downside? Shot selection and errors at crucial, crunch times in the match. Shapo also served 13(!) double faults today, 7 of which came in the deciding set. Denis's modified service motion has been wreaking havoc recently with such an important part of his game.



Pouille d Murray 6-1, 1-6, 6-4



Murray is still too early in his comeback to accurately judge matches like his, but he will be worried with his current inability to attack opponents. Pouille, who has been struggling this season, actually played pretty well in parts, hitting 38 winners to 29 unforced errors (this ratio has often been negative this year rather than positive). Murray on the other hand made 15 winners to 27 unforced errors and looked very underpowered for most of the contest. Early days in his comeback, but it would be nice to see Murray tweak his gamestyle to reduce stress on his body and shorten points. Most of this match , 2nd set aside, was played on Pouille's terms.





Djokovic d Johnson 6-4, 7-6(4)



A pretty routine match for Novak, who was playing solidly, up until he had a 6-4, 3-1 lead. At this point he started to struggle on his backhand side with Johnson's no pace, slice backhand. The Serb couldn't manage to do enough with the ball when forced to generate his own pace, regularly surrendering control of the point with short balls that Johnson could attack. This resulted in a topsy turvy 2nd set where the score swung from 3*-1 Djokovic, to 4*-3 Johnson. Novak broke back and steadied the ship, eventually winning the tiebreaker pretty comfortably, but not before squandering his first 8(!) match points. Djokovic's 2nd serve points won in that 2nd set will concern him (32% or 6/19), but he found a way to win in straights when not playing his best.



Also:



Klahn d Marterer: 7-6(1), 6-4

Carreno Busta d Gasquet: 6-3, 2-6, 6-3

Querrey d Isner: 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(5)

Chardy d Verdasco: 6-1, 6-2 💥

Paire d Ferrer: 6-2, 6-2 💥

Nishikori d Rublev: 7-5, 6-3

L. Mayer d Mmoh: 6-4, 1-6, 6-4

Gojowczyk d J. Sousa: 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 SHOTS OF THE DAY 😮 Murray managed to find an incredible short angle, cross-court, but Pouille showed great speed to dink it over the net for a winner.

(TennisTV) Ridiculously good forehand on the full slide from Nishikori. Almost all the power coming from his arm.

(TennisTV) Let's see that again.

(TennisTV) Novak with his trademark, deep return on the stretch and then a nice touch with the drop shot.

(TennisTV) Few better sights than Wawrinka unloading on a backhand down the line,

(TennisTV) WHO'S PLAYING WHEN ON TUESDAY? ⏰ Centre Court

11am Start - Local Time (4pm UK)



Chung vs Sock (1st Meeting)

Tsitsipas vs Goffin (H2H: 2-1) 🔥



NB 7pm - Local Time (12:00am UK)



Federer vs Gojowczyk (1st Meeting)



Grandstand

11am Start - Local Time (4pm UK)



Kyrgios vs Kudla (H2H: 1-0) (2nd match on court)



NB 8:30pm - Local Time (1:30am UK)



Shapovalov vs Edmund (H2H: 3-2) Stadium 3

11am Start - Local Time (4pm UK)



Raonic vs Lajovic (1st Meeting)

Khachanov vs Ramos-Vinolas (H2H: 2-1)

Pouille vs L. Mayer (H2H: 0-1)



Court 4 (11am)



Kohlschreiber vs Copil (1st Meeting)



Court 8 (11am)



Haase vs Krajinovic (1st Meeting)

Fucsovics vs Hurkacz (1st Meeting)



Court 10 (11am)



Coric vs Medvedev (H2H: 0-1) 🔥

Dzumhur vs M. Zverev (1st Meeting) EXTRAS...🔍🎤📊 ATP players talk about their nutrition: Video

After beating Tiafoe in the 1st Rd, Shapovalov moves up to 29th in the rankings. Means he will very likely be seeded for the US Open.

Following his loss to Benoit Paire, David Ferrer will drop to around No. 146 in the world next week. This will be the first time Ferrer has been ranked outside the top 100 in over 16 years.

Despite losing in the 1st Rd of Cincinnati, Andy Murray has decided not to play next weeks Winston-Salem Open. I'm assuming he'll either head to Miami to train or straight to New York.

Source

Tsitsipas on how watching Shapovalov's run to last years Montreal semi-final inspired him:

“It inspired me so much I was dreaming of being in his place,” “I remember I was watching from the television in Portoroz in the Challenger that I was playing that week, and I was watching his matches every single day.” “It was so inspirational to see him beat those guys (Juan Martin Del Potro and Nadal). I mean, to me, it seemed like completely out of any world what he was doing on the court.” “Now I understand that it is more simple and less complicated than it looks. So I just had to believe in myself.”

Source



(Matt): This is one of the big reasons that the generation older than Tsitsipas/Shapo et al are criticised for never truly breaking through (Dimitrov, Nishikori, etc). Kei/Grigor grew up and entered their primes while Federer/Nadal/Djokovic were still utterly dominant, relentlessly crushing the hopes of any and all of Kei/Grigor's same-aged peers in tournament after tournament. Tsitsipas and Shapo are maturing just as that golden generation are starting to age out of the game and become slightly more beatable (for e.g Nadal losing to 18yo Shapovalov last year). This kind of result clearly has a domino effect on the belief of the rest of a generation of players. And their belief/confidence should only get stronger as Fed/Rafa/Novak continue to decline and lose more often. It's unlikely Stefanos/Denis will still be losing to those three legends in 4 years time, freeing up the younger generations own prime years a bit in terms of competition. Spare a thought for Kei and Grigor et al: The Bad Timing Gen😢.

Federer pre-tournament interview: Video

A. Zverev pre tournament interview: Video This should have been in Saturday's issue but got lost in the pile. Jeff Sackmann's (@tennisabstract) piece on the 'Next-Gen' finally breaking through, and the older generations ageing out. Full post. Laver Cup teams are nearly set. Just one player to be added to each team. Rumours have Tiafoe being the last member of Team World. Federer on gay tennis players. Great respect between Shapovalov and Tiafoe after their 3 set struggle.

(TennisTV) LOL 😂 That's nearly a 7 foot downward swing before it hits the ground. Surprised the racquet didn't vaporise on impact. Isner was livid.

(TennisTV) doublefault28

Paire obviously researching what abomination of a hairstyle he'll get next.

(TennisTV) doublefault28

Source Don't think Cilic has any idea what the 'Shoot' is. But 11/10 for effort and pretty adorable. Attack of the bugs.

(TennisTV) 'The Racquet' is concise ATP tennis news, stats and analysis, delivered weekly/daily to your inbox. Make sure you never miss an issue: Subscribe Tweet Forward GAME, SET & MATCH 👋 The Racquet is created, and written, by Matt. You can find me on twitter by tapping/clicking this. You early subscribers (Beta testers) get access to 'The Racquet' Discord. Tap/click the Discord button below to join (we even have Jerzy Janowicz emojis). If you know anyone who would like 'The Racquet' here is the link to send them so they can sign up: https://theracquet.co See you tomorrow for Cincinnati Day 3!