Rome Masters 2015

[Murat Baslamisli]

Here is the draw:

http://www.atpworldtour.com/share/event-draws.aspx?year=2015&eventid=416



Nole-Kei, Murray-Ferrer, Stan-Rafa, Bird-Roger are your projected quarters.

 

[Moxie]

Worth mentioning, perhaps, that Nadal is on the Fed half, not the Djokovic one.

 

[Denis]

Not happy with the draw.

Although if Nishikori reaches the final it might be worthwhile to pull out of this one, he's been playing a lot.

Nadal practically gets a walkover till the finals.

 

[dr.k.gopal]

The draw is almost identical to madrid.
Roger and bird in same quarter
Rafael and Stan in same quarter

 

[Kieran]

Murray v Rosol in the second round already looks like the grudge match we're hoping for.

Rosol: Nobody likes me?

Murray: They hate you. Everybody does.

Rosol: Arrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!

It's not a bad draw for Fedal to meet in the semis, and Nole has a nice draw too, until maybe the kid Nick looms in the QF. Or Kei, yeah, that's a bit tougher from there, but who wants easy draws now? It's all sparring practice for Paris, and you don't want to be sparring with girlies when you're getting in the ring with Money Mayweather...

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nadal practically gets a walkover till the finals.

2010 called. It wants its narratives back.

 

[Denis]

Nadal practically gets a walkover till the finals.

2010 called. It wants its narratives back.

Are you seriously worried about his potential opponents?

All the guys who could potentially trouble Nadal are in the other half. Maybe Isner, but I don't see it.

 

[brokenshoelace]

Nadal practically gets a walkover till the finals.

2010 called. It wants its narratives back.

Are you seriously worried about his potential opponents?

All the guys who could potentially trouble Nadal are in the other half. Maybe Isner, but I don't see it.

Have you seen the guys Nadal has lost to in the past two years, clay included? I'm not "worried" about any of these guys per se, no. But I also recognize that in this form, Nadal getting a walkover anywhere but Mallorca is simply inaccurate.

 

[Denis]

Nobody actually gets walkovers, of course. But its a good draw for him thats for sure.

 

[herios]

Nobody actually gets walkovers, of course. But its a good draw for him thats for sure.

He may still get a strong qualifier in his draw, like Dolgopolov or Coric

 

[tented]

Nobody actually gets walkovers, of course. But its a good draw for him thats for sure.

He may still get a strong qualifier in his draw, like Dolgopolov or Coric

I wouldn't consider them to be "strong qualifiers" against Rafa in Rome. Indian Wells/Miami? Perhaps, but not Rome.

 

[tented]

Today's qualifiers results:

(10) D Lajovic defeats M Cecchinato — 7-6(3), 6-2
T Fabbiano defeats (13) J Souza — 6-4, 6-2
(8) B Paire defeats G Quinzi — 7-6(6), 6-4
(1) B Coric defeats S Caruso — 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5)
G Mager defeats (11) B Kavcic — 4-6, 0-1
A Arnaboldi defeats (2) M Kukushkin — 2-6, 7-5, 6-2
(9) A Dolgopolov defeats R Marcora — 6-4, 6-4
S Napolitano defeats (14) J Melzer — 6-4, 7-5
M Ilhan defeats (5) D Gimeno-Traver — 6-4, 6-1
(12) T Bellucci defeats A Gonzalez — 6-2, 6-0
A Rublev defeats (4) P Carreno Busta — 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3
(3) D Schwartzman defeats A Kuznetsov — 7-6(5), 6-2
(7) F Delbonis defeats A Falla — 6-1, 6-4
I Dodig defeats (6) D Istomin — 6-3, 6-3

 

[tented]

^ I'm happy Coric, Delbonis, and Dolgopolov won. Hopefully they'll make it into the main draw.

 

[crystalfire]

again, i hate to say it but dont see fed going anywhere here. :/

 

[Front242]

Me either but he reached the final in 2013 and was playing pretty damn crap so I never rule him out anywhere. He only needs to go further than the 2nd round to gain points too having lost to Chardy there last year.

 

[Puppet Master]

Me either but he reached the final in 2013 and was playing pretty damn crap so I never rule him out anywhere. He only needs to go further than the 2nd round to gain points too having lost to Chardy there last year.

For me it's a heartwarming fact that he can't do worse than he did last year, but it would be really nice if he could reach the semis here. RG can't possibly go well for him if he is out of rhythm this much.

 

[Front242]

The format of best of 5 against nobodies in the early rounds of RG is better practice than any of the last few weeks imo. The big hitters have been a problem for him on clay since around 2009, Del Potro in 2009 and Soderling playing unreal the year after being prime examples.

 

[brokenshoelace]

The format of best of 5 against nobodies in the early rounds of RG is better practice than any of the last few weeks imo. The big hitters have been a problem for him on clay since around 2009, Del Potro in 2009 and Soderling playing unreal the year after being prime examples.

I am still in shock he lost to that Australian bloke in Madrid. The guy isn't even that much of a big hitter, that ugly little short backswing forehand and that erratic backhand, I just don't know how it works for him. Fed basically lost to a servebot. I would like to see him face Djokovic now and get humiliated like he should, let's be real here, since he already played Murray more than once.

Nah Kyrgios is a pretty big hitter.

 

[TennisFanatic7]

So this looks like it'll be a big week for Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, not so much for Murray who I'm sure will be reasonably happy to get to the quarter-finals and bow out to someone who wants/needs it more like Ferrer, defending his handful of points in the process.

Djokovic has missed Madrid and even if he was to under perform this week you'd have to back him heavily going to Paris, but if he was to fall and Rafa went on to lift the title, perhaps that is more worrying territory for him.

Fedal's need to do well here ahead of Garros speaks for itself. I don't believe Nadal has gone into the French since before he first won it without lifting at least one of the preceding clay Masters?

Nishikori is worth watching as well, Paris should be a good slam for him so we'll see how he gets on here.

 

[Kieran]

That's true, usually Rafa has an MS title or two (or three) in his bag before RG. This year, he hasn't even got fricking Barcelona! :cover