Welp, Wasn't Expecting This On The Tennis Tour...

I mean I'm so negative about myself always but the first time I feel so proud of myself Andre rublev just pulled out one of the biggest Uno reverse cards in tennis history and it was a beautiful ending to an otherwise tragic week a week that saw the best players in the world dropping out of tournaments like flies because of injuries rapael Nadal playing potentially his last tennis match in Spain Novak jovic's latest update and even the CTI DOA breakup when it rains it pours that's probably the best way to describe what happened last week in Madrid or maybe not here's an even better way to summarize what's been going on on the tennis tour what happened in Monte Carlo happened and what happened in Barcelona happened what happened in madri happened and here we are we are in Rome buckle up guys it's about to get ugly for the first time in the tournament's history none of the top six seeds on the ATP side made it to the semi-finals in Madrid why did that happen there's a short and a long answer the short answer and the much simp simpler one would be that the Madrid Masters 1000 was cursed this year but I'm not sure that helped so let's dig a little deeper and see how last week's result can help the Italian Open predictions earlier in the week Andre rublev already complained about the new Masters format saying that players will now have less time to recover and that it was mentally tough because the ATP was taking decisions without asking anybody instead of playing Madrid and Rome in one week the tournaments now take longer and players have less time to spend at home Alexander Zev also chipped in saying that that the new format was good for players ranked outside the top 50 but not so much for top 10 players his logic was that top 10 players compete to win the tournaments so it takes a toll on them since they're playing longer generally speaking Elena rebaka also weighed in on the matter in her words quote having so many two-e mandatory events scheduled back toback if you want to see good quality tennis and players have long careers it would be nice to change something with the new rule of change we have a lot of mandatory stuff where you cannot really choose and pick what you want to play play because I mean at some point it's fair enough that people choose what they want to play or not because if the tour is good for everyone then people will want to play end quote personally I think the devil is in the details the players needs should come first and then ours as fans so with that said what do you prefer onewe tournaments for the Masters 1000s or two weeks in the current format the top seeds on the ATP Tour were totally decimated in Madrid top seed Yanik CER withdrew from his quarterfinal match alcaraz lost to rublev and complain of experienced discomfort during the match number three seed Medvedev retired in the quarters against leka after the first set and fourth seed Zev lost to sandolo in the fourth round number five seed Casper Roode lost to Felix also in the fourth round and six seed cipas didn't even make it past the second round losing to Thiago Montero who would have imagined and now with some of these injuries carrying over to Rome alcaraz and CER are not going to be playing in Italy you have to go back in time to Hamburg 2006 to find a somewhat similar pattern back then the top four players in the world Federer Nadal nalbandian and rodic all withdrew from the Masters 1000 tournament so how did we get here starting with caritos who just turned 21 last week he had the chance to pass Rafa's record for longest win streak in Madrid after going through chevchenko SE both vild and Jan lonard stru he still had a forehand sleeve on the court and while caritos wasn't exactly at his lethal best during those matches he was still getting the job done and even making these highlight reels oh the Carlos engine seemed to be revving up a bit until he ran into a certain guy named Andre rublev but it's even more poetic that Carlos shares the 14 match winning streak with Rafa I'll take that for yanic sinner who we just made a video about it's a different story altogether his charge to the number one spot has been dealt a huge blow because of his hip injury and now after saying that he'll only play Roland garos if he's at 100% we have some possible scenarios that could play out in the number one fight at the moment jokovic has 9,990 points and CER has 8,860 points Novak has 180 points to defend in Rome and 2,000 points at rolling garos meanwhile cner only has 90 points to defend in Rome and 45 points at rolling garos subtract those points from their current ranking points and were left with a difference of 915 points this essentially means that jokovic must get more than 915 points in Rome and Roland garos to maintain the first place and that's a assuming that Center doesn't play at all in the French Open for that to happen jokovic needs to do one of the following reach the final at Roland garos win Rome reach the final in Rome and at least the quarterfinals in Roland garos or reach the semis in Roland garos and the quarterfinals in Rome now Novak jokovic just split with his longtime fitness trainer but I reckon it shouldn't be too much of a problem for him to reach those targets meanwhile the draw for the Italian