I watched the first set only of Struff v Karatsev and thought Struff wasnt going to be
able to win with a second chance against the Russian. I was surprised to see the result
this morning, another massive win by the German.
Is anyone gonna speculate a bet on Struff to take the title? He is a massive 8.6 on Rollbit.
On the womens side its Swiatek v Sabalenka, that should be a cracking match, Sabalenka
has been very consistent for a while now and Swiatek has been really great in Madrid and is
favourite.
I would try that huge odd on Struff. He will definetly try to attack Alcaraz with his serve and volley and it will be intresting too see how Alcaraz would react to this kind of gameplay because you dont see that so often on clay. Also on the womens side i think it will be a close match but going with Swiatek in it.
I think those odds are spot on and Alcaraz will take this one easy. I will probably skip this match or maybe take first set handicap on Struff, if he does something it will have to be at the start of the match while that serve and volley surprise tactics still works.
Funny thing Struff shouldn't have even entered the tournament. He lost last qualification round to Karatsev and just got in as lucky looser after somebody withdrew from tournament. Sure had a nice revenge yesterday
This is a nice surprise to see him in the final, not least because of what you just said. All the circumstances that brought him there, but see that's how it can go. You lose the qualifier round, but then you beat Tsitsipas, who is one of the best clay players on the tour right now. The issue about Struff is that he also was way to inconsistent throughout his career. He had a couple of games that I watched from the beginning till the end because they were real thrillers, but usually he is getting eliminated quite early on during the tournaments.
But you know what is really concerning in terms of German tennis: Struff only needs to win 4 games against Alcaraz in the final and he would already have done a better job than Zverev. Of course I know very well that Alcaraz is too much to handle for Zverev right now, but going home with 1-6 and 2-6 is too hard.
Too bad that Nadal won't be starting in Rome either. I am not sure whether we will ever get to see a big final between him and Alcaraz, but given that Nadal wouldn't be seeded very highly, a final is probably never going to happen again between the two. They'd rather face each other early on.