The Tennis Tour Was Surprised By Rafa's Return But So Much More Happened In Madrid...

We are now three weeks away from Roland-Garros 2024, and I can't fully wrap my head around what we've just witnessed from the first week of the Madrid Open. I was in Madrid a few days ago, and as I watched Rafael Nadal practice, I had lots of questions on my mind. Was Rafa going to turn up in Madrid, or was I just giving myself false hope? How about Carlos Alcaraz's title defense, Yannick Sinner's current form, and the next gen players to look out for? I've got the answers to all those questions, and much more. The predictions, ranking updates, and my hot takes on both tours. So let's go over everything that happened last week in tennis. I am here, giving myself a chance. Earlier in the week, Rafa said that if he arrived in Paris the way he was feeling at the time, then he wasn't going to play Roland-Garros. He also touched on the Olympics being one of his big goals for the year, which I also found quite interesting. He would then confirm his participation in this year's edition of the Lever Cup. I imagine that the best gift for Rafa fans would be 23 Grand Slams and two Olympic gold medals and singles. That's surely going to turn the goat debate on its head, or what are your thoughts? But let's get back to reality. Rafa's body allowed him to play in Madrid for the first time in two years, and the result was epic. Facing Darwin Blanche in the opening round in Madrid, Rafa took care of business in a match that only lasted 64 minutes. Right away, you could tell that Blanche had never dealt with a ball as heavy as Rafa's. And quite frankly, nothing could have prepared the kid for the man he was facing. A total demolition, 6-1, 6-0 to be exact. Blanche just didn't have the defense to absorb Rafa's forehand shots, and he was missing a lot, which makes sense. Big stadium, large crowd, playing one of the greatest of all time in only his second tour level match. I mean, you can't make this up. I can only imagine the emotions that would have been running through his mind. Must have been completely overwhelming. But the biggest talking point wasn't even about Blanche being taught some life lessons. It was more about the uneven matchup and the wildcard talks. A 21-year age difference and the largest age gap between opponents in Masters 1000 history. To put things in perspective, Rafa was already a three-time Roland Garros champion when Blanche was just born. But it's also crazy to think that a 16-year-old Rafa actually beat then world number four Carlos Moya in Rafa's second Masters event in Hamburg. Just a gentle reminder of how good young Rafa was. Arguably the best teenager in ATP history. Seeing Blanche's hilarious reaction when he realized he was going to play Rafa had me rolling on the floor. But some fans, however, weren't completely impressed with the wildcard selection. Some fans were actually angry that Pedro Martinez and Roberto Batista Agu were overlooked in the wildcard selection, while former top 10 players Diego Schwarzman and Dominic Thiem were ignored and left to hustle their way through qualies. Some other fans also mentioned that there were at least a dozen juniors with higher UTR rankings, and possibly more experience on clay. Also pointing out the fact that Blanche had only made deep runs in two out of the seven 15k tournaments he had played this year. For those of you wondering, Blanche trains at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy and is of Spanish descent through his father. He's also an IMG client, and IMG owns the Madrid Masters 1000. So I'm pretty sure you can do the math. But let me ask you, do you think Blanche's preferential treatment from the tournament organizers made no sense? Or were you excited for the novelty factor he was bringing? And then to the subject of wildcards. Personally, I feel wildcards should be given to players who generate the maximum amount of interest and intrigue, regardless of ranking. After beating Blanche, Nadal faced Alex Di Menor in the round of 64. The stadium was packed, and everyone was chanting Rafa's name. I mean, even the King of Spain was in attendance. Also, in light of El Clásico, Zinedine Zidane and Vinicius Jr. came to the party. Ahead of the match, many of us feared a repeat of the Barcelona result, where Nadal lost to Di Menor. But Rafa had other ideas this time. With the first set level at 4-all, we saw this crazy moment right here. The first set went into a tiebreak, and Rafa was absolutely brilliant. And how about this crazy winner at 6-all? After coming from a breakdown to take the first set, I was super excited to see that Rafa's level didn't drop. Rather, he upped the ante. Winner after winner. 