Alejandro Davidovich, Kina, Monte Carlo discussed on The Tennis Podcast
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
We saw that saw that throughout the week and it was nice for him to win Monte Carlo again in front of the fans, you know, just a different experience to what he had last year and yeah, he's a real real force on this surface. I think the return thing is big, isn't it? That extra bit of time on the return because he hasn't figured it out on a hardcore. He's made incremental improvements, but he hasn't had the significant lightbulb with how to return a big serve on a hard court with those massive swings that he has. He hasn't developed that shit backhand return or chip on either wing return, really, that so many so many want him to or are calling for him to do, but it just doesn't matter so much on clay and it's just so interesting what a change in service does to the sport because it ostensibly looks the same, doesn't it? And you know, if you didn't know that much about the sport, maybe you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I don't know, or maybe it would be even more obvious, maybe we're our eyes sort of become used to the difference. I don't know you could go either way, but I don't mean look at Alejandro davidovich for kina. I mean, since making that run at the French Open last year, when he brought himself to all our attentions, when we learned that he supports an animal charity back home in Spain and he wears a patch of theirs on his kit, since he announced himself he's done boggle as an E as soon as he came off the clay, just different player we went out to watch him play Felix austerity at the Australian open earlier this year on that wonderful new court. And it was a, it was a really great match what we saw, but he just didn't have ways to end the point, did he? There were some wonderful rallies, brilliant hitting. But he didn't have the weapons to end the point. And it's just a completely different sport for him on clay. Yeah, totally. And I think that auxiliary has seen match that you mentioned was probably one of the better matches he's played, not on the clay in the last few months. And I think he lost it in four tie breaks. But coming into this week, he hadn't beaten a top 100 player this year. And suddenly he gets on the clay and he beats, you know, a host of them, obviously Novak Djokovic in the second round, I'm sure we'll talk more about that match, but just absolutely. I mean, at this time of the year, you just talk about players that you don't normally talk about. You know, we're going to talk about the Vivek for kina where we could talk about mazetti as well. I enjoyed watching him on the clay and he's done nothing either. No. Since the French Open last year, he's done he's done close to nothing. And then suddenly, suddenly he's reminding us all why why we're so excited about him. I mean, I still think he should be better on hard courts than he has been thus far. And I think he will be, but oh, it was restorative to watch Mercedes look like that guy that we were all so excited about a year ago before he retired for the fans. Well, I do think that match had had lasting consequences. As you said, I think he's better on other surface than he showed. I think that was quite a scarring experience for him. And it took him a little while to get over. But yeah, absolutely such stylish tennis that I loved watching him this week. And I think for davidovich for kina, he's always been a guy, even last year, when yes, he had that run to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, but he was a guy. I loved watching, but I didn't trust him to win matches because his tennis is so streaky. He hasn't got a great serve. He breaks. He breaks Mary carillo's main tennis rule, which is you've got to hold your goddamn serve. And he doesn't do that particularly well. And it just makes him vulnerable in matches and his game can go off and on very, very quickly. But I think he's really worked on that on trying not to have so many let downs. And I did trust him a bit more this week, just match after match. I felt like he was competing brilliantly. I love watching his game. He's so intense, isn't he? So intense. Just intensely intense. And I love that. I mean, it's really great. My favorite features in a player in terms of what I what engages me and he's just got the energy he must burn up with that intensity. I mean, there's a look in his eye that can be a bit terrifying, but it's also the electrifying. Yeah, absolutely. So I think what I'm saying is that he's managing to balance sort of throwing himself all over the core as he does and being literally and I think there's a Twitter account did focke fall, you know, it's the did Marin Cilic win equivalent and it just every day, yes. I think the U.S. channel. I think maybe it was tennis channel that had it this week. They actually had a counter during one of his matches of how many times he dived and fell in the clan. It got up to 8 at one point. Well, there was one in there was one in his match against Novak Djokovic, which spoiler alert he won..