Tennis: All Purpose Tennis Thread XVII -- 2025 edition

[Tuggy]

Denis takes out Tommy Paul in straight sets. He had a handful of blips but was never broken. Into the final against Ruud tomorrow.

And Denis wins it!

Big title for him and vaults him back up the rankings to #32.

 

[otown]

And Denis wins it!

Big title for him and vaults him back up the rankings to #32.

Not an easy road to the title! A turning point for him moving forward! Congrats Shapo!
Must be the balls!

 

[MsMeow]

I love this version of Denis! He plays such an exciting game and when he isn’t acting like a brat he is a pleasure to watch.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

FAA and Shapo cleaning up the lower events so far this year, would be nice for Canadian tennis if both found their form especially the latter. Shame FAA had to retire at Rotterdam.

Nice story for Bencic after coming back from maternity leave to win Abu Dhabi

 

[kihei]

Finally watched Shapo's final against Ruud, which was consistent with the rest of the week after his first set, first-round loss to Fritz. In total, his performance looks less like a surprising 500-level victory and more like a rebirth. He was back to vintage top-ten Denis in so many ways. For starters he didn't just beat but actually hit through two of the best athletes on tour, Machac and Paul. He was hitting winners by the dozens. So many aspects of his game were in sync:

--great plus ones off both service and service return that allowed him to keep points short and opponent's intimidated;
--one of the best single shots in tennis--Denis' wide serve--was back in full force;
--for the most part, his footwork was vastly improved, especially his backhand on the run; but, in general, he cut way down on being off-balance on his groundies;
--better shot selection or, at least, he recognized when he had driven opponents so far back that he could win points outright on drop shots;
--stellar crosscourt play against virtually everybody.

Is this a turning point? Too soon to tell, but this is the first time in a couple of years that I thought Shapo was actually capable of recovering form.