Diego Schwartzman, Andy Murray, Rotterdam discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
The only thing I'm annoyed about is to his next tournament is Rotterdam and who's his first opponent, it's Andy Murray. So, you know, so it was a bit part of me which feels a little bit bittersweet at this result because yeah, he's in such great form and I think Andy Murray is going to have quite a task on him, I think if he wants to if he wants to go ahead and beat him in Rotterdam. Might not even get to that inevitable last set tiebreak that Andy Murray has been having in his first round matches at these events. But well, we'll see. Yeah, not ideal coming up against someone who's obviously in really good form and just got his first top 5 win of his career. Let's move on to a clay court event Joel, the golden swing has been, oh my God. Yes. I do love a bit of golden swing action. The drawers are just full of clay courts. Yeah, it's epic. So we have the chord but open in Cordoba, Argentina. Diego Schwartzman was looking quite handy for the win, but came a cropper against a Chilean Alejandro tibio in the semifinal. He made it, and he made it all the way to the fire. A very good chance to win, but ultimately, Albert Ramos Fidelis, veteran Spaniard, you know, kind of destroyed to be lo's dream run. It was three set final four 6 6 three 6 four Ramos venosus winning his fourth title on the tour. But I think what was the most interesting from this tournament was the story of tobelo and he was a break up in that last set. I think a double breakup in the second set and just multiple chances but wasn't able to put it together to go all the way in the end. As much as his run was fantastic. I mean, coming all the way through qualifying, getting to the final beating the number one seed as well along the way who was in his home tournament in Diego Schwartzman, beating him in straight sets as well, very, very impressive. But regardless, I think in that final, I think the tale was in that third set. I think experience perhaps told a little bit you know, obviously that was his debut, ATP tour level final. And I think with such an experienced player like ram was for no less across the court, a player who I think is very well versed in winning ATP titles on the clay courts. I think this was his one four titles surprise surprise. They've all been on clay, but yeah, the fact that I think to be was up for one. I think he actually had points to go 5 one up wasn't able to do it. And I think ram has been known as just used all his experience to kind of claw back the score line and get it done. And drop to dropped on his back after match point, you could see how much it meant to him and again it was a very it was a very passionate crowd, very patriotic crowd and you could hear it all the way through the tournament, I think, particularly in that semifinal, they were not particularly happy with their home country and Diego Schwartzman losing. But I mean, for grammar of last year, just a nice win. I think with these kind of two 50s, the golden swing, it's just a big opportunity for these kind of clay quarters to come out and grab a title and got the Argentina open next who's to say he couldn't go on and do it again. But yeah, it's been a very, very impressive, I think performance from ramrod Sven O less and for TB, oh yeah, hopefully he can do go on and kick on more. I suspect he will try and ply his trade on more clay courts than anything else, perhaps Kim, he's the next Juan Manuel seren dolo who had a similar run a similar dream like runner at the quarterback open last year. Yeah, this time last year we were talking about him because he was, I think, well, he is Argentinian, so he was at home and qualified, made his way through to the final, but I think serendip actually won it, didn't he? So tabula wasn't quite able to do that. But I was just looking at it to be like, he's actually born in Canada, but represents chili. And yeah, he's highest ranking now. One one two after this week. So perhaps the rest of the golden swing if he can get some good results, he'll break the top hundred. And, well, perhaps he might have he might cause a bit of an upset when we get to sort of what I call the main clay court season in Europe, not wanting to sound like I'm being pro Europe there, but this is generally the two 50s as opposed to the masters events. I did enjoy, despite there being a French event in Montpellier, I did enjoy Benoit paire just chose to play the chord about open out in South America. I'm assuming it's because you prefer playing on the outdoor clay as opposed to like the indoor hardcourts but I just thought it was quite funny that a French player would choose to go all the way over to South America. And Benoit paid to be fair, had a good tournament in Australia, but again, came a cropper in the first round against Xiaomi munar in straight sets. So it didn't quite work out for him, did it? No, I mean, maybe he just prefers the weather. I think he did this last year as well. I'm sure we were talking about him deciding to take a very different route, but fair play. Spanish fit well, Hispanic food, Argentinian food, you know, probably a bit more maybe his vibe. I don't know. But yeah, we had that. The golden swing is underway, which is fantastic. Well done to Ramos vinolas. And then we also had the ATP event in Pune in India, which was outdoors on hard court. And we had, well, someone who I maybe thought would actually be playing the golden swing. And that's zhao sauda who won pine. And this is his first title in a long time. He's had a few titles in the past, but has been struggling of late with a few injuries and hasn't really been at this stage of a tournament for a few years now on the tour. And he came through against Emil roots of Ori, who's quite an up and coming player. Did quite well at the Australian open I think had that long match with Felix. So coming through another three set final here, 7 6 four 6 6 one. So quite convincing in that last set, really stormed away with it at the end. Yeah, that first set particularly was really exciting. I think sausa was down rusev or I think was serving for that set. So I was able to make it go to a tie break and he won it 11 9 and he I think he felt when he celebrated a celebrated wildly just winning that first set on the tie break given how much he was on the back foot, I think. So yeah, it was a really fun final. Both players, I think, particularly in those first two sets, really competitive, really, really good tennis. So yeah, nice, nice tournament. The top seed as an surprisingly lost his opening match to Elias email of Sweden, who, as I said, kind of got to the semifinals. So yeah, a little bit kind of disappointing, I think if you're at. But yeah, it's certainly opened up the draw, I think, to someone else and sounds are coming in unseeded. He's again a very experienced player. He's been plying his trade, I think, on ATP and challenger circuits, getting those kind of getting that mileage in. And yeah, it's been impressive, run to the final for him and to cap it off with the victory was very, very good. However, Kim, I will say, I watch some of the highlights. He needs to work on his grunting because it's a continual bug bear with me. I know kind of seasoned listeners of us will have heard me say this many times before. But salz is grunt is borderline hindrance. It is, if you go watch the highlights, you can hear his audible, his audible grunt is very, very close to when Ruth savory hits the ball and I just hope in the future I think this could be the next sort of big thing that umpires potentially clamp down on. I particularly I think on the men's circuit is these extended grunting sounds after the hitting the ball. Because I think if rusev worry had gone up to the umpire and said, this guy is grunting to the point where it's putting me off, me hitting my ground straight. I think he would have had a credible case..