Time and time again one of the hallmarks of great players is their willingness to make changes / adapt, even after great success, and that’s why they are so hard to catch up to for the rest of the field.

What Just Happened!?!? 😅 Joao Fonseca somehow won this point! #LexusEastbourneOpen

Fery has had so many chances in this fourth that it's now a huge mental hurdle if Popyrin holds here

that last service game from Rublev... 1 of the best Fh's of the last 10 years, and he just hasn't been able to build a meaningfully helpful transition/net game to support it. Once again, defensive BH slice from Alcaraz gets below the net on break point. every. damn. time.

Miami last year I felt Dimitrov didn't slice enough to Sinner's backhand in order to slow the play and find more forehands. textbook example of that first point at 2-0 there hughclarke.substack.com/p/sinner-vs-di…

Grigorian using his slice and variety very effectively, Sin city 🌆 seems a bit tentative needs to be much aggressive establishing from center of court

Sport can be so brutal. Dimitrov looked so dialed in there on the grass. The serve, the forehand, the slice backhand was all working perfectly.

Would be pretty good being Carlos’ coach. Watch entertaining tennis on the work days, play golf on the off days!

The creativity and variation of the Alcaraz forehand on full display in that set. Droppers, fake droppers, angles, flighted balls, drives.

Alcaraz loves a target when pressured to either wing. Kind of a conundrum for Sinner; he needs to attack, but when moving forward and giving a target CA is so good at spinning and getting it low and controlled.

Alcaraz very successful with the forehand drop shot so far.

1) Body serve % feels way up in this match. 2) Big gulf in intangible skillsets on display 3) so far, Alcaraz forehand > Sinner forehand

Alcaraz deuce wide serve excellent so far. Most of his 6 or so aces there I think

no one has that running forehand like Sinner. When he steps across on the full stretch his timing is so much better compared to when it's slightly less wide and he opts to play open stance

I think Sinner didn't want to hit Alcaraz with that smash there

139mph serve there from Carlos at 1-3. Bit of frustration in that one

Sitting down at 4-3, you just know Sinner will have to start battling some mental demons now. You have to.

watching a replay now and man the sinner line backhand was so pivotal today.

Keeping this in mind for the North American hardcourt swing, should we get a Sincaraz match on something a little bouncier like Cincy, USO.

Last year, Toronto/Montreal field was hammered by the Olympic scheduling. Can’t point to that this year, but you can point to the expansion to 10 days along with Cincinnati. Word from players is consistently negative on that change- more taxing. Canada was already a squeeze.