Open is already out and we're going to be discussing it later in the video but first let's go through the highlights from this past week in tennis the excitement around Andre rublev is at a fever pitch he's now joined an exclusive list of active players with Clay Masters 1000 titles at at least two different clay Masters Tournaments before the tournament ruiv was winless through about 6 weeks give or take he came to Madrid off of four consecutive losses what's even crazier is that rublev struggled with an illness in Madrid and he later told us that he barely slept between the matches but somehow he managed to go through funo bnus davidovich faka and Talen greeksport in straight sets before setting up a blockbuster clash with alcaraz after losing his first set of the tournament rublev cranked up his shot-making Wizardry to take the second set and as the match went down to the wire in the final set this [Music] happened and from then on there was no going back rublev took his winning streak to 13 and0 against Spanish players on Clay after the match Carlos had this to say he hits the ball in a good position it's almost impossible to make points to beat him now in the semis rublev faced Taylor Fritz who was on a mission to prove that Americans can compete on European clay at the game's highest level Fritz had just become the first American man since 2005 to reach the Madrid semi-finals that's almost like two decades without any American man in the semis Fritz had also just made it to 250 career match wins and had been riding the hot hand ever since Ben Shelton took that American number one spot from him temporarily but when they stepped on the court rublev sometimes made Fritz feel helpless with some excellent shot making at the end of the day it was a mountain two tall for Fritz to climb a straight sets loss to rublev Meanwhile someone else in the other half of the draw was having the tournament of his life Felix Al Alim had a clear path to the final after taking down nishioka and manarino in the early round Felix then faced menik who had to retire early in the second set Felix would then get his most impressive victory of the tournament defeating Casper Roode in straight sets in the round of 16 who would have thought that someone who won most of his titles on indoor hard courts would be defeating someone who could be considered a clayt specialist in straight sets if only we knew that it was one of the many surprises awaiting Us in Madrid luck was on Felix's side as he got an Express entry into the semis after C retired yeah such a bummer I I know facing Yuri leka in the semis Felix then only played six games with leka before the Czech retired at this point Felix could have claimed the title of luckiest tennis player on his business card and no one would have bothered with him a large section of fans believed the Canadian was an undeserving finalist well a few fans were happy for him let me take you back to the Felix video I made where we talked about some of the challenges he's been facing he's low-key been making Minor Adjustments here and there and now we know that FAA is no longer working with Tony Nadal Tony was never the full-time coach anyway he was more of an adviser now in the final in Madrid Felix became the second player to progress through the draw after three players retired since Novak jokovic at the 2016 US Open with the spotlight Now set on a big first serve plus big forehand Showdown we expected lots of fireworks and the match didn't disappoint at least in my opinion rubl had a 4- one head to head record over Felix ahead of the final so he was the obvious favorite but not by a clear margin because all except one of their matches had gone the distance as expected the stakes were high for both players rublev was chasing a second Masters 1000 title and Felix was chasing a first big title and his 200th tour level win but it was Felix Who Came Out Swinging early on rublev on the other hand was double faulting early in the match and looked sick at times however he grew into the match as the games progressed and you could see the difference Midway into the set rublev Got Back back one of the two breaks he gave away to Felix early on and was on the verge of leveling the set but Felix stood his ground and eventually took care of business by the second set rublev was finding more joy behind his first serve but the match remained close until rublev broke Felix right at the death in this point right here the match stayed tight going into the third but while rublev was dictating points on his first serve and also doing a great job protecting on his second serve Felix was getting smoked on his second serves yes another thing that I noticed was that although both players were deadly on the forand rublev's backhand crosscourt and down the line was a lot more Superior to Felix's and we could see the difference play out in the extended rallies Felix began to experience some physical issues in the third set despite being the much fresher player and while serving to stay in the match at 5-6 he double faulted twice that was it Madrid now had a new Champion so guys if we're to summarize some of the major factors in this final we'd have four main takeaways Felix's poor second serves he won only 14 out of 39 second serves the entire match so even if he didn't