7-6, 6-3, a straight set win for Rafa in the end. The win was also his first top 20 victory in 527 days, and a return to the top 400. With the win, Rafael Nadal let us know that he is back and ready to go. But while Rafa was showing us his fighting spirit, someone else was also making a statement on court. Yannick Sinner took his head-to-head record to 13-0 against fellow Italian players. He bageled his compatriot Lorenzo Sinego in the first set of his round of 64 clash, and the set lasted just 25 minutes. It was brutal. I mean, Sinner only lost 8 points the entire set. Sinego did put some pep in his step in the second set, but ultimately fell short 6-love, 6-3 your final there. Sinner looked like a man on a mission, and I was tempted to make some predictions for the tournament and the rest of the clay season. I posted on the channel's community tab a couple days ago, and out of over 6,000 votes, I was surprised to see that most of you guys had Carlitos as the favorite for the title, despite his arm issues. To be honest, it's a reasonable prediction, seeing that he's the two-time defending champion. And shout out to the sizable margin of view that still chose Rafa. For Yannick Sinner, clay might not be his favorite surface, but he still just feels untouchable to me. I know I should have made this prediction last week, but better late than never. I believe Sinner will make the final in Madrid. Yes, I know he hasn't passed the third round in Madrid before, but I feel like he's rested a bit more, and I think also the court conditions and the height of the bounce favor him. He does have a potential quarterfinal clash with Rude, which is going to be interesting to watch for sure. Looking at Daniil Medvedev's quarter, it has opened up a bit seeing that Tsitsipas lost early. I'll also go over why that happened. Easy to say that there's nothing stopping Clayvedev from making a deep run here in Madrid. We also need to talk about Zverev, And although his clay season hasn't been great compared to his normal standards, I also have Zverev among my favorites to win the title. Just one problem for him though. Alcaraz just seems to have his number here in Madrid. Speaking about Alcaraz, I don't think he should have any issues with a potential quarterfinal match with Rublev. I just made a deep dive on Rublev, and in the video, I analyzed why he's been losing recently. But it's great to see that he's returned to his winning ways. Anyway, back to Alcaraz. He has 1,000 points to defend here, but judging solely from his history with the tournament, my prediction is that he makes the final and beats Sinner in three sets. That being said, Sinner's charge to the number one spot on the ATP table is looking up with every passing tournament. If he wins Madrid, he'll be within 350 points of Novak. And Novak has points to defend in Rome and at Roland Garros. I'm not going to mention the elephant in the room, but it's inevitable guys. Here are some of the other ranking updates though. Borna Coric falls more than 20 spots outside the top 50 following his early round loss to Zverev. Brandon Nakashima continues to rise up the ranking and is now on the verge of re-entering the top 70. Andy Murray has now slipped outside the top 75. Murray's been dealt a heavy hand with the injuries, which kind of sucks to see. Aslan Karatsev is also now at risk of falling outside the top 100 after failing to defend his semifinalist points from Madrid last year. And then we have Thiago Montero, Zooming over to the WTA, Iga Svantek is still untouchable for now. She still hasn't dropped a set all tournament. Danielle Collins is also riding the hot hand and with back-to-back tournament wins in Miami and Charleston, she literally hasn't lost a match in almost two months. She even put a rude fan in his place in her third round win against Jacqueline Christiane. Elsewhere, Jasmin Paolini, who's been having a great season, continues to knock on the door of the top 10. Switching gears a bit, we need to talk about the new kids on the block because these guys have been balling. When Rafa was asked to share his thoughts about the new gen taking over tennis, I found his answer quite hilarious. Tennis have an amazing new champions, but at the same time, things haven't changed that much. Talking about Sinner and Alcaraz, he admitted that although they're amazing, his generation has been dominant for so long. I'm not even too concerned about Alcaraz and Sinner because those guys are already on an elite level and they just keep getting better. But recently, I've been lost for words looking at how good some of these next-gen guys are. The most interesting of them all, Jacob Menchik. Even with the loss to FAA, he still impressed me in Madrid. Menchik made a splash earlier this year in Doha when he defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Andy Murray, top seed Andrey Rublev, and Gael Monfils en route to the final. Well, he defeated Grigor Dimitrov last week in Madrid for his second top 10 win in his first year on tour. Now, that's gotta count for something. Menchik put up a serve clinic, firing 16 aces past Dimitrov. He just kept hitting those spots. But it wasn't