Tsitsipas played beautifully ….but in the tie break the Joker played some brilliant cross court backhands angles that no other human could have produced. Another gem for those who understand the game. Enough of the mopes like Medvedev, Rube-left and Alcatraz.

Now I’m in the position of not really caring who wins the final…either way tennis is a winner.

So brilliant Joker lost to Rune in the final    It is both good  and bad news for Djokovic.   On the good side he will qualify for the EOY Championship because the other potential players all failed in their campaign    It will not be clear who will play in the Turin Tournament since

*     Zverev did not qualify;

*     Nadal did qualify - but he was actually very poor n Pari and may choose not to play; and

*     Alcaraz injury in Paris may keep him out of the Final Top 8 tournament .   

On the bad side he is going to lose about 400 points and further mishaps could cost him  to be out of the Top 10 rankings in the world

I am very chaffed about Rune - I put a R100 bet on him beating  Auger Aliassime and put the      proceeds  on Rune beating Djokovic - nice win on both,   Not really a gamble anyway - I was pretty sure of winning looking at the Match-ups thus far and knowing that Auger-Aliassime  struggle to win 2 tournaments in a row,   Djokovic was not all that convincing in the game against Tsitsipas - who beat himself in that game.   Anyway a R500 win on the two matches is not to be sneezed at.          

Actually you were very negative on Rune, when I spotted him. Eat your crow.

Don't you understand English?    I never was negative about Rune - I was also   watching him carefully.   He was somewhat disappointing for the first 9 months of 2022 - but he produced top performances over the past month.    

Thank you for bringing him up after you saw him playing Djokovic and showing promise.   You had fun showing all his names.  I had fun watching him beating  all of Alcaraz, Auger-Aliassime and Djokovic.   My bets involving him produced a nice profit of over R800.  

Rune played in the next Generation finals last year and did not play well enough,   Being only 20 years old he was invited to play in the same series this year and is playing tomorrow evening in Milan at 22:00.   So enjoy.

The other youngster showing lots of promise is Jack Draper - watch out for him as well.

Let me help you with English….this is what you said:

‘ When you look at the younger generation players like you did above - you are not really comparing them with players like Tsitsipas, Sverev, Rublev, Ruud, Shapovalov, Alcaraz and Sinner  were at their age - the latter were streets ahead of where  the guys are you mentioned  and are already in the Top 10 rankings or rapidly approaching it. ‘

……

Now I only  mentioned Rune. So according to you all those guys were streets ahead of Rune at the same age.  Could you, therefore confirm that Tsitsipas, Zverev, Rublev, Ruud, Shapalov and Sinner were top 10 while 19 years old.

No need to rant….just confirm

I did not mention the age factor other than in the case of Alcaraz who is younger than Rune.  Rne played in the Next Generation series last year and was ineffective - he did not get to the semi-finals and final.      In  2022 he was playing good tennis - but did not show the progress one would expected from him until three tournaments in October/November 2022.    He did exceptionally well - was eliminated in the semi-final in the first tournament and won in the subsequent tournaments.

Something you apparently ignored is that part of Rune's problems in 2022 was that he was playing tennis and ending up with lengthy injury treatments in some matches he played in and then skip succeeding matches - probably as a result of carrying injuries.   That problem was absent in his last three tournaments and he was star quality.   

I explained why I felt he would beat both Auger-Aliassime and Djokovic in the last tournament, but apparently you did not understand what was going on.    You were too absorbed in the brilliant tie-breaker of Djokovic to pay attention to what really happened.   In the tie-breaker Tsitsipas was leading 4-2  and then went to pieces he gave away three points in a row - one by a double fault and two others by unforced errors from which Djokovic benefitted,    Be it as it may Djokovic struggled against Tsitsipas and his win was rather unconvincing - despite all your raving.     Since the Paris Tournament last year he won nothing bar the Wimbledon Exhibition tournament and the Nur-Sultan tournament in 2022. and he slipped down badly in the rankings. With that record any normal person would have had serious doubts about his abilities in the Paris tournament.    I put my money where my mouth was in the last tournament and I was correct in my assessment - end of story.   

.         

You said at their age that collection of players were ‘streets ahead’ of Rune….so you did mention age. So I ask you again, apart from Alcatraz were any of those players top 10 before their 20th birthday.

Mozart

For nine months in 2022 what said was the case anyway.   But you are so far out with most of your sport contributions and that is factual.     In the case of Rune he was outside of the Top 20 ranked players in the ATP,   The three tournaments in October/Nvember tooak him  from no 26 to number 10.   That was helped along by a series of failures by players ranked in the previous top 20 rankings in the same period.

Lets face facts  in the first nine months in 2022 Rune made a total of 1 471 points - not really Top class performances.   In the last three tournaments he played in he made  1 440 points - in other words in three tournaments he made just under 50% of his total point count at present.   Those 1 471 points was not encouraging and less than what is expected from a star player.

Lets hope he continues in the same way he did in October/November this year and not in the way he performed in the first nine months in 2022,     You kept on deriding Alcaraz in the 9 month period in 2022 when he made  6 350  points and when he could not continue to play due to a serious medical problem you went ballistic ad accused him of cowardice and using the injury to escape defeat in  a match.    

The facts are at 19 years old Rune is now winning big tournaments and more importantly showing signs of a reproducible winning style. His serve is very solid. His backhand is blistering and his net game is very natural.

Alcatraz has a major under his belt, although it was against a weakened field. That’s a tremendous accomplishment. I wouldn’t argue that he is more precocious than Rune, more developed. But I’m not sure beyond energy he has dominating shots. Nor am I sure his serve is nearly as good.

Time will tell. Right now they look the obvious successors to the Big 3 but competition and injury can upset early projections.

Agree with you about the above.   

My own impression is that wed have bascaly at the moment 3 categories of players

*    The elderly players -   Nadal, Djokovic, Cilic, Gofin, etc

*    The 22 to 30 age group players -   Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Ruud, Auger-Aliassime, Rublev, Fritz etc\

*    The youngsters - Alcaraz, Rune, Sinner. etc

I was hoping to add Draper t the latter  list, but he was very dusappointing in the New Generation series.    

Agree with you about the above.   

My own impression is that wed have bascaly at the moment 3 categories of players

*    The elderly players -   Nadal, Djokovic, Cilic, Gofin, etc

*    The 22 to 30 age group players -   Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Ruud, Auger-Aliassime, Rublev, Fritz etc\

*    The youngsters - Alcaraz, Rune, Sinner. etc

I was hoping to add Draper to the latter list, but he was very disappointing in the first game against Stricker in this series.   However, in the end he did reach the semifinals in the  New Generation series - but is likely to run into Stricker again in the final.