Today I went nearly all day long to the tournament and I was able to see matches for more than some minutes. The quarter finals were played and, eventually, I managed to see Linda Fruhvirtova: I arrived to the club when she had just won the first set by 6-2 against one of the first seeds, Hurricane Black. Fruhvirtova is four years younger than Black and her shots are still not as big as her rival’s: I suppose it’s just a matter of time. Today she has won thanks to her defensive skills, as she run, run, run and keep the ball into play till her opponent missed. I found troubles in understanding Linda’s game: being so much younger than Black, it is difficult to asseess her power. For sure she displayed super defensive skills and a huge attitute to fight. In the second set Linda was leading by 4-0, but Hurricane came back to 5-5. Notwithstanding the difficult psycological situation, Linda managed to win 7-5.
As per Hurricane Black, Linda’s opponent, i liked her: she plays a varied and interesting game, relying a lot on forehand chops when defending and hitting very nicely both with forehand and backhand. Especially with her forehand, she is able to generate good speeds. Today, though, the American was way too faulty, missing every fourth of fifth shot and, thus, she did not manage to break Fruhvirtova’s super defences.
On the court next to Fruhvirtova’s and Black’s, Alexa Noel easily won against Alexandra Vecic. I saw only 1 or 2 games of this match, as i was mainly concentrated on Linda’s. Noel’s sliced backhand seemed to me more interesting live than on TV but, tomorrow, for sure, i will check her more closely, also because she will play in the semifinals against Fruhvirtova: I am interesed in seeing how Linda will manage a bit of an unconventional player as Noel is.
I’ve also seen a set between Nahimana and Timofeeva. It was not a particularly interesting match: Timofeeva kept attacking her opponent, but she was not powerful enough to break Nahimana’s defences, based on extreme and high topspins, through which she always managed to push back Timofeeva ech time and, eventually, to lead her to miss.
As per the boy’s event, Italy and U.S. have drawn their match, as Matteo Arnaldi has beaten Emilio Nava (this was the big upset of the day) by 6-2 2-6 7-6, while on the court just next to the one the two were playing, Martin Damm has beaten Filippo Morini, by 6-7 6-3 6-1. I have only seen Nava vs. Arnaldi. Of course, I am very, very happy that Arnaldi won and of course no one in Italy will like what I will write in the next lines and of course I hope I am 100% wrong in my judgements. Anyhow, to be honest, I think that Nava made all by himself. He served very poorely throughout the match, hitting not much more than 30% of first serves in, and that was already a problem. Then, he kept hitting his forehand jumping back, especially when countering higher balls, and always missed both long or short. He may have hit 50 unforced with his forehand, today. The above has been going on through all the first and the third set. Nava improved his level in the second set, and things went differently. At a point, from 3-3 to 5-5 in the third set, Arnaldi literally stopped playing: most of his tactic was to hit the ball to the other side of the net and waited for his opponent mistakes: and he was right to do so. From what I saw, Nava owns more tennis than Arnaldi, and I do not foreseee this result within the two will repeat often.
Last. The subject of the heading: Federica Rossi. I saw her playing for the first time today, in the doubles’ quarters, paired with Clara Tauson. Honestly, I believe that Federica plays better tennis than all the girls who reached the semifinals: she serves well, owns a nice forehand, nice backhand, hits both top and slice, great positioning at the net, tender hand. The director of this blog, Franco, who owns the remarcable record to have won in his youth some games angainst former n. 4 ATP and Roland Garros champion Adriano Panatta, and who understands tennis better than i do, thinks that Federica is by far the most talented Italian junior. The only piece we are all missing, is to understand how Federica can always lose (also by suffering heavy defeats), including today. I also asked the girl about it, but she could not really give a precise reply: she is aware to be mentally very weak, at least. If this girl understands the mental side of tennis, or if I manage to find a way to put Lisa Pigato’s head on her shoulders, we would have a great player. Let’s hope one of the two happens.
