Mozart do yourself a favour and have a look at Rafael Jodar who is to my mind the best ever player -= better than Sinner and Alcaraz was as 19 year olds,
He is likely to play Khachanov or Ugo Carabelli in Round 2 in the Barcelona Tournament. Neither off the two has a snowballs hope in hell to beat him.
Will do Mike…thanks for the heads up…..you got it right with Alcaraz and Sinner, so I look forward to seeing Jordar.
Jodar will be playing Camelo Ugo Carabelli - the latter is ranked by he bookmakers as an outsider at 16:00 Pretoria time
I watched the Jodar/Carbelli match today. Very impressive. I like his aggression and willingness to take the net and his ground shots on the run Young, already a very mature player and a competitor. He could be the one.
Jodar is facing the Top 10 player Shelton in the Quaterfinal tomorrow. Shelton is not a top class player on clay courts and even the bookmakkers favcor Jodar to beat him.
What I like in the match yesterday wqas h is refusal to lose in games. He lost his fist serv e and then ended up breaking the serve of Ugo Carabell's serfv e 5 times, In a number of games .he was love 40 or 15:40 down on own serv e and in th ose cases he won all those games,
If he beats Shelton he is extemely likewly to end up in the Barcelona final. with very little opposition to face.
Mozart
Jodar is though to the semi-final in the Barcelona tournament, where Nadal and Alcaraz used to reign supreme, He has now played 10 matches in which none of his o/ppinents got more than 3 points,
His o/pponent wil be Arthur Fils - also a young playmer who raised rapidly on points and was before a while in the top 32 ranked players. He shoiwed decline due to loss of form and injury, After his return from injury he showed very good form and is now ranked 29 on the log. A very strong oppo/nent who humiilihated Musetti (ranked 9 in the wo/rl).
So there will be a highly contested semi coming up and I think Jodar will wsin with the noisy support of the Spanish crowd - he lived in Barcelona with the crowd supporting him noisily all out.
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For some reason the Tennis Channel only showed ladies’ matches today…I’ll try to catch the semi.
Sela...
Mozart the following semi's wil be played today at the SA times givern
Barcelona
Rublev vs Medjedovic - 13:30
Fils vs Jodar - 16:00
Munich
Zverev vs Cobolli 13:30
S h elton vs Moican 15:00
The above matches will clash with the Stormers and Lions URC matches today.
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Watched some of the final on record. As the commentators said, Jodar seemed a bit worn out, but a great run. Fils is impressive as well.
He played a mantch every day over the last 13 days with winning 2 trophies in successive tournaments being a very rare occurrence,
He now has a four day rest until Wednesday when the ATP1000 tournbament in Madrid starts on Wenesday. That tournament also allow for rest days during the tournament - so he will have some rest days/
One will have to wai.t and see h o/w he propgresses .in ytj e big ger tournament. a gainstn stron ger oppositio/n than h e met this week. He will have stronger opposition in the Madrid tournament - so we wiil see the draw tomorrow - which playmers he will play in Madrid.
Mozart
Just some further info, Jodar started playing on ATP level in J anuary with his ranking at 150. At this stage starting with t he Madrid Open on Wenesday he will be ranked 38 witha v ery good chance on being a seeded player in the French and Wimbledon tournaments.
His game may be quite suited to Wimbledon…more of an attacking player
Mozart
Interesting comments - would like to see him playin g omn grass too.
He has a problwm in Madrid though, His first match is a lowranked player - but in Rou,nd 2 he will have to play De Minaur the rank
8 player in the world,
I am going to bet him, to win that second Round match, .
Welcome
Mozart
Jodar in the Round 1 match struggled a bit - but today he gave De Minaur (the pesent is the number 8 player in the world) a tennis lesson - he beats him 6 - 3. 6 - 1'
Apparently Sinner was warned he is likely to face Jodar in the semi-final - so he came to watch Jodar's match.
I plan to watch as the tournament progresses. Sinner would be a tough ask, but it will give us a sense of where Jodar is right now.
OK - the fact is that Jodar will face fhe following opposition:-
Round 2 - Fonseca
Round 3 - Rinderknech or Prokiva
Quarters - Sinner
I ratre Jogar higher than Fonseca , in the Juniors competition he h as 290 poi.nts more than Fonmseca - Rinderknech a joke aand Musetti have serious fpr,m problems - he was no 5 in the world and is now down to number 9 on the log with both the higher ranked players being De Minaur.
