During the last episode of Tennis Mania, broadcast on the OA Sport YouTube channel, Guido MonacoEurosport commentator, focused on the defeat of Flavio Cobolli against Holger Rune at the super tie-break in the second round of Roland Garros: “Sensational performance from Cobolli who only lacked the final spark, also thanks to the merits of Rune who also confirmed himself as a great fighter as well as a very strong player. Cobolli has a unique way of being on the pitch and has the nature of an athlete, a fighter and many other things. He is not afraid of anything or anyone, perhaps Nadal in Barcelona, but he looks the others in the eye. Let’s see when he gets stronger and when he has even more games of this type under his belt what he can do, because his mentality is exceptional. It’s a shame because he was one centimeter away from making it, a great experience. Tennis is like this, last night could have been a triumph but both Cobolli and Zeppieri are close to the level of 20-30 in the world on clay.”.
Guido Monaco then focused at length on Lorenzo Musettinow waiting for the big match against Novak Djokovic in the third round: “I felt that Musetti had something different, yesterday in the first set he played superlative tennis, he gave a performance of an absurd level. Unfortunately it seems that Djokovic is recovering, but I continue to have great feelings about him. For four years he has been playing at a very high level: in the first year he played five sets against Djokovic on the Central Court, then he played five sets with Tsitsipas and then was reduced to size by Alcaraz; with this against Monfils, he has been playing on the Central at Roland Garros for four years. He showed some points of play which, in the absence of Berrettini, make him largely the number 2 in Italy on clay and a possible top-10 at world level. He is a top-10 project player who thrives on sensations that he always finds very well in Paris. In this context of tennis, 3 out of 5 and on clay, he is far superior to Darderi, Cobolli, Arnaldi and other Italians. Let’s not confuse what Musetti can do on a tennis court with what others can do: we are talking about a possible champion of this sport. Musetti has genius in his tennis, he has a very high level that he often doesn’t express, he is a special player, the others are gifted but start with a tennis gap. He plays right and doesn’t abuse his talent, the problem is the mental approach to the match and managing the tension: we never talk about it, but they are real guys“.
The expert then continued, again on Musetti: “He has to stay positive, think about playing the right things, he has above average quality: he just has to work on that, the moment he did that Hamburg won by beating Alcaraz, I’m not talking about my imagination, I saw it with the my eyes do amazing things. In the next ten years of Musetti’s career I expect a few quarters, a semi-final, maybe even more in Paris. He is not someone who is squandering his talent“. It’s inevitable to look at today’s match against the world number 1: “Djokovic’s version seems playable for Musetti, yesterday’s match gave him good fuel, he has the advantage of having already played him and having already beaten him, even if it wasn’t an excellent version of Djokovic. I give him 30% which for me is an important percentage in a Slam against Djokovic. I think that Djokovic sees Musetti as the most dangerous opponent of all for the next rounds“.
A passage also on Giulio Zeppieribeaten by Kokkinakis: “Zeppieri missed a smash one meter from the net at 5-5 in the fourth set tie-break, then dropped a bit. Well done anyway Kokkinakis, but Zeppieri confirmed that he has a high potential, but he has a bit of difficulty in managing certain moments, like at the Australian Open he let himself come back from 2-0 down“.
The passage about the Italians who qualified for the Olympics is interesting: “As a coach, I would take Cobolli to the Olympics. He could have an edge, Darderi feels Argentine, you’ve heard of him, he’s a naturalized person. Since the level is so close, I would make a technical choice“. Lapidary on Jannik Sinner: “He can’t worry about his next opponents“.
