Live tennis Rome Masters day 3: Nadal & Tsitsipas are easy to breathe, Zverev is wary of young opponents

(Tennis news) Nadal and Tsitsipas promise to have easy wins while Zverev may face difficulties against young opponents.

Alexander Zverev – Sebastian Baez: 4pm, 11/5, men’s singles second round

This will be the first meeting between the two players but Baez is unlikely to be overwhelmed by an opponent stronger and more experienced than him. This young player showed quite impressive performance at Next Gen Finals 2021 and showed that even in high pressure matches, he still plays quite elegantly and liberally. This could completely be a 3-set match if Zverev is not careful.

Zverev has the right playstyle to neutralize Baez

Zverev has had a good run at the Madrid Open, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semi-finals and only losing in the final to Carlos Alcaraz. Zverev just needed to maintain effective serve to have a high chance of winning against Baez, his heavy shots a weapon that could nullify Baez’s play or rely on groundstrokes.

Rafael Nadal – John Isner: Around 5:30 p.m., May 11, the second round of men’s singles

Nadal has won 7 and lost 1 against Isner, but those numbers don’t reflect the fact that Nadal often has difficulty encountering the American opponent. Isner was one of the very few players who pulled Nadal into the fifth set at Roland Garros and even came close to winning a few times. With a top serve, Isner is seen as an opponent that always has the potential to shock the top players.

Nadal often has difficulties against Isner, but their performance is very different at the moment

However, the problem is that Isner is not in good form this year, he even faced 8 break points in the first round match against Cerundolo. Nadal has won 10 times out of a total of 12 finals at Rome Masters, with only 1 loss before the quarterfinals. Isner therefore can only drag 1 set into the tie-break at best.

Stefanos Tsitsipas – Grigor Dimitrov: Around 7 p.m., May 11, the second round of men’s singles

Dimitrov must have been sick of hearing the name Tsitsipas, in just a month the Bulgarian player lost to his opponent twice on clay and both times were quite easy. Tsitsipas even won 1 meeting Dimitrov different from before on clay, so this is an ill-timed omen for Dimitrov when he is in good form.

Tsitsipas’ form is very jubilant with only Alcaraz and Zverev defeating Tsitsipas since March. The Greek has won 27 matches this year and on clay alone he has a 17% higher win rate than Dimitrov. Wouldn’t be surprised if Tsitsipas scores a hat-trick later tonight.

Rome Masters men’s singles schedule on 11/5