double fault it's not like he had a great chance at winning the point another huge Factor would be Andre ru serves he's done a great job upgrading his second serve and is no longer so vulnerable on it also we already mentioned rublev's Superior backhand being a major factor in the rallies and then there's the return which I'll talk about a bit more rublev won 40% of first sered returns against alcaraz in the quarterfinal against Taylor Fritz the return numbers dropped a bit to 31% of points one on Fritz's first serve against Felix rublev pounced on the Canadian second serves winning a staggering 64% of return points why is this important we previously identified rublev's poor return as one of the major contributors to his four-match losing streak but in Madrid he was on a different level for Felix on the other hand he's now back inside the top 20 for the first time since October last year and he'll be hoping to build on his Madrid run going forward for fans asking if Felix is back well I can't say for sure it doesn't really look like a whole lot has changed on the surface but if he starts making consistent deep runs in the next tournaments I think that's a conversation we can start having I should also point out that after his title win rublev wrote this on the camera sombody now I'm free I can't say I know exactly what he meant but a quick Google search shows that rublev probably might have been doing some meditation or mental concentration exercise to help him out let's now touch on some of the other story lines from week 18 on the tennis tour but before we get into that I'm super pumped to announce that we're going to be releasing some merch in the next few weeks and the best part is that you are going to have the opportunity to pick our very first design so be on the lookout for a community post very soon more to come there anyways back to the video and you actually the first check in the semis at a Masters since Thomas berdick here in 2015 Yuri leka became the first check player in the semis of a masters since thas berich in 2015 and although he retired in the semis and is now withdrawn from Rome due to the injury I feel like we need to keep him on our radar for those of you that have been sleeping on him you've been missing out on a lot the guy has the Firepower to take the racket out of anyone's hands and we saw that on full display in Madrid and how about this oh come [Applause] on come on let's also remember that leka beat C pass and rublev at Indian Wells and also beat Karen hatov in Dubai I feel like he has top 10 potential but there were some questions marks following his comments on Pedro kashen asking for Rafa's shirt leka said quote if you're playing a match and thinking about asking the guy to give you something why are you there he explained that he wasn't trying to sound disrespectful though and then explained that he might have asked for a picture after the tournament but not for a shirt after just losing he said quote I don't know I just don't go into a match with those kind of intentions and I just have a different approach in this thing end quote but guys kashen probably dreamed his whole life about having the chance to play as Idol so I don't see anything wrong with him asking for a shirt at the end what do you guys think and what would you have done if you had the chance to play against your idol in a tennis match meanwhile Rafa is going to play in Rome for the first time in 723 days he's won the tournament 10 times and really there isn't much to talk about on what to expect from him but in the Rome predictions later on in the video I'll let you know what I think let's also not forget that 2024 is the final season for another veteran Diego schwarzman has announced that this will be his last here on tour he'll retire in 2025 in Buenos Aries despite his obvious height disadvantage schwarzman managed to reach a grand slam semi-final at the 2020 French Open and a career-high of number eight in the world this guy only fell out of the top 30 last year after being a constant presence there since 2017 the 31-year-old schwarzman who's been struggling to get past the first round of tournaments for a while now opened up on being sad about his performances earlier in the year but I'm pretty sure he'll be proud of everything he's achieved in his career beating Nadal in Rome beating Dominic team in five sets at Roland garos taking jokovic to five sets that's some unbelievable stuff many of us forget how good Diego schwarzman really was I think he made the most out of his potential but speaking of potential I've been particularly impressed with some nextg players this year jaku menik made a splash earlier this year in Doha when he defeated Alejandro davidovich fuina Andy Murray top seed Andre rublev and gu monf on route to the final he also defeated Gregor demitro in Madrid for his second top 10 win in his first year on tour and I feel like he's the best Prospect out of the next gen his serve as Elite and smooth flowing and his Firepower and consistency off both Wings is insane but while his Firepower is impressive his movement is even better I haven't seen that many guys move better at 64 mik's serve and volleying isn't the most spectacular but he's already looking to add to that part of his game it was such a shame to see him retire in Madrid