Quarterfinals Beanalysis: Just the Tiafoe match
So. You read the teaser. Here’s your Tiafoe Rublev Writeup.
Rublev vs. Tiafoe
Andrey surprised me twice, beating Norrie for one, and doing so in straight sets for two. Norrie looked extremely off today, his backhand was leaking errors, and his confidence looked gone completely, it was a sad thing to watch, but something that isn’t sad is Rublev winning! I thoroughly enjoy watching Rublev when he’s playing well, and today was no exception. Rublev was putting great shots out, and was exploiting Norrie’s error prone backhand, he was generally playing very smart and was putting more serves in than Norrie was, and making a lot less errors. The winner count was quite close, but that’s because there weren’t a lot of chances to make winners because the large amount of errors would normally end the points quickly. This match gave me mixed feelings, because I loved watching Rublev play well, but I didn’t like to watch Norrie struggle so hard. I hope Norrie doesn’t start a bad form streak here.
Frances Tiafoe the Second, you have thoroughly delighted me today, you beat Rafael Nadal in a slam. Something that only Novak Djokovic has done in the past two years. You put to rest the beast that is Rafa. “Why is that a good thing, Beanz?” I hear you all wondering. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Rafa as much as the next guy, but this opened up an opportunity, and that opportunity is for Carlos Alcaraz to win his first ever Grand Slam. Frances looked amazing in his match with Diego Schwartzman, I didn’t get to watch this match but I assume it was only the best play in order to beat Rafael Nadal. Nadal apparently had an off day on his serve, which could’ve accounted for the loss. I wish Nadal could’ve tied Serena Williams for most slam wins in the open era, but most slams for men in the open era will have to do for now. I think, going off of the head to head, and that Tiafoe just beat Rafael Nadal, