Clay Court On The Tennis Tour Is Finally Here...

we are now officially 6 weeks away from Roland garos and we might be in for some major momentum shifts from the five tournaments and crazy title runs to Carlos alcaraz and Novak jokovic giving us a sneak peek of their playay season plans Jo Sosa's retirement and some other major updates here's everything that happened in the tennis world last week here I come oh here I come oh the action begins in Estero as Dominic team returns to the ATP Tour for the first time since the Australian Open facing maximilan marer in the round of 32 we see some glimpses of team's ferocious forehands after taking the first set 6-1 team looked to be cruising to Victory but marterer had other ideas managing to come out on top in the second set thanks to a tie break the back and forth action continued but after 2 hours and 14 minutes it was the 2020 US Open Grand Slam winner who would come out on top in three sets earning his first ATP win of the Year Dominic team gets his first win of 2024 fans would have been relieved with team's performance seeing that he was having some discomfort in his wrist but when we flew over to Marakesh we saw some real action on the courts Luca vanash faced J munar and was playing some good tennis like we can see here serving for the first set vanash couldn't get over the line and ended up getting broken the set went to a tie break and it was munar who had come out on top unfortunately for Van Ash What followed was a slew of errors on both wings as his game fell apart 76 62 in favor of the Spaniard meanwhile in Houston an upset was brewing number five seed Chris Eubanks faced the aggressive rinky hijikata and let's just say it didn't end well for Eubanks hijikata had some moments of magic here but eubank's serve plus one was equally as effective so it came down to a tie break and unfortunately for Eubanks he was outdone by his own errors it was then rinse and repeat in the second set with nothing to separate both players so a tiebreak was the only way out and yet again Eubanks had no answers to hijikata's variety 76 76 for hijikata who is happy to snap a four-match losing streak off the court Carlos alcaras takes to the golf course I'm seeing more and more tennis players taking a liking to golf any idea why so while Monday was a bit lowkey Tuesday came with some more action on both tours Matteo bartini takes on Alexander chevchenko in the round of 32 in Marakesh and the match comes out with a lot of heavy hitting from bartini of course the Italian continued to put on a shot making Clinic quickly grabbing the early break right here although shevchenko did respond with some shots of his own they were few and far between for the most part as bartini quickly grabbed the first set 6-2 come the second an unfortunate Miss on a routine overhead from chevchenko would give bartini another early break right here and the Italian would sail the victory 62 61 next up we saw Stan vinka scoring points and his raging war against father time the 39-year-old Swiss faced Albert Ramos folas for the ninth time and Stan the Man pounced on the Spaniard mercilessly at a point Stan had me wondering what the heck I was watching The Four Hands the back hands and before we knew it vinka steamrolled Ramos venola 6-1 in the first set in the second set Ramos venola put some pep in his step and was giving Stan a run for his money like we can see here with the set level at four all Ramos folas made a couple of Errors to go down a break and vinka had no problems closing out the match 61 64 apparently age is just a number after all but when we switched over to Houston number seven seed maros giron was facing a tricky test on paper against wildcard Dennis shapovalov in the round of 32 but with the Canadian off to a slow start coupled with giron's imp pable footwork the first set was lopsided as the American took care of business the second set was more of a back and forth Affair as shapo forced giron to play from behind even more still we had time for some Exquisite shot making early on like this one right here determined to overturn the match shaav OLV continued to force the issue with highlight worthy reels like this one but with the second set hanging in the balance at 5 all giron's Immaculate footwork would pay off once again as he managed to break shop ofv to take a 65 lead his first lead of the set he would then go on to close out the match in style after only 68 minutes of action zooming over to the WTA and what do we find Danielle Collins casually shows us that you can quickly adjust from the fast hard quarts to the much slower clay surface within days facing paa badosa in the first round at the WTA 500 in Charleston Collins raced out of the block with those signature backhand returns to the tram lines and that is right inside the Baseline Bosa still doesn't seem to be moving so well but at the same time Collins is just so brutal on her return as she limits Bosa to a 40% win percentage on second serve points punishing every single error Bosa makes Collins quickly takes the first set 61 but not going down easily badosa comes up with a fight in the second set just after a slew of double faults helps Collins to a double break of course Danielle accepts the donation but then Bosa reacts by Saving one of those break points right away with a powerful forehand Collins not willing to let her opponent back into the game raises her level and sees out the match 6164 your final the Americans winning run continues and it's now eight consecutive wins on the bounce Collins continues to unlock new levels to her tennis I mean what a season she's having by the way I'm super excited to be bringing you content from Danielle and other on the WTA tour up close and personal we'll be diving into the player story lines at each event and hearing from the players themselves just what life is like on tour if you haven't heard about our new show check this out hello from Austin we're here at the ATX open where we're going behind the scenes with the players that make up the WTA tour it's at events like these that players knocking on the door of the top 20 go to build their ranking and earn some significant prize money in the process you have call E you have defense should have K the part of the the best player in the world this is Courtside this crowd was amazing for me I hope they enjoyed my my tennis and they enjoyed what what I did in my presentation Daniel Collins here P Sterns we're here at the circuit of America is getting ready to play at the ATX open what better way than going fast on the track yeah it was good it was fun uh even though you played in front of a lot of people when it's not just for you you feel a little bit tighter but uh floan and Danielle were [Applause] amazing I thought I was going to lose all my hair in that one this place is awesome a lot of people want to ask you know how fast can you string a racket really it's about how fast can you string it [Music] well come on what is up everybody it's your girl Taylor Townsen and we are here at the Dell Children's Hospital we're about to go meet some kids so we're going to make some days coloring playing games and the whole nine so let's [Music] [Applause] go the thing that I love most about this event is the culture around tennis and I think the way we're able to engage with our fans I think is really special what a week it's been in Austin we saw it all from the crazy and unpredictable tennis to seeing just what goes into making the tournament happen behind the scenes that's a wrap from the ATX open and we'll see you on the road Wednesday in the tennis world tickled a few tear glands for fans esal crowd favorite Joel Sosa plays his last match arguably the best Portuguese player ever the 35y old reached a career high number 28 in 2016 to become the highest ranked Portuguese and was also the first Portuguese player to win an ATP title back in 2013 with four ATP titles and a decent career SSA already told us that estal would be his last tournament retiring in front of your home crowd is heartwarming for sure facing the number five seat Arthur Fe in the opening round salsa Came Out Swinging seeing his intentions Feast decided to do this the grueling physical battle continued but the moment of truth came at five all when Feast did this to break the Portuguese holding serve Feast then took the first set 75 in the second Sosa tried to take the game to Feast but the Frenchman was determined to take the wind out of Sosa's sailes Feast would eventually get the break Midway through the game and then sprinkle in more variety to disrupt Sosa's Rhythm like we can see [Music] here a straight sets win for feast in the end and the Frenchman showed plenty of respect to his opponent at the net singles career comes to an end here meanwhile Lum was up to more Mischief when he faced Henrik roacha to begin his campaign in Estero deep in the first set mon just couldn't say no to his intrusive thoughts so he decided to treat us to one of those signature moves right here there we go breaking when it mattered most mon stole the first set 75 come the second Lam was putting on a show for us to his credit Roo went all out against Mon and managed to break early on after a forehand error from mon but while serving to level the match roacha imploded and as you would expect mon was grateful for the donation serving to stay in the match oracha would then double fault an unfortunate ending to the match for him flying over to Marakesh it's already day four and the round of 16 is already underway top seed llo Jed has a mouthwatering clash with the crafty Fabio phini and we have no idea that an upset was brewing with little to separate both players in the first set we go to a tie break but it was Vini who would come out on top thanks to some magical pieces of play right here after grabbing the first set phini decided to take a nap or maybe not Jedi actually raised his level winning 90% of his first serve points and then pouncing on Fabio's relatively weak second serves to make the second set a blowout with the match hanging in the the balance it came down to a decider phini had now woken up and was balling both players exchanged breaks of serves Midway through the game but while serving to stay in the match Jer faced a more tenacious version of the Italian and what was a rather chaotic game it took phini six match points to get over the line and here's how he did it but when number four seed Lorenzo SEO was a bread stick in the first set by nugal the Italian must have been shell shocked thinking he was facing a certain Spanish clay Court specialist once he realized it was Nagal and not Nadal SEO was a different person in the second set after Drawing level the match went to a decider and this time SEO transformed into an artist and then made the clay Court his canvas I mean look at [Music] this shot of the day for sure SEO took care of business and what was an epic three sets of brilliant tennis here's a shout of victory for the Italian seo's compatriot Mato bartini also survived a tight three Setter against Yi munar a proud day for the Italians with wins for fognini SEO and bartini but Houston called for our attention and for good reason so we had to switch over immediately top seed Ben Shelton was up against zizu Bergs a player ranked outside the top 100 who might be known more for his Instagram following you would expect it to be a straightforward victory for Shelton but it was the exact opposite you see Shelton's proficiency on Clay has been questioned and we touched on the subject in our Deep dive about him if you haven't seen it check it out for sure facing lots of pressure Shelton got off to a slow start and before we blinked he was down a set something needed to change quickly with every point now important Shelton needed his legs more than ever amazing but zizu wasn't giving away a lot of free points he was also scrambling towards everything Shelton eventually took the second set 64 but come the decider it was a war of attrition but it was Big Ben who got the job done in the end after 2 hours and 25 minutes a first ATP quarterfinal a first quarterfinal on clay for Ben that's some achievement considering his limited experience on the surface off the court we see Carlos alcarez already putting in some reps ahead of mon Carlo both caritos and Novak have over 2,000 points to defend during the clay season and meanwhile cner only has about 500 points to defend at this point it's only a matter of when not if that cner is going to become world number one but when do you see that happening talking about cner he spends his Wednesday doing some shooting for Gucci elsewhere two-time Champion Simona halop and 2009 finalist Caroline Waki are both awarded wild cards into the Madrid Open by the way stay tuned because we'll be hearing from Simona herself on the channel shortly I can't wait to share what she says with all of you as the week unfolded Thursday in tennis came with a message defending Champions Casper Roode and Francis TFO began their title defense in the round of 16 after getting Buys in the first round rude steamrolled btic vanandel dropping only three games the entire match and as usual herkos found a way to play tie breaks even when facing a qualifier on Clay however when we grabbed our popcorn for the mon fuvi match we saw probably one of the wildest swings in momentum after both players served each other bread sticks in the first two sets it came down to a decider but fortune favors the brave so while monf was playing like a pusher becoming passive while holding match points fuvi took the initiative going for Big Shots here we see Martin being brave again on a third match point he was rewarded in the end as he wrestled the match away from from Lon and in the other fixture Dominic team fell to the veteran rishard gas in straight sets meanwhile TFO needed three sets to get the better of an opponent ranked outside the top 100 facing James Duckworth in Houston off the court we had some big news Rafael Nadal pulled out of money Carlo and I'm pretty sure some fans would have seen that coming also we got some clarity from Novak's former coach Goran Ivanovich following the interview that he did earlier in the week apparently both parties grew tired of each other Friday action in the tennis world was a cocktail of brilliant performances and Dreadful mistakes on the court or should we say daylight robbery now with the quarterfinal stage and with the stakes a lot higher Nuno boures faced Gan and esteril and let's just say the match will best be remembered for this horrible moment of umpiring someone called out during play and despite Garen subsequently hitting the ball wide boures still lost the point how on Earth did that happen probably one of the worst umpire decisions you will ever see in the sport not even a replay of the point I mean come on fans weren't pleased with Gan for his unsportsmanlike conduct and also the supervisor for not being useful in such an important moment boures would then go on to lose the match in straight sets it was also straight sets wins for Casper Roode Hubert herkos and Pedro