Here’s what I wrote about ten hours ago:
Thiem v Fognini shouldn’t be too tight, but why wouldn’t the Italian sharpen that flat upright BH and scare the Beliemers? Could be a nice match; I’ll be watching.
In other words, really no surprises here. Rome, Fognini . . . there you have it.
He’s a dangerous player especially in conditions like these: clay, home crowd, spoiler, eyes a bigger prize in the QF (with his buddy Rafa). Thiem’s out, which we had for sure in the QF if he made that date with Nadal, but we essentially saw the Fog rolling in on Rome today, as well.
Rest-up for Paris, Dom. That’s when we need you.
The rest of today’s been pretty tame. I said Djoker would hand his foe a 3 and 3, but it turned into a 4 and 2. Nadal blitzed another innocent, Del Potro had a little test but got through against Tsitsipas, and our lost boy contest, wouldn’t you know, went to the no. 21 player in the world over the no. 3. Nishikori has better feet of clay at this point, so we’ll give Dimitrov a bit of break.
Paire and Diego are square at a set-a-piece, Isner and Anderson are gone (you’re in no-(big)man’s land, fellas), and we have Edmund, Shapo and Sascha still to come today in their respective matches. I can see the first two having a bit of difficulty with Pouille and Haase, respectively.
Sascha should continue routinely on his defense of Rome.
Cheerio.
Mcshow Blog 
Good call Matt. Shapo through now. I think the new canadian no.1 could give nadal some headaches. OK rafa will probably give the kid a thrashing but in a lefty v lefty slugfest shapo can strike some blows and be aggressive with that backhand. He won’t be afraid – even if he should be.
Maybe the question isn’t so much who can challenge rafa at RG this year – because the answer to that is no-one. But who can mount a challenge in 2, 3, 4 years? Zverev is one answer to that question. I thought chung might be another answer but we’ve seen very little of the korean grinder this clay season (apart from a bit of a run in munich). Disappointing.
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I feel the same about Chung. His game seems tailor-made for this tennis.
Rafa does look ridiculous and the Bo5 at RG gives him even more adv., but let’s hold-out a little hope. There are some match-ups that could spell a little trouble for Rafa this year. We might see a final here in Rome that provides some insight.
But over the next few years, for sure.
Rafa seems so dialed-in.
I hope Shapo brings some resistance tomorrow.
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Loving the articles, Matt.
In truth, I’ve been a constant reader but need to up my comments game.
RJ
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RJ,
Nice to hear from you.
Tis the season so get your game on. 🙂
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