Madrid Open - The End

The Madrid Open is over and I'm back with a the semifinals and the final, which ended last night.

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What a tournament! I still can't believe what's happened in the last two weeks. We've seen the new generation taking over and showing us what tennis is going to be like in the near future.

The semifinals were nothing like anyone would have anticipated, I'm pretty sure of that.

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This was the seed board of 2021 Madrid Open, with all the big names in the front and Nadal, the king of clay leading the list. Now go back and look at the semifinals list. 3rd seed, 5th seen and 8th seed on the list and we also have Ruud, who was not even in the top 16.

If you look at the big names and who left when, you can see how early some of them had to leave the tournament. Diego Schwartzman, and Bautista couldn't even get into the third round, while Medvedev, Rublev and Tsitispas could not survive the third round. The only two that could hold their ground were Zverev and Thiem.

Djokovic missed the tournament, He tweeted that he's not going to be able to meet the fans in Madrid, without giving a reason. I don't know why he skipped the tournament, maybe he has enough points to keep his ranking and he sure doesn't need the money either, but who knows, it doesn't even matter after all.

What matters is what's been going on since the beginning of the year, the new generation taking over to be more precise. Let's look at who's about to break the dominance.

The ATP raking is clear, but we have to eliminate the old generation, Djocovik and Nadal to be precise and Federer of course, although he's not bothering anyone these days.

The new generation means Medvedev, Thiem, Tsitsipas, Zverev and Rublev, not necessarily in this order. The big trio will be around as they are not going to retire yet, except for Federer, but they may not be leading the ATP list anymore.

Matteo Berettini clearly has a great future in tennis as I expect him to see among the best 6 in the next few years. He lost in the finals, but let's not forget that Zverev has not lost one set in this tournament, till he met Berettini in the finals. Not every day that you see a player like that. The match was a beauty, even though at times Berettini seemed to lose focus, that may have costed him the title.

Diego Shwartzman may not advance on the list, I can't see how, honestly. He's a good player but his height is a huge disadvantage and there are so many players more talented than him.

Jannik Sinner has the potential to become a top 10 player. What I've seen so far has convinced me of his future and I don't think I'm wrong.

The other player with a huge potential I have to mention is Casper Ruud. The 22 year old Norwegian is currently No. 16 at the moment, but that is about to change. He got to play the semifinals in Madrid, against Berettini and despite of the mental pressure an opponent like Berettini could mean, he did great.

The other semifinal, between Zverev and Thiem was actually better than I expected. We know Thiem had to sit out a couple of tournaments, his last one was the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in March and he was not prepared to last this long in Madrid. He's goal was to do his best, hoping to play a match or two. After a couple of months of recovery, no player can expect more and he knew that. Fortunately he did well regardless, which could boost his confidence and prepare him for the upcoming tournaments.

Looks like this year is going to be about changes and I'm looking forward to seeing that's going to happen at the French open. Roland Garros is scheduled to start at the end of this month and it's highly expected.

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