The big news at the start of the second week was women’s defending champion, Garbine Muguruza, going out. It was a bit of a surprise as she was always a favourite, but Kristina Mladenovic, who is French, got carried away by the crowd.
She started off very well and it is always a good sign when the underdog gets out of the blocks and wins the first set. Garbine came back in the second set, but Kiki took control early in the third, had the first break and just kept holding serve, and kept on the pressure. I think the crowd, too, got to Garbine a lot through the middle and end of the third set and you could see that in her press conference afterwards. She had a breakdown, started crying and stopped the interaction. That’s how much she was affected by the situation. I felt a little sorry for her, but unfortunately that’s part of the game.
The big match on Tuesday, the first day of the quarter-finals, is Djokovic-Thiem. That has all the ingredients of a classic. You have the defending champion, a real superstar in the game, against a potential future Grand Slam champion and super star. They played in Rome, in the semi-finals and Novak just blew past him. But Dominic Thiem is very good on clay. He recently beat Nadal on clay in Rome and I rate him extremely high. I really like the guy; he’s humble, hardworking, and wants to win.
Nadal plays Pablo Carreño Busta in another quarter-final. I’m very impressed with Nadal altogether from the early rounds till now. He is the man in form, a man on a mission. He plays an extremely high standard of tennis and, in particular against Spanish players against whom he has a perfect record on clay and that speaks for itself. So anything but a victory would be a big surprise.
On the ladies side, I really like Simona Halep’s form. She seems to be a real contender now. At the start of the tournament, I said Halep could be a favourite. But now, early in the second week, she hasn’t lost a set, she’s playing with a lot of confidence and power. She’s a small girl but has powerful groundstrokes. I talked to her on Sunday and she has a nice calmness about her. Of course, she has expectations, but she’s not nervous; just very calm and confident.
Caroline Wozniacki, who can be erratic, really clawed her way up the rankings last year. She made the semi-finals of the US Open last year and, even though clay is not her best surface, she’s a natural groundstroke player and is very light on her feet. I think that her vast experience of being on top of the Tour for many years works in her favour.
The second week is when the tournament really starts. In the first, everyone gets into position, all the favourites look to come through comfortably without losing too much time. The second week, however, is like a new tournament and everybody goes for broke. Now is the time to shine. (Gameplan)
