Well that was his decision not to get vaccinated he has to live with that,though I take your point,he needs constant match play to keep his level up.Novak benefits from skipping these events in the States last year! He might just have a chance of retaining his #1 ranking if he bests them on clay next month! I'm just concerned about his sharpness with such little play in tournaments! His last win was probably Paris Masters! It was all downhill after the Olympics!
There was a reason that Vajda and even Novak's dad counseled that he skip the Olympics last year. Lots of emotional capital spent in a short amount of time. It seems likely that it will take Novak some time to find his match game in the clay season, based on Dubai, but he'll have almost 2 months to round into shape for RG.
Yes he can be a pain at times....MM, you didn't tell us you had a governor on your shoulder.
especially if it has anything to do with his idol Pete Sampras
Hopefully not too good for his age.
Certainly a lot going on for him. The weight of taking the mantle of #1 and pressure to keep it didn't help. He started well today, and I think he might have gotten though a lesser player, but Monfils made great adjustments in the 2nd and played very well today. Medvedev didn't seem to have the emotional batteries for the fight, by the 3rd.
If Brooksby pulls of the upset, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev ALL lost before the 4th round of a Masters 1000 tournament, yikes! And these all happened back to back days!
Apparently asking for him to get to the QF or SF is a tall order right now. Look what happened this week when he faced someone w/ an abysmal record against #1s
It's how the Big 3 have been able to survive each wave of NG'rs! All that skill and ability, but anything close to consistency is only coincidental! Zverev, Thiem, Med, and Tsitsipas will make them work for it, but can't complete the deal! Thiem and Med won their 1st majors and take a YEC, but after that they can't win a 500 level event as top seeds! They each find a way to blow it from injury to just not being able to stave off other thirsty players who make them work for it! These upsets are ridiculous! Again, we're spoiled by the excellence over the years with Fedalovic, but each NG wave under-achieves; BIG TIME!
Well, it was "only" 3-0 when I wrote that...I didn't want to overstate it. But yes, Tsitsipas is getting shellacked now, by virtue of the tennis.
