By Matt Hill
There is no doubt know who the undisputed Queen of Clay is right now on the WTA Tour. Iga Swiatek, coming off the classic win in Madrid over Aryna Sabalenka, blitzed the same opponent in convincing fashion 6-2, 6-3 to win the Italian Open. As a result, Swiatek has put herself in a position as a monumental favorite at Roland Garros.
I personally felt if Swiatek won in conditions that favored Sabalenka, I believed Rome would be a piece of cake for Swiatek and it pretty much was Swiatek did not lose a set this week and completely dominated Sabalenka. Sabalenka could not deal with the way Swiatek was hitting the tennis ball, which on clay her style suits her perfectly. It was basically a clinic by Swiatek, who won the last four games of the match to clinch the title.
Swiatek comes into Roland Garros as the favorite, and she showed no signs of different this week. Swiatek also continued her mastery of Coco Gauff in a 6-3, 6-4 win in the semifinals. Swiatek has only lost to Coco one time, that three-set classic last summer in Washington. Swiatek has also only nine career losses on clay and half of those took place before her win in the 2020 Roland Garros Tournament. To be honest, it’s realistic that she could come close to breaking Rafael Nadal’s 14 Roland Garros. We will talk more about Swiatek’s Roland Garros chances, but her Rome-Madrid double is a phenomenal achievement, possibly the hardest of the three Masters doubles. Swiatek, better known as Iga, is cementing herself as one of the best players, male or female, to ever play on clay.
ZVEREV WINS TOPSY TURVY MEN’S ITALIAN OPEN
Alexander Zverev took advantage of some upsets and seized on it. Zverev won 6-4, 7-5 in the Rome final over Nicolas Jarry. It was a nice tournament for Jarry who made his first big run in a Masters 1000. Jarry was very impressive down the stretch in a three-set win over Tommy Paul where he had to come back from one-set down. It was a great week for him. The title though, went to Zverev and now he has to be one of the favorites at Roland Garros starting next week.
This tournament will go down as one that saw the top players either not play with Carlos Alcaraz Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner both sitting out, and Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both bowing out early (More on Djokovic in the next segment.)/ Nadal. Meanwhile fell to Hubert Hurkacz 6-1, 6-3 in what was a devastating defeat for the 10-time Rome champion. It looks like after two decades of dominance has come to an end and despite being the fourth favorite at Roland Garros according to the oddsmakers. The same umph hitting the ball is not there and the serve is really subpar right now. You hope he can make one final run at Roland Garros, that is if he actually plays. We will have to see this week.
One positive from this week was Alejandro Tabilo, who reached the semifinals and had a win over Novak Djokovic. He quickly became a fan favorite. However, for the second week in a row Masters 1000 the women took center spotlight over the men. I commented on my Twitter account that this time in tennis reminded me of when Andre Agassi was ranked 141 in the world in the late 90s and nobody was really taking the mantle. We have to accept that the Big 3 era is pretty much over, and we are going to have to embrace these new stars. We were spoiled for 20 years with those three or four guys at the top. I think tennis needs to have people like Alcaraz and Sinner step up and stay healthy over the next few months.
DJOKOVIC WATER BOTTLE INCIDENT AND THE AFTERMATH
It has been almost two weeks since the water bottle incident at the Italian Open and there are still plenty of unanswered questions and even conspiracy theories being thrown out about the incident. First off, we must discuss Djokovic’s subpar performance against Tabilo 6-2, 6-3. I am really not sure if the incident affected Djokovic’s game that much. You have to give Tabilo credit for reaching the semifinals of the Masters 1000 Tournament. It wasn’t like this guy was chop liver. Tabilo was a very solid player who is especially good on the dirt. I honestly would not be surprised if he made a deep run at Roland Garros. I think for Djokovic to minimize his performance was wrong. Djokovic may have been affected somewhat, but in my opinion Tabilo would have probably won the match incident or no incident.
However, this incident itself was very scary and I was on Twitter/X talking about it as it was going on live and the first thing, I mentioned was Monica Seles. I am old enough to remember what happened to her in Germany and my first thought was being in Italy and knowing who was ranked No. 2 in the world. Fortunately, it was an accident, but it is one that should have been prevented. Some of Djokovic most ardent fans, including the very well-known Pavy G, feel the man should be charged. However, even Djokovic has accepted that it was an accident and I think knowing that we should take his word.
Still, we really should be handling security at these events differently. I do not think that tennis crowds are like futbol crowds (Soccer for my friends here in the United States), but there have been incidents, such as the Taylor Fritz incident last year at Roland Garros, that could have been scary. I am not sure what could have been done to prevent that but something I am sure could have. The tour must protect the players, whether it is scheduling or security, they have to come first.
RYBAKINA ILLNESS KEEPS HER OUT OF ITALIAN OPEN; HAS HAD ISSUES FOR A YEAR
Elena Rybakina is one of my favorite players to watch on the WTA Tour and when she is on I believe she is one of the top two or three players in the world. I feel at her best she is better than Coco Gauff and I feel when healthy would be able to win multiple majors. Unfortunately, over last year she has struggled with illness, and I have been informed by one of Rybakina’s most staunch supporters that it is probably long covid. It has basically been hit or miss for Rybakina over the last 12 months. She is either going deep in events or she is skipping because she is sick.
A few days before the Italian Open in Rome was about to begin, Rybakina was interviewed, and she looked strikingly pale. There was something to that as later that week she pulled out of Rome. Rybakina can win any of the four majors if healthy, but we just don’t know from day to day.
I really don’t know how you couldn’t cheer for Rybakina. She is one of the most mentally tough athletes in the world and from all accounts is a very kind person. You hope that she will bounce back from this and be able to succeed at Roland Garros and the rest of the grand slam Summer and the Olympics as well.
GENEVA OPEN THE PREMIER TOURNAMENT ON THE FINAL WEEK OF THE ROAD TO ROLAND GARROS
Usually this is the week most tennis fans kind of catch their breath and get ready for Roland Garros, then Novak Djokovic basically squashed those plans by entering the Geneva Open this week. Djokovic took a last-minute wildcard into the event, ending years of not playing the week before a major. It is obvious he does not feel like his match ready for Roland Garros and needs some reps before next week.
There are other tournaments going on this week, but Geneva caught my eye because of who was in it. There is a possibility of a Andy Murray-Novak Djokovic match in the second round. There are some other huge names, one that caught my eye was Taylor Fritz. Fritz has had an exceptional clay court season, reaching the final in Munich, semis in Madrid and quarters in Rome. He legitimately is one of the favorites at Roland Garros. My question is, why i is he playing this week when he really doesn’t need to? Fritz has a long history of playing very small 250 tournaments. At this point he doesn’t seem to care about playing before a major. He just loves to play. We will see if this strategy works but it will probably have an impact on whether I pick him to win Roland Garros.
Other seeded players include Casper Ruud at No. 2, and Ben Shelton at No. 4. There are six players with two ATP tour finals. Other players include Chris Eubanks and Denis Shapovalov.
ROLAND GARROS PREVIEW COMING LATER THIS WEEK
Our Roland Garros Preview will come out later this week. We will have draw predictions and will be talking about all things, Roland Garros. You will not want to miss it.
