ATP M1000 WTA 1000 Rome 5/9 - 5/21 2023

[ti-amie]

Well this is interesting. TC ended their coverage with McNally's match even though Leylah Fernandez is still playing her first set. And there's a camera on court, I can see it on streaming. Have they moved on from her as one of their future prospects? They have reason to, they just hadn't been doing that for a while.

It's streaming via the App. I don't think it's fair for them to do this. For example you can stream every WTA match via the App but for the Final you need to watch it on TV. It's different for the ATP because they have TennisTV.

[jazzyg]

Fan is short for fanatic for a reason.

Anyone who thinks draws are rigged to favor certain players is a moron. No exceptions. But fans are going to fan.

[ti-amie]

Wednesday, May 10, 2023 Day 3

Center Court Starts At 11:00 Am

Ilya Ivashka VS Stan Wawrinka
Not Before 1:00 PM
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova VS (WC) Sara Errani
Followed By
Lesia Tsurenko VS Elina Svitolina
Not Before 7:00 Pm
(WC) Fabio Fognini VS Andy Murray
Not Before 8:30 PM
(Q) Arantxa Rus VS Camila Giorgi

Grand Stand Arena Starts At 11:00 Am

Luca Van Assche VS Tomas Martin Etcheverry
Followed By
Richard Gasquet VS Yibing Wu
Followed By
Lucia Bronzetti VS Danka Kovinic
Followed By
(Q) Flavio Cobolli VS Arthur Rinderknech
Not Before 7:00 PM
Paula Badosa VS (Q) Anna-Lena Friedsam

Pietrangeli Starts At 11:00 Am

Sloane Stephens VS Nadia Podoroska
Followed By
Elisabetta Cocciaretto VS Lauren Davis
Followed By
(Q) Pedro Martinez VS Alexander Bublik
Followed By
Katie Volynets VS Sorana Cirstea
Followed By
Brandon Nakashima VS Gregoire Barrere

Court 12 Starts At 11:00 Am

Sebastian Baez VS Juan Pablo Varillas
Followed By
Pedro Cachin VS Cristian Garin
Followed By
(Q) Alexei Popyrin VS Christopher O'Connell
Followed By
(LL) Kamilla Rakhimova VS Karolina Muchova
Followed By
(WC) Nuria Brancaccio VS Julia Grabher

Court 1 Starts At 11:00 Am

(WC) Matilde Paoletti VS (Q) Magdalena Frech
Not Before 12:30 PM
Yulia Putintseva VS (Q) Viktoriya Tomova
Followed By
(Q) Tereza Martincova VS Alizé Cornet
Followed By
(Q) Dayana Yastremska VS Anna Kalinskaya

Court 2 Starts At 11:00 Am

Filip Krajinovic VS Marton Fucsovics
Followed By
Constant Lestienne VS Laslo Djere
Followed By
(PR) Kyle Edmund VS (Q) Alexandre Muller
Followed By
Jaume Munar VS (Q) Thanasi Kokkinakis

Court 3 Starts At 11:00 Am

Tatjana Maria VS (Q) Anna Bondar
Not Before 12:30 PM
Varvara Gracheva VS (Q) Camila Osorio
Followed By
(Q) Elena-Gabriela Ruse VS Linda Fruhvirtova
Followed By
(WC) Camilla Rosatello VS Claire Liu

Court 4 Starts At 11:00 Am

Ana Bogdan VS (Q) Nao Hibino
Followed By
(Q) Taylor Townsend VS (Q) Ysaline Bonaventure
Followed By
(Q) Juan Manuel Cerundolo VS (Q) Arthur Fils
Followed By
(Q) Roman Safiullin VS Marcos Giron

[mick1303]

Fan is short for fanatic for a reason.

Anyone who thinks draws are rigged to favor certain players is a moron. No exceptions. But fans are going to fan.

I still maintain that 2003 Houston YEC was rigged. Too kind for Roddick and too harsh for Federer. All three players who had positive H2H agaisnt him ended up in his group. Nalbandian, Agassi and Ferrero. That McIngvale character was shady as h*ll.

[ponchi101]

...

I still maintain that 2003 Houston YEC was rigged. Too kind for Roddick and too harsh for Federer. All three players who had positive H2H agaisnt him ended up in his group. Nalbandian, Agassi and Ferrero. That McIngvale character was shady as h*ll.