Martinez as they completed the semi-final lineup but while we were pulling out our hair because of the horrible decision in thrill Francis TFO was facing a stiff test from The Crafty Jordan Thompson in Houston y'all are going to be seeing a deep dive on TFO in the coming days Thompson has been a threat to a lot of players in the last couple months so it was interesting to see how big foe would perform faced with adversity TFO needed to find his best tennis when it mattered the most and here's how he avoided being broken late in the first set TFO needed those crosscourt winners during the tie break with the Houston crowd fully behind their defending Champion TFO took the first set on his third set point raising his level even more in the second set TFO produced some brilliant pieces of play like this and when the going got tough TFO was up to the task 76 64 your final score and a test pass with flying colors off the courts there was also a lot in store for us the Monte Carlo draw was announced and we now know that Carlos alcarez and Novak jokovic are on a collision course what a day it's Saturday now and the stage for the semi-final is set top seed Ben Shelton takes on Thomas Martin eer but Shelton's limited experience on clay makes many fans want to bet on eer with the first set hanging in the balance at six all Shelton unloads a Sumptuous for hand early on in the tie break but after a couple of unforced errors and double faults from Shelton it's Cher who takes the first set with nothing much to lose at this point Shelton brings the heat in the second and it pays off but it's not even about the winners Shelton won 100% of his first serve points and only lost two points on his second serve the entire set seizing the set 6'4 Shelton raises his level in the third and eventually tips the scales in his favor a first clay cour final is on the way for Ben Shelton and with Francis TFO winning his match against Luciano darder in straight sets the stage for an All-American Showdown is set meanwhile an esteril and upset was brewing when top seed Casper rude faced Pedro Martinez a horrible misjudgment from Roode gave Martinez the early break in the first set to his credit Martinez held his own in service games and went on to take the first set 6'4 but Casper Roode wasn't going down easily after knocking on the door for so long the Norwegian eventually got his breakthrough thanks to a brilliant passing shot and although he got broken right away another poor service game from Martinez saw rude level the game it became a war of attrition in the third set with both players not willing to move an inch until Martinez did this eventually getting the double break Martinez looked to put the match to bed but Roode saved match points to get one of those breaks back on his fifth breakpoint opportunity however Martinez took care of business in the next service game as he bagged the biggest win of his career 6446 64 the biggest win of his entire career 3 hours and 7 minutes that's how long the match took and with Hubert herkos also needing three sets to power through former top 20 player Christian garan we had a final to anticipate flying over to Marakesh Mato bartini was up against number seven seed Mariano Navone from the outset Navone fought for every single point a forehand Miss from bartini on set point proved costly as navoni went on to take the first set in the subsequent tie break not exactly thrilled bartini rained down forehand hailstones to punish nabon and what was an emphatic response from the Italian bartini took the second set 63 and when he wasn't blasting forand in the third set the Italian was dishing out Exquisite Drop shots that even alcaraz would have been jealous of and after 2 hours and 42 minutes Mato got the job done 67 63 62 a first Final in 2 years what a moment for the Italian switching over to the WTA it was mission impossible for Maria sakur when she face Danielle Collins with nowhere to hide the Greek lost in straight sets in the semi-final clash in Charleston after recovering from a slow start to the season and winning 10 of her last 12 matches sakur was simply no match for the ultra aggressive Danielle Collins meanwhile Dasha kazakina prevailed in a mouthwatering thre Setter against Jessica Pula a match that also lasted almost 3 hours as both players broke each other eight times but if you thought Saturday in the tennis world was stacked I wonder what you would say about Sunday as the week reached its climax Sunday afternoon delivered a special dose of nail biting in five thrilling tournament finals plus day one action in Monte Carlo starting in Marakesh Mato bartini who had emerged from a dark place having dealt with injuries for so long faced an inform Roberto carbas bayena as usual bartini let his forehands fly as he looked to pounce on carbas bayena on top of that the Italian brought in a lot of variety with the backhand slice volleys and gorgeous Drop shots like this who said bartini was only a serve and forehand player again with the game Dead even at five all bartini resorted