and then we have Joel fona who's only 17 and has limited tour experience but judging from his few matches that I've watched I think he's one of the brightest talents among the nextg he also beat mikkelson in Madrid fona has that huge forehand movement and anticipation his serve isn't bad too but it still requires some work we still need to see him on other surfaces as well before making a complete judgment for Alex mikkelson the kid has done well he's beaten a top 10 player in Alex D Manor and is also the youngest player from the United States to win an ATP Masters 1000 match since Taylor Fritz and Francis TFO in 2017 I love his Drop shots two-handed backhand and his serve is also pretty good but being around the same height as menik mikkelson's movement Court coverage and athleticism isn't quite there at least in my opinion and when you look at Luca vanash 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 we also have Shang who beat Ben Shelton twice last year year also beat Francis TFO and then pushed ruiv to three sets in Hong Kong the Lefty serve is great and his forehand is indeed destructive but his consistency also isn't quite there at the moment in Archer fe's case he had his breakthrough season last year and is quite well rounded at the moment as well and then there's Dino prismic who we haven't seen much of since he took a set from Novak jokovic at the Australian Open here's how the nextg race is looking at the moment if you were to rate these nextg guys who would you have at the top of your list and why do you have them above the others for me I have menik as my number one but curious to hear what you guys think Switching gears to the WTA A lot happened last week igus fanch finally won The elusive Madrid title in what was the longest WTA 1000 fidal in history it was an early match of the Year Contender for me after a nervy start to the match both players started to play more freely Midway through the first set sabalenka as usual was crushing the ball off both Wings sponch on the other hand was up to the task with some Immaculate returning and she was able to steal the first set 75 so sabalenka decided to turn the match into a dog fight in the second set blasting winners from all over the court take a look at how she took the second set and why not the match was now dead even in the third set and it was as if both players were fighting for their lives but sabalenka had the edge and kept pushing now facing down match points EGA needed to do this to stay alive the third set dragged into a tie Break Even though sabalenka held multiple match points herself on [Applause] Route the key in the tie break was definitely EA's clutch serving she hit five service winners out of her eight service points most of these serves were body serves aimed at sabalenka forehand the that's something sabalenka will probably want to take a look at moving forward with the title EGA has now joined an exclusive list of women to win 20 or more titles before the age of 23 she also had to save a total of three Championship points to do that EGA has now also won every clay Court WTA 1000 event here's my takeaway from the match it was super close as we can see from the stats but I was incredibly impressed with the quality from both of them EA especially because of her performance on The Fast clay cord if you're still sleeping on the WT the action the story lines I don't know what to tell you at this point EA's tennis IQ is also out of this world she's been serving everyone breadsticks and bagels all tournament but seeing sabalenka push her to the Limit tells you just how good sabalenka is as well let's also not forget that sabalenka came from a set down to defeat Elena rebaka in the semis putting an end to rebaka streak of 16 consecutive clay Court wins man these three are now forming a new big three on the WTA tour someone out there might be asking why why I didn't include the world number three Coco golf there I think the answer is simple the consistency and repeatability of results that being said I can't wait for Koko to find her best tennis but in the meantime here's to many more finals from these two too many more finals always you know a challenge playing against you so thanks for also motivating me but it would be a big Omission to not talk about one of the best performers from last week I've always loved watching Madison Keys play I think she's an extremely talented player I feel like she deserves more at 29 years old and it was especially tough to see her miss the start of the Season due to an injury but after defeating two top 10 players anjur and KOCO gof last week with Incredible comeback wins I'm hoping the 2017 US Open finalist can find her best tennis again too also last year's WTA newcomer of the Year Mera Andrea made her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in Madrid on her 17th birthday no less it goes without saying that we can expect a lot more from her in the coming months meanwhile these are the major ranking updates from both tours Felix a Ali aim one of the biggest movers of the week is up 15 spots and is back inside the top 20 after reaching the final in Madrid Andre rublev moves past cipas and Casper Roode to return to the number six spot after winning his second career Masters 1000 title Yuri leka jumps eight spots after making