Serious question. How do you rig a draw and NOT have the other players complain about it? Federer may be a nice guy but how would he not complain about something like that?
The sole time a draw was manipulated, in the 1996 USO, remember the stink that raised? Kafelnikov walked out, all other players complained, and the draw was done again. And it was NOT the draw that was rigged; it was the seeding. If they or anybody else could rig a draw, you would not bother changing the seeding.
If draws were rigged, players would say so because if you rig the draw, somebody ends up losing. And I doubt that the losers would keep it quiet.

[mick1303]

...

I still maintain that 2003 Houston YEC was rigged. Too kind for Roddick and too harsh for Federer. All three players who had positive H2H agaisnt him ended up in his group. Nalbandian, Agassi and Ferrero. That McIngvale character was shady as h*ll.

Serious question. How do you rig a draw and NOT have the other players complain about it? Federer may be a nice guy but how would he not complain about something like that?
The sole time a draw was manipulated, in the 1996 USO, remember the stink that raised? Kafelnikov walked out, all other players complained, and the draw was done again. And it was NOT the draw that was rigged; it was the seeding. If they or anybody else could rig a draw, you would not bother changing the seeding.
If draws were rigged, players would say so because if you rig the draw, somebody ends up losing. And I doubt that the losers would keep it quiet.

I don't remember the whole story precisely. At the time Federer was far from influential figure he became over the years and more grand slam titles. But I think there were some words exchanged between him and Mattress Mac and mutual displeasure that year. The feeling was that this injustice lit a fire that allowed Federer to destroy all the opposition and that was the turning point in basically all those negative head-to-heads. Roddick's year-end #1 felt hollow and undeserving precisely for the reason that it is possible that it was protected by home-cooking. Adding to the Nalbandian's and Ferrero's displeasure about very preferential scheduling (and in case of Nalbandian - preferential officiating) at US Open.

[mick1303]

Also, other players were not wronged by that draw (at least not to a degree to make a fuzz about this). If I'm not mistaken, Federer was the only one with a chance to overtake Roddick if latter wouldn't make a semis and Federer wins YEC undefeated. Federer did his part, but Roddick made semis from the group with Moya, Coria and Schuettler. His group seemed weaker. Probably Agassi, Ferrero and Nalbandian had some reason to complain, but the formalities were met, meaning that 1-2,3-4 etc were seeded in different groups. And Ferrero and Nalbandian were already complaining just recently (during US Open) and probably did not want to look too whiny. Also there was no formal reason for them to complain, because the rules were not violated. They were put in a group with Federer, who before that point was losing to them. So this "injustice" was only from Federer's point of view.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Thursday, May 11, 2023 Day 4

Center Court Starts At 11:00 Am

(14) Victoria Azarenka VS Sloane Stephens
Not Before 1:00 Pm
(WC) Luca Nardi VS David Goffin
Followed By
Lorenzo Sonego VS (PR) Jeremy Chardy
Not Before 7:00 PM
Sofia Kenin VS (2) Aryna Sabalenka
Not Before 8:30 Pm
(WC) Matteo Arnaldi VS Diego Schwartzman

Grand Stand Arena Starts At 11:00 Am

(13) Karolina Pliskova VS (Q) Anna Bondar
Not Before 1:00 PM
(6) Coco Gauff VS Y. Putintseva
Followed By
Albert Ramos-Vinolas VS (WC) Francesco Passaro
Followed By
(Q) Taylor Townsend VS (3) Jessica Pegula
Not Before 7:00 Pm
(Q) Stefano Napolitano VS Alex Molcan

Pietrangeli Starts At 11:00 Am

(WC) Giulio Zeppieri VS (Q) Daniel Altmaier
Followed By
Marco Cecchinato VS Mackenzie McDonald
Followed By
Dusan Lajovic VS Nuno Borges
Followed By
(23) Anastasia Potapova VS Elisabetta Cocciaretto
Followed By
(5) Caroline Garcia VS Ana Bogdan

Court 12 Starts At 11:00 Am

Nuria Parrizas Diaz VS (11) Veronika Kudermetova
Followed By
(17) Magda Linette VS Linda Noskova
Followed By
(Q) Magdalena Frech VS (19) Madison Keys
Followed By
Nicolas Jarry VS (Q) Yannick Hanfmann
Followed By
Quentin Halys VS J.J. Wolf