even about the serve, which, by the way, is elite and smooth flowing. Menchik's forehand was also at its best. Dimitrov, however, didn't do himself any favors by making 42 unforced errors in the match. But back to Menchik. The firepower from the Czech left me wondering if I was watching a future top 10 player. He was consistent off both wings, which isn't something that's super common in his age group. I mean, the guy's only 18 years old. Standing at 6'4", his movement is amazing for his height as well. I thought his court coverage was excellent against Grigor, and don't get me started on his serve and volleying. Although Menchik only won 16 out of his 31 net points, I was happy to see him adding variation to his already excellent ball striking. The guy ticks all the boxes, and for me, he's the best prospect among the current crop of next-gen players. I'll tell you why. When you look at Alex Mikkelsen, the kid has done well. He's beaten a top 10 player in Alex de Menor and is also the youngest player from the United States to win an ATP Masters 1000 match since Taylor Fritz and Francis Tiafoe in 2017. I also love his drop shots, two-handed backhand, and his serve is pretty good too. But being around the same height as Menchik, Mikkelsen's movement, court coverage, and athleticism isn't quite there, at least in my opinion. And when you look at Luka Van Asch, who at 5'10", is among the shortest guys in the top 100, you begin to wonder if he has enough firepower to trouble elite players down the line. And then we have Shang, who beat Ben Shelton twice last year, also beat Francis Tiafoe, and then pushed Rublev to three sets in Hong Kong. I'll admit, the lefty serve is great and his forehand is also destructive, but his consistency isn't quite there at the moment. We also have Artur Fyss, who had his breakthrough season last year. Sometimes I forget Fyss is only 19. He's quite well-rounded as well, but I don't think there's much he does better than Menchik. We also haven't seen much from Dino Prismic since he took a set from Djokovic at the Australian Open. And finally, we have Joao Fonseca, who is only 17 and has limited tour experience. But judging from the few matches that I've watched, I think he's one of the brightest talents among the next-gen. He beat Mikkelsen in three sets for his first ever win in a Masters event here in Madrid. The huge forehand, movement, and anticipation was on another level. I mean, look at these moments right here. It's just so clever. Here's how the next-gen race is looking at the moment. Over to you guys, which next-gen player do you enjoy watching the most, and why do you feel that player might be better than the others? For me, it's a tough choice I should also mention some of the craziest storylines from Week 17. Earlier in the week, Novak Djokovic won the Sportsman of the Year award at the Larias Sports Awards for the fifth time. I loved how good the vibes were at the event. Nole spoke highly of Rafa, but what stuck with me most was watching Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic admire each other's outfits. You could clearly see from their interaction how much these two love each other. Now, I made a video not too long ago talking about the uniqueness of the Novak-Carlos rivalry and why we might never see something like this again. So far, Alcaraz has had straightforward wins in Madrid. After defeating Thiago Seiboldt-Wilde in the round of 32, Alcaraz now has 13 consecutive wins in Madrid. He faces last year's finalist, Jan-Lenard Struff, in the round of 16. Not a match you're going to want to miss. Next, we have Hubi Herkosz, who has also been rock solid on clay this season. Herkosz is now 8-1 on clay in 2024 at the time of this recording. Surely he's on his way to having one of his best clay seasons ever. Switching focus to the WTA, Naomi Osaka got her first win on clay in 726 days after defeating Grit Minen in straight sets in the opening round in Madrid. However, Lyudmila Samsonova's drop shots were too much for Naomi as she crashed out of the tournament in the next round. Meanwhile, Mira Andreeva claimed her second top 10 win after defeating Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrusheva in Madrid. Andreeva has now reached the round of 16 in Madrid for the second year in a row. I should also mention that Victoria Azarenka made it 200 wins in WTA 1000 tournaments after defeating Tatiana Maria in the opening round in Madrid. No other WTA player has managed to do that. Meanwhile, Iga Svantek continues the search for a first title in Madrid. Earlier in the week, though, Irina Sabalenka said that she preferred watching men's tennis over women's tennis. She said that she felt like there was more strategy and that it's more interesting to watch. Sabalenka, however, did admit that she didn't mean to damage women's tennis in any way before going on to clear the air. Still on the WTA, a lot has happened off the courts. Bianca