The odds to win the tournament outright are 26/1. I put a fun bet of R100 on him to win the tounament, , In the meantime if he meets Sinner in th e quarbters and suspect b y h en th e o/dds of him beating Sinner will be circa 10/1 - so I wil put another R100 on that one too,
Incidentally De Minauur lost to Sinner in every match thus far - but i.n o/nly 1 match the v ictorfy margin poi.nts was equat to 6 - 4, 6 - 0 - ie comparable to Jodar's 6 -3, 6 - 1 winning margin yesterday. A nother weird thing yesterday wa that in the 4 games De Minaur won 2 were breaks of Jado/'s service.
Mozart
Did you watch the match between Jodarb and Fonseca, It produced in the first two sets one of th e b est matches I watched in many years since tg he wo youn gsters trieed t heir best and qaulitmy of th e match was phenoiminal.
In t he third set Fonseca lost h is cool and for him the set was a disasterf - losing it 6 - 1.
Jodar is a;ready rated as number 34 in the world. His next opponent will be Vit Kopriva - another youhfull player - but definitely not on the Jodar level, After that h e will have to play against Sinner,
No b ack to the Siiner match. When Fonseca played against Sinner in Miami - Sinner beat him 7-6, 7-6. Nt a red=h ot win. Lastn night and a gainst De Minaur - Jodar confrmned he is a bettergedr player than Fonseca. So the result between Sinner and Jodar is bound to be a ti ght match
By the way that R100 bet on Jador wqinning the trophy was 26/1 - it is no/w down to 11,95/1 Hope t he odds remain the same when Sinner plays Jodar in the quarters. IAnother R100 bet on a Jodar victory is bound to happen.
Busy week for me Mike, with travel….but if Jodar and Sinner meet I’ll watch or record. What day do you think?
Mozart
The Round 3 matches will be played today. There is another youngster making hay yesterday by the name of Alexander Blockx who yesterday thrashed the number 3 seed Felix Auger- Aliassime in the Round 2 match - worth watching out for in future:
The Round 3 matches are all played today with playing times be as follows:-
16:00 Jodar vs Kopriva
19:00 Blockx vs Cerundolo
The rest of the matches are scheduled as follows:-
Quarter-finals - 29.04. 13:00
Semi-finals - 1.05. 13:00
Final 03.05. 17:00
I obviously do not have the starting times of the quarterfinal matches yet - will post it as soon as it is avaiiable - the above 2 times in respect o/f the two matches today will be as follows:-
Barcelona 16:00 - Chicago 08:00
Barcelona 19:00 - Chicago 11:00
Will post the times for the Sinner - Jodar match as soon as it is available.
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The match schedule for tomorrow is as follows:-
13:00 - Alexander Zverev vs Flavio Cobolli
13:00 - Casper Ruud vs Alexander Blockx
16:00 - Jannik Sinner vs Rafael Jodar
21:30 - Jiri Helecka vs Arthur Fils
Not there yet - but will be if we bear .in mind Sinner's comment is borne in mind.
I watched the match which fizzled out in the 2nd set tie breaker. Jodar was quite capable of hanging in on the rallies. It took a few very aggressive Sinner groundies to win the match. Jodar was too aggressive in the first set, about right for the first part of set 2, but then lost a number of key points at the end of set 2, partly by being conservative, but also because he seemed to lose energy,
He has a fabulous game for his age and will refine his tactics, he has all the tools. But perhaps building physicality might be advisable….he seems to have lost gas today and against Fils a few weeks back….and he is really lean. A bit of muscle may make him more formidable. Interesting;y Alcaraz looks less physical this Spring and his game doesn’t seem quite as explosive.
Mozart
I do not know whether you saw what Sinner wrote on the TV lens after the match - "What a player" I think he was referring to Jodar as a player,,
According to record h e is a much better player at the age of 19 than Sinner was at the same age,
You are right about the need for physical upgrade in the case of Jodar. It will happen over the next year or so. H e also needs a bit of mental re-orientation. In the match he had 13 turnover opportunities on the serve of Sinner and did not win a single one of those, Maybe it had to do with his mental re-action in dealing with that situation. When it comes back to his own serve he showed comebacks in games where Sinner had break points,
I see that next week in the Rome open Jodar is seeded as no 32 in the seeds. His present ranking in.fact is 34. To rise in ranking from 150 to 34 in less than 5 months is unheard of.
The other player you should look out for is Alexander Blockx. H e is a 20 year old playing Casper Ruud at 13:00 today - also in a quarterfinal match
By the way he beat Ruud in the quarters and is through to the semi's
As a result he is now the number 35 ranked player n the world and may also be seeded in the Rome tournament next week.
Also much nearer to be seeded in the French Open
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