Court 1 Starts At 11:00 Am

Marc-Andrea Huesler VS Jason Kubler
Followed By
Ugo Humbert VS Emil Ruusuvuori
Followed By
E. Ruse VS (12) Beatriz Haddad Maia
Followed By
(Q) Camila Osorio VS (29) Petra Martic
Followed By
Kirsten Flipkens/Alicja Rosolska VS (4) Storm Hunter/Elise Mertens

Court 2 Starts At 11:00 Am

(PR) Hugo Dellien VS Roberto Carballes Baena
Followed By
Adrian Mannarino VS Thiago Monteiro
Followed By
(PR) Guido Pella VS Maxime Cressy
Followed By
Corentin Moutet VS (Q) Fabian Marozsan
Followed By
Ulrikke Eikeri/Miyu Kato VS (8) Yifan Xu/Zhaoxuan Yang

Court 3 Starts At 11:00 Am

(31) Irina-Camelia Begu VS Xiyu Wang
Followed By
Caty McNally VS (27) Marie Bouzkova
Followed By
(30) Anhelina Kalinina VS Anna Blinkova
Followed By
A. Cornet VS (22) Qinwen Zheng
Followed By
Alexa Guarachi/Erin Routliffe VS (6) Shuko Aoyama/Ena Shibahara

Court 4 Starts At 11:00 Am

Juan Sebastian Cabal/Robert Farah VS Karen Khachanov/Andrey Rublev
Followed By
Nicole Melichar-Martinez/Alexandra Panova VS (WC) Jasmine Paolini/Martina Trevisan
Followed By / After Suitable Rest
Sebastian Baez/Bernabe Zapata Miralles VS Alex de Minaur/Jason Kubler
Followed By
Daniel Evans/Ben Shelton VS (WC) Lorenzo Musetti/Giulio Zeppieri
Followed By
Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul VS Mackenzie McDonald/Frances Tiafoe

[ponchi101]

...

I don't remember the whole story precisely. At the time Federer was far from influential figure he became over the years and more grand slam titles. But I think there were some words exchanged between him and Mattress Mac and mutual displeasure that year. The feeling was that this injustice lit a fire that allowed Federer to destroy all the opposition and that was the turning point in basically all those negative head-to-heads. Roddick's year-end #1 felt hollow and undeserving precisely for the reason that it is possible that it was protected by home-cooking. Adding to the Nalbandian's and Ferrero's displeasure about very preferential scheduling (and in case of Nalbandian - preferential officiating) at US Open.

Ok, but that is not rigging a draw. And, to say that the Wimby champion is not an influential figure, and Roger already had a large following, is a bit hard to accept at face value.
I have never heard that Roddick's #1 year ranking felt hollow. Again, he had won the USO and the points were there. A very slim advantage, as we could see just a couple of months later when Roger reached #1 and did not look back.
As for the preferential officiating at the USO... I have no recollection of that. I gather I will have to take your word for it.

[ti-amie]

Nice to see Flavia and one of their sons, Federico, in the stands. Federico later joined his father for the camera signing ritual.

[ti-amie]

[ashkor87]

Rome is the first real red clay tournament at the 1000 level, Madrid is an outlier, Charleston isnt red clay. so I expect some 'surprises' - like Swiatek doing well, better than Sabalenka, and Alcaraz beating everyone, including Djokovic..
Badosa versus Jebeur is a good one too. on real, slow, red clay, Badosa shuld win.. let us see what happens.. her first round didnt inspire confidence. I am not yet convinced of Jabeur's red clay credentials- Madrid last year was a great result but she didnt do much at RG after that, becausse Madrid is different, anyway. .. . Jabeur's game is better suited to grass and hard court..same with Sinner - he needs a faster surface, I cant visualize him winning here, nor Medvedev of course..

[ponchi101]

Well, "first real" is a bit too much, Ashkor. Sure, Madrid seems to be different because the results say so, but it is still played on clay. The sliding and footing remain the same.
Swiatek playing well here will be no news. Sabalenka getting far may be. Alcaraz winning is the default mode.
You don't think that Jabeur's trick shots and movement are good on clay? She moves well, has a good drop shot, can play the long rallies. If she is not injured, I think she can be a factor.

[JazzNU]

So happy for Taylor, she played a great match.