to a drop shot to break carbas bayena the Italian would then save multiple break points himself to close out the first set 75 come the second set bartini was back at it again with the Drop shots and needless to say it was spectacular with a smooth blend of power and finesse bartini picked his opponent apart as he broke his opponent twice to claim the title 7562 your final score Matteo bartini is back with a bang a first title in 665 days for bartini at the expense of the defending champion carbas spaya and a return to the top 100 for the Italian better days ahead for sure switching Focus Focus to estal we saw number two seed Hubie herkos take on Pedro Martinez early on in the first set herkos made his move as he broke Martinez with this incredible backhand return terrific before we could even blink herkos had taken the first set 63 thanks to a lethal combo of big serves and brutal ground strokes while Martinez was busy grunting so loudly even when slicing herkos was busy putting on a backhand clinic in the second set Martinez's excessive grunts couldn't save him from herkos who is now putting on a show down a break at 2:4 Martinez decided to have some fun doing this but herkos came with his ID to the party so he responded by doing this right here her Kosh ended the match with an ace his 15th of the match as he cruised to Victory after 1 hour and 26 minutes by winning the title in esteril herkos became the first polish man to win a clay Court title in 42 years hm igas fianc would have loved that one meanwhile in Houston Ben Shelton made it his personal mission to answer those critics who said that he couldn't play on Clay facing defending Champion Francis TFO in the US men's clay Court championship in Houston Shelton dominated TFO in both serve and return stats the game was close with Shelton only being able to steal the first set at the death after a poor service game from Francis with the ghost from his US Open loss to Shelton lurking TFO put some pep in his step with a much improved service game in the second grabbing the set 6'4 but come the decider the tables turned and it was Shelton calling the shots as he cruised to Victory the first keep on coming for Ben Shelton a first title on clay for Shelton I told you guys in the Deep dive that we made about Shelton that the kid is special he's now world number 14 and the second ranked American just 275 points behind Fritz you can't deny his talent but you know what else you can't deny Fierce woman who is on a mission to obliterate anything in front of her Danielle Collins has now forgotten how to lose and at this point it's just ridiculously impressive after dropping only one set on route to the final in Charleston Collins faced the number four seed kazakina and it was complete demolition a 62 61 Beatdown to be exact with a ridiculous 95% win percentage on her first serves and Ultra aggressive shot making which led to 19 winners on the first set alone we already knew that it was mission impossible for kazakina don't believe me check this out wow after the match here's what kazakina said first I wanted to say that I'm going to miss you on tour but after this match I'm not sure already with 1500 points in two weeks Collins is now back in the top 15 and she's just unplayable at the moment but while Collins was celebrating her title number sixth seed in Bogota Camila osoria was getting a hero's welcome in front of 2400 people after winning her second title in her Homeland in Colombia let me tell you Camila can flat out play and we'll be hearing from her on the channel too very soon with not even enough time to put some butter on our popcorn over to Monte Carlo we go and what do we find Lorenzo musti absolutely destroys a forehand in his match against Taylor Fritz ladies and gentlemen this is what a 95 mph forehand On The Run looks like musti upset Fritz in straight sets in the round of 64 Clash but then we saw Alexander Buck go MIA against borach chorich early in the second set bck got fed up with the match and gave the ball kit his racket to play his opponent but unfortunately the ball kid made a double fault a tribute to bck [Applause] maybe saving the best for last the tennis world congratulated jokovic for becoming the oldest number one in ATP history at 36 years and 321 days old jokovic has now officially broken Roger Federer's record last week in tennis had a lot of action but the truth is I am super excited for the first Masters 1000 of the season on Clay that's already going on in Monte Carlo with the top players needing to defend a lot of ranking points and dianic Center looking to seize that number one spot from Novak the clay Court season this year is going to be a banger and you can keep up with all the action by subscribing to the channel we'll be rolling out a new look and feel in the next few days to bring you even more exciting content from around the Tennis Tours so stay tuned you won't want to miss what we have cooking and if you missed last week's videos no worries I have them showing on the screen right [Music] here