The day before, Cameron Norrie, left-handed tennis player, confessed to us:
–Yes, I suppose being left-handed, like me, has its advantages on the court. Normally, the tennis player plays against a right-handed player. Variation is a big factor. We have an advantage, both me and Mannarino, that we don’t receive as much the other way around.
Norrie, who ends up giving in to the push of Tomás Etcheverry, does not mention Facundo Díaz, another left-hander, although the fact is important, because the Argentine, and his characteristics as a playful, elastic and very dynamic tennis player, tortures Stéfanos Tsitsipas, tortures him in the first set, the time it takes for the Greek to temper himself, assimilate the rival’s servitude and, finally, defeat him.
(Nadal is left-handed!).
There are no Alcaraz or Nadal in this Pedralbes, how badly we are used to it, there are no Spaniards on a Friday at the Godó, something never seen since 1989, since the times of Arrese, Emilio Sánchez Vicario and Bruguera, but the public doesn’t care .
Tickets for the tournament and daily passes have been sold out for weeks, a delicious sun is shining in the city and the crowd is crowding the stands.
Eight thousand souls have watched Casper Ruud, eternal outsider, he has lost three Grand Slam finals, he also lost the other Sunday, in the Monte Carlo final, precisely against Tsitsipas, and the Norwegian tells us that he feels happy to have returned one to Arnaldi (6-4 and 6-3).
–I needed this revenge. Last year, he had beaten me in Madrid – the Norwegian tells us.
–And what has changed?
–Actually, last year I didn’t know him. We had never faced each other. I had never noticed him (at the time, Arnaldi barely made it into the top 100). So, Arnaldi left the qualy, imagine.
-AND…?
–I was not able to understand his game, I never interpreted the rallies, it knocked me down.
-And now?
–Now I understand you. And I think I’m in a stronger moment in tennis. I look better than then.
The public tastes Ruud’s solid tennis, academic tennis, without edges or highlights, efficient tennis that advances steadily, and then contemplates the troubles of Tsitsipas, what torment the Greek goes through in his fight with a left-hander: 2h32m he needs before knocking down Facundo Díaz, 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (8).
–It has been a thriller! And I haven’t experienced a thriller like this, on land, since my duel with Wawrinka at Roland Garros, in 2019 – the Greek finally says.
Facu barely appears in the top 50 (he is 53rd today), but his game is a deception and his tennis, a mess for his rival.
This batch of Argentine tennis players looks good, the Báez, Etcheverry or Cerúndolo, even Trungelliti, also this Facundo Díaz. They look like the new Italian school (that of Sinner, Sonego, Arnaldi and Musetti), the Argentines are going to have their weight on the circuit, and Tsitsipas, anxious in the run-up, gets tangled.
The chronicler remembers that afternoon in 2021, that final in Pedralbes, that Nadal-Tsitsipas. The manacorí suffered. He didn’t give him the ball, he didn’t look the best version of himself, and Tsitsipas seemed to have taken the measure of him.
Of…
That was that Nadal. And even though they were stuck, even after giving up the second set, he was still Nadal. And all of his Nadalidad would end up spilling over the Greek, who would lose the final and, tearful, would watch how the manacorí, once again, raised the crown in Pedralbes.
Now Nadal, eternal left-hander, is gone, he will no longer play in Barcelona, ??but the Argentine left-hander plays with the wind, the sun and Tsitsipas, who rests to equalize the match, wins the second set and even takes the lead in the third. , 3-2, after breaking Facu’s serve.
And? That’s not enough.
Instantly, the Argentine returns the break, and there he puts pressure on the Greek, who needs one more gear and cannot find it.
The sun rises on the court, dividing it, one half sunny and the other in darkness, and under the play of lights the Argentine fights, this left-handed player who now defends himself from the baseline has nothing to lose: he He returns two miraculous volleys to the Greek, and the Greek, overwhelmed, hits the third into the net.
And then another star.
And in the stands, you hear:
–Hui Huy Huy Huy Huy.
Perhaps Tsitsipas has heard something, which is activated there. He improves the serve and saves the serve, and they are 1h53m into the match and this already seems too much for Facu, who takes risks, goes up to the net, gets stuck, rushes and loses the serve.
This is how the greatest prevail: by adding the decisive points. Tsitsipas has free rein. He goes to 5-4 and serves to win, and then he’s the one who gets stuck, thus shaping up to be a Greek tragedy. When he serves, he hits the ball against a ball boy. Then, he suffers a double fault. He has the first match ball against him.
Something calls out to Apóstolos, his father and his coach.
He calls him out in Greek, no dad of what he tells him, and his son is reborn, he forces the tie break although it is not enough, he suffers more, he sees himself 2-5 down, the whole game hanging by a thread, and then it is over again and he chains four points, he gets 6-5, now it’s match ball for him, what agony! And it’s still not enough. We immerse ourselves in an ocean of match points on each side, and in the mental combat Facu becomes tense.
He is convicted of a double fault.
Tsitsipas finally flies. At 2h32m he lies face up on the clay.
–I have had to delve into myself, and getting here has been incredible –he tells Tommy Robredo, who interviews him in Spanish.
(Paula Badosa, Tsitsipas’ partner, will have something to do with it).
And now, if nothing goes wrong today, the Godó is shaping up towards a final identical to that of Monte Carlo, the one from the other Sunday, towards a Tsitsipas-Ruud.