the semis and is back at a career-high number 23 in the world Mariano Navone and Alejandro tobio each reached new career highs after gaining plenty plenty of points from their Challenger titles last week and they're now knocking on the door of the top 30 Rafa's mini run was enough to see him move 207 spots up and he's now on the verge of re-entering the top 300 and now to some of the guys who are going to be sliding down the ranking Yan lard Stu Falls 17 spots after failing to defend his finalist points from Madrid last year Borna chich Falls more than 20 spots and outside the top 50 following his early round loss to Zev Andy Murray has now slipped outside the top 75 Murray has been dealt a heavy hand with injuries which kind of sucks to see asan KATV is now at risk of falling outside the top 100 after failing to defend his semi-finalist points from Madrid last year taking a look at the WTA igas fanch puts some daylight between herself in the rest of the pack with a 3,400 Point Gap following her title win in Madrid sabalenka holds on to her number two spot for now Madison Keys moves four spots up to number 16 after reaching the semis and despite her early loss in Madrid Marta kostuk enters the top 20 and hits a new career high Julia putina also goes nine spots up to 41 after getting to the quarterfinals the Italian Open draw is out and here's what it looks like Novak jokovic has Casper Roode Ben Shelton and Karen hainov as some of the big names in his quarter it'll be interesting to see a Novak Casper rematch I think Novak has a pretty straightforward path to the corner final and I don't see anyone stopping him Casper Roode has reached the semis in his last three outings in Rome so he's known for playing great here but I don't think Novak's going to let him beat him twice in a row my upset Alert in this quarter would be Ben Shelton simply because of his limited experience on European clay my Dark Horse here could be Francisco sandolo he beats zov in Madrid and is a real threat on the surface in the second quarter zov has dimitrov Fritz grepor and musetti as some of the top seeds the German would be looking to rebound from a disappointing Madrid outing and I think he also has a pretty straightforward path to the quarterfinal I'm not going to talk too much about Zev for now cuz I'm considering doing a deep dive on him upset alert here would be dimitrov he hasn't made it past the round of 32 in the last three tournaments and judging from his disappointing loss in Madrid I won't be expecting too much from him I know the playing conditions are different but still for my Dark Horse here I would pick Talon greeksport his confidence from beating Runa in Madrid may help him here in Rome the third quarter of the draw is stacked rublev leads the quarter but has a potential quarterfinal matchup with one of Stephan OAS Alex deor Ugo Amber niik Jerry or Felix a Ali aim I don't think rublev's attacking brand of tennis is going to be rewarded the way it was at the high altitudes in Madrid but we know at least he has the power to blast anyone off the court he won Monte Carlo which is literally one of the slowest tournaments last year and then Madrid this year so we know he can play Anywhere is he going to have a hangover from his Madrid title win maybe it's why I might consider him as my upset alert because I'm assuming the recovery time just might not be enough for him but you never know cus just lost to a guy ranked outside the top 100 in Madrid I'll assume it was a one-off and back him to reach the quarterfinal in Rome I'll go for either Matteo bartini or Yan lonard stru as the dark horses here it's bartini's home tournament he has four titles on clay and can perform at a high level on the surface so it's a no-brainer for me here in the fourth quarter we have meddev as the top seed followed by herkos Runa Tommy Paul and these other guys Rafa is also here meddev has now reached the quarterfinals or better in all nine Masters 1000 events and he just got his 100th win in a masters event over bck in Madrid meddev was having a pretty good week until the injury so we might not see that clev version that we saw lifting the title last year I don't know the extent of his injury so this one is a little tough to say but for my upset alert it would have to be Francis TFO after losing to a guy that was on a 15 match losing streak big foe decided to play in the kagari Challenger to find some form but didn't even make it past the first round there he's still searching now I might get ripped for this take but my Dark Horse here would be Nadal pretty weird having Rafa as a dark horse but we know things have changed his movement seems a little compromised on the left to me but I was happy with what I saw in Madrid and for that reason I'm backing him to make a Deep Run in Rome but truth be told he has his work cut out for him we know that Saudi Arabia is looking to host a new Master's 1000 event in January starting from 202 7 what are your thoughts on that as well last week in Madrid was stacked on the tennis tour but it's going to get even more intense as Roland garos edges closer you can keep up on all the action from the ATP and WTA tours by Smashing that subscribe button and if you missed out on last week's videos don't sweat it I have them showing on the screen for you right here