Initially the tournament was supposed to start on 24 May 202, but after consultations with the Government the following program was decuded upon:-
Player qualification - 24 to 28 May 2021
Tournament commencement - 30 May 2021
Running - 28 May to 13 June 2021
The qualifying rounds started today and by Friday 32 qualifiers will be known. Superbru is running a competition starting from Round 1 and my two selections for Round 1 are Rublev and Berrettini.
Bar for 1 game all the Round 1 of the qualification fames ha been completed and the number has been reduced from 128 players to 64 upon completion pf the game mentioned.. The second round reducing the numbers to 32 will be played today and tomorrow - and on Friday the number will be further reduced to 16 actual qualifiers,
It is likely that the actual full draw for the tournament will be known by Saturday - since the first Round 1 tournament matches will be played on Sunday, The Round 1 matches will be completed by Tuesday and on Wednesday the Round 2 matches will commence, reducing the remining players to 32,
I will give a breakdown of the remaining players and whom they are playing before the start of the Round 3 matches next week.
All of Federer, Nadal and Federer are in the top half of the draw. If Federer survives in the Second Round of the series it will be a miracle. With his record this year on clay Djokovic may get top the fourth round - but he has no chance going further. Nadal should hope that he does not meet Rublev - who disgraced him on Monte Carlo.
The following gives the round 1 matches in the main draw of the Roland Garross matches iro th top ten seeded players::-
1 Novak Djokovic vs Tennys Sandgren
2 Danill Metvedev vs Alexander Bublik
3 Rafael Nadal vs Alex ei Popirin
4 Domonic Thiem vs Pablo Andujar-Alba
5 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Jeremy Chardy
6 Alexander Sverev vs Oscar Otte
7 Andrey Rublev vs Jan-Lennard Struff
8 Roger Federer vs Denis Istomin
9 Matteo Berrettini vs Tari Daniel
10 Diego Schwartznan vs Lu Jen-Hsun
Of the above 10 seeded players Federer, Thiem and Schwartzman are totally out of form and those three could be in danger of losing in Round 1.
The following matches will be on TV today:-
11:00 = Fognini vs Barrere
12:30 = Thiem vs Andujar Alba
16:00 = Tsitsipas vs Chardy
16:00 = Sverev vs Otte
The other 7 top 10 seeded players are playing tomorrow or Tuesday,
Round 1 comprising 64 games is on the way and matches will continue tomorrow. I was not surprised that Thiem was defeated in Round 1. Thiem has been on extreme poor form this year and plagued by injuries as well. I have included the number 11 seeded player so qas t keep the list of 10 players to follow.
Sverev was bloody lucky he was taken to a five-setter by Otte - the number 167 ranked player in the world - and won in the end after Otte ran out of steam in the last three sets,
The players will face the following players in Round 2:-
1 Novak Djokovic vs
2 Danill Medvedev vs Tommy Paul
3 Rafael Nadal vs
5 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Pedro Martinez
6 Alexander Sverev vs Roman Safiullin
7 Andrey Rublin vs
8 Roger Federer vs Marin Cilic
9 Matteo Berrettini vs
10 Diego Schwartzman vs
11 Roberto Bautista-Agut vs Hemri Laaksonen
‘ All of Federer, Nadal and Federer are in the top half of the draw’...if the players were as careless as you are, every point would be won by a double fault. Clean up your act you pompous Old Tart.
Look at what happened this year you stupid old fart. Ignore facts and write fiction an d lies on site is your preserve.
Accidents do happen. Nadal was demolished in both Monte Carlo and Madrid and was in trouble in Rome as well. A stronger and better player than Shapovalov would not have win the two match points he had and not surrendered to Nadal. Please note that Shapovalov is not a top 10 player. Nobody pollute threads more than you do.
So Federer was supposed to lose in the first round.....hahaha... score another one for the Old Tart Notsofarmus.
I never said he was to lose in the first round liar. I said that he is in danger of losing - that does not mean that I said anything else about him losing. He played a qualifier and his next opponent is Marin Cilic and in that case I believe that he may be not so lucky.
By the way Djokovic struggled to beat Sonego in a three-settter in Rome - but Harris beat Sonego in three sets today - an easy win. Show you the quality of the opposition in Rome anyway.
This what you said you old Tart:
‘If Federer survives in the Second Round of the series it will be a miracle.’
That says the odds of Federer surviving are very low. ‘I never said he was to lose’ is just another lie. You said it would be miracle if he didn’t lose. Notsofarmus in mid season form.
Federer has nothing to lose. That makes him a very dangerous hombre.
I think it would be unwise to write this old man off.
I would not be surprised to see him in the semis.