When I started my Australian Open series about a week ago, I said this is a new era. Today we had confirmation that a new era has begun.
Stefanos Tzitzipas made history today, he showed us that a new era has indeed begun. He was able to beat Nadal, who's world no. 2 at the moment.
Yesterday when I put together my predictions for today, for this match this is what I wrote:
Stefanos Tsitsipas (there's a high chance for Rafael Nadal to win, but can't write his name down as winner)
And here we are, Tsitsipas won!
The beginning of the match was a bit bumpy, Nadal won the firts two seta and there was a high chance to win the third as well and win the game, but something has changed. Looked like Tzitzipas needed the first two sets to warm up and start playing. After that Naldal had a hard time to keep up with him.
Tzitzipas showed a lot of self control today, he had some strength to not let the first two sets get to him. Playing against a legend can be intimidating to some extent, even though Tzitzipas is not a beginner. Today however it wasn't, he was able to concentrate on the game and play the at the highest level. He made my day, what can I say?
The outcome of the match came as a huge shock for Naldal, he wasn't expecting to lose and left the court with his head down. I don't think he was expecting to lose today but he needs to accept a new generation is already on the scene, ready to take over. It's happening.
This was the most relaxed match for me so far. Don't really like either of the players, so there was no stress for me during the match. However, it was satisfying and even entertaining. I got what I was waiting for.
Rublev for me looked like the new spoiled kid, full of himself. He got lucky too many times and won without a fight because his opponent withdrew. Today he met a real tennis player, who showed him what tennis is like.
Unfortunately for Rublev, today was hot in Melbourne, that worked against him. The sun was shining, there was no shade over the tennis court. Rublev obviously was not used to playing long matches and the two hours with Medvedev seemed like torture to him. He looked exhausted, literally. I've never seen him suffer like this and as I said, the match only lasted for two hours. As the results show, Rublev tried, but without any luck, he could do nothing in front of Medvedev.
These were my predictions for today:
This is my prediction for tomorrow:
This will be a short match with no surprises I suspect.
