Lots of irons in the firelast episode of TennisManiaconducted by Dario Puppo (Eurosport commentator)broadcast on the channel OA Sport Youtube. Guido Monaco (Eurosport technical commentator)a regular guest on the show, expressed his ideas on current tennis issues, which coincide in recent days with the Roland Garros 2024.
Below are the topics covered.
PERFORMANCE JANNIK SINNER VS CORENTIN MOUTET
“Last night for an hour we were a bit worrying, not that much to be honest, but the feeling was that Moutet couldn’t keep up with the level and Sinner played so badly. Jannik, I must say, came out brilliantly because he was in a difficult position against an opponent who has a very different and very inspired game in the first set. Did you prepare the match badly? When you play against a tennis player of that atypical kind, ideas can shake. Moutet expressed himself excellently. I believed that there could be two tactical situations: Sinner loads high balls onto Moutet’s backhand, as he has learned to do, keeps it away and then goes to push towards the right side; play towards Moutet’s forehand because this way you find a more conventional ball and cut into the Frenchman’s backhand. I think he had option #2 in mind, but he did it badly in the first hour of the game, getting a little confused. When he figured out how to play with it, a pretty big hole opened up. From this point of view it was a probative test for Sinner, because he emerged very well from an uncomfortable situation with high-level tennis.“.
THE GOODNESS OF THE GROUP OF ITALIAN PLAYERS
“The brood in Italy is certainly the strongest there has ever been in terms of quality and prospects. They will hardly be like Sinner, but also thanks to him they are growing to emulate what Jannik is showing not only on the pitch, but also in training. Arnaldi played great in the first two sets against Tsitsipas. I would like to say that, however, he would hardly have maintained that level even two partials ahead against the Greek. However, he left the scene after hitting Rublev and Tsitsipas for two partials. It remains quite difficult tennis, because it is not that technically stable. He doesn’t have a great percentage game, but it’s a balance he can find. Tennis leaves room for improvement and if you work you can get there. The heritage of our tennis is important and with Sinner’s driving force there is reason to be optimistic“.
SINNER READY TO WIN THE ROLAND GARROS?
“I don’t agree with the many criticisms leveled at Sinner in the set he lost against Moutet. Having said that a similar thing also happened to Alcaraz against de Jong during this tournament, we must always remember that there is an opponent and nothing can be taken for granted. Moutet, beyond Sinner’s confusion, played a very high level first set. Jannik had the merit of remaining calm, because perhaps others might have had a very different reaction, and he ended up with complete tennis, not just baseline hits. In the end, he joked Moutet with short balls. Consequently, when they tell me that Sinner has proven nothing on earth I don’t agree at all, it’s enough to look at his history and at the same time take into account another factor. Since October 2023, his outlook has completely changed. Before he was already very strong, but now he is a champion. He is ready to win this tournament, then clearly he has to deal with very difficult opponents“.
EVALUATION ON THE DJOKOVIC-MUSETTI MATCH AT ROLAND GARROS
“At the end of the match, again considering the level of “paraculling”, Djokovic said that he had played one of the best matches he had ever played. Musetti said that he was happy to have played point for point against the world no.1 and Nole added that the level of tennis was very high. I say this just to clarify how the connection with the eighth of 2021 is not there at all and how Lorenzo played his best match ever and put a good version of Djokovic to the test, taking into account the recent period. If he were to have that dedication, which he showed against the Serbian, on clay he can aspire to ambitious goals. Furthermore, I absolutely want to defend Tartarini and Barazzutti who were exposed to public ridicule, as with their sentences they only wanted to motivate and incite Musetti, who apparently wasn’t at 100% in the middle of the fourth set due to an adductor problem.”.
