Week 16 - ATP 500 - Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain (clay)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

RE: Week 16 - ATP 500 - Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain (clay)

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Outside of Cam and Joe or Jamie (joe leading by a set) , is that the British men done this week across all events?
Yep.

oh heck!

indiana · Tennis legend

We're going for a quality over quantity week

christ · Futures level

Stircrazy wrote:
Stircrazy wrote:
L16: Cameron Norrie WR 58 defeated (8) David Goffin (BEL) WR 12 by 6-0 3-5 retired
Rafa or "Nish" in the quarters.
QF: (1) Rafael Nadal (ESP) WR 3 (CH = 1 in August 2008) vs Cameron Norrie WR 58
The end of Cam's Barcelona campaign, I think.

UK No. 1 saw off the World No. 1 a couple of weeks ago, no reason why the UK No. 2 should have any problem with the World No. 3.

emmsie69 · Top national player

Rafa hasn't been on fire this week and Cam has been playing well so I don't see this match as a dead cert

Jimmy09 · Intermediate Club Player

Love the optimism biggrin

junior · Intermediate Club Player

I think that much like last week (v Dimitrov) Rafa needs one match to absolutely pummel someone to get back on track. I thought it would be Kei yesterday after the 6-0 set, but now I think it will be Cam today

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I'm with emmsie.

Obviously Rafa is the mega favourite. And, yep, as junior says, today may be the day he really gets going.

But Rafa does not look as invincible as normal on clay (based on this week and last) which is all that emmsie's saying.

Miriambee · Futures level

Hopefully Cam will play hard like he's nothing to lose.

Vandenburg · Futures level

Rafa has looked really bad this year in general,
but the truth is Rafa at 60% is still probably a hot fav for Frog Open. However, this reminds of the year it all went Pete Tong and Novak beat him at the FO.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

lets remember last year - Rafa went out in Rome last 8, which Novak won , but then Rafa came around quickly winning RG.

So I dont think we need to worry about him just yet

junior · Intermediate Club Player

You brits (and the LTA) are gonna have a field day if Norrie wins this, especially after Evans fluke last week

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

junior wrote:
You brits (and the LTA) are gonna have a field day if Norrie wins this, especially after Evans fluke last week

Do you think Evans was a fluke? I am not sure if you are a Dan liker or disliker ( wont say hater, cant stand that phrase), but clearly Dan isnt a top clay courter but I do think he had a great week and player a career week on clay - so not sure if it was a fluke although clearly we need to see him repeat it again at some point...

Norrie clearly isnt going to beat Nadal, never was, and Rafa is comfortably ahead as we speak. As mentioned above, we write Rafa off at our peril and I still think he goes into RG as favourite - why wouldnt he? - and also think he will pick up form as the weeks progress on clay. No doubt he will win Barcelona and at least one of Madrid and ROme

Vandenburg · Futures level

junior wrote:
You brits (and the LTA) are gonna have a field day if Norrie wins this, especially after Evans fluke last week

Evans was no fluke. Tennis is all about match ups. Just because player A thrashes player B, and player B thrashes player C, does not mean player C cannot beat player A.

Evans style is perfect for beating certain types of players. Novak has always struggles with pace off the ball, and low bounce. He likes to use the pace of his opponent. Giles Simon, another slow pace off player, is famous for taking sets off Novak, the game they played at the AO few years ago, where Novak hit 70 UE.....

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Difficult to answer as I know there are several tennis experts on this forum who's real life practical experience in tennis far exceeds my own. I quite like Dan, especially for the last few years where hes made great strides and now carries himself as a top player.

Maybe fluke wasn't the right choice of word, a fortunate couple of days might be better, the last two masters 1000 have been weak, I chuckled when seeing Stefanos road to the win last week in a half of the draw that included Novak and Sasha both losing before second match (injured davidovic, evans and burnt out Rublev). The "danger" men were all tired/ill/misfiring, Dimitrov, Goffin, Carreño. However, one can only play the player infront of them and it's not their "fault" if the other player has a bad day or not so kudos to him. I think its probably safe to say that both Novak and Goffin have a higher overall level than Moutet, but again, and I know this first hand, much depends on day/time/place/opponent etc etc