Andreescu gave us some updates about her situation, saying that she'll be back a week before Roland Garros. She also said that she'll be at the Olympics in Paris. More positive news came our way when Belinda Bencic gave birth to her baby girl on April 23rd. Also, former world number 11 Alize Cornet announced that Roland Garros will be her last professional tennis tournament, another special career coming to an end, and we wish her the very best going forward. A lot of crazy things happened last week, and it might be difficult for me to go over everything, but let's touch on Andre Rublev, the upsets from last week, the Saudi rumors, and a few other subjects. Rublev snapped a four-match losing streak and returned to winning ways in Madrid with big wins over Facundo Bagnes and Alejandro Davidovic-Fekina. I was particularly impressed with how Rublev played against Davidovic-Fekina, coming back from five-love down and saving five set points to take the first set. That is going to be so tough. Davidovic-Fekina also played on a high level. His point construction and variety was impressive to watch so many times, but ultimately it came down to the fine margins and Rublev's unbelievable fighting spirit. I recently made a deep dive on Rublev in case you missed it, but now it's time that we talk about the It's Time We Talk About videos. We've been doing these now for about six months, and I have been overwhelmed with the support and positivity that we've gotten in the comments. It's been really encouraging for me to see, and it makes me just want to keep doing more and more. So with that said, while you're all here, who else would you like to see me cover, and what other topics are you interested in learning more about from the tours? Be sure to let me know in the comments. Moving on to the upsets of the week. Hmm, Holger Rune was beaten again, this time by Talon Griekspoor in three sets. Griekspoor has been flying under the radar this year. He had a great run in Rotterdam, beating the likes of Lorenzo Mussetti and Hercosh before losing to Yannick Sinner in the semis. Earlier on in the tournament, Rune faced Mariano Navone in the opening round, and it was a dogfight. Navone served for the match in the second set, and Rune was two points away from going home. Rune would then go up 5-1 in the third set, but after Navone battled back, Rune closed out the match 6-4 in the third. At the end of the day, Rune needed five match points to take care of business. Facing Griekspoor, Rune was up against a man on a mission. Griekspoor served unbelievably well through the entire match, and was also impressive on the return. Although Griekspoor was wasteful on break points, he got the job done in the end. Crazy to think that Griekspoor is now 2-0 against Rune. An underrated player, maybe? For Rune, it's another disappointing loss, and he's now 18-10 this season. The search for his best tennis continues. Meanwhile, Francis Tiafoe lost again, this time to Pedro Cachin. It's crazy because Cachin was on a 15-match losing streak, and had gone seven months without a win. Meanwhile, Tiafoe's season has also been really poor. He probably needs to play a few challengers at this point to find some shape and form. Now to Tsitsipas. He didn't play great against Thiago Montero, but it's not like he played so bad either. Montero was just a beast on the day. Someone said that the way Montero was hitting those balls so hard almost seemed like ball abuse. The Brazilian made 89% of his first serves and was so good on the return. My hot take about the match is that any top player who faced that particular version of the Brazilian would have been at risk of an upset. But again, this is why we love tennis. A random qualifier who lost in round one of a challenger event a couple days earlier, now gunning down one of the most informed clay court players on the season. But the drama didn't end there. Some other weird things happened last week. Corentin Mute decided that he needed a cup of coffee in the middle of his match against Shang. We don't provide coffee. Not sure how that works. The all-lefty battle lasted four hours, and we saw some crazy stuff happen. Like this. Later on in the match, the water guys felt Mute needed a shower, so this happened. And to top it all off, Mute's racket developed a mind of its own in the crucial third set tiebreak. Oh my goodness. Oh, can you believe? Easily the most chaotic match I've seen all year. But while chaos was brewing in some matches, the word on the street, as per Jose Morgado's Twitter handle, was that big discussions were being held in Madrid. We now know that Saudi Arabia is looking to host a new Masters 1000 event in January. Starting from 2027. Hmm, what do you think about that whole situation? You can keep up with all the action on Court Side by smashing that subscribe button. And if you missed out on last week's videos, no worries, I have them showing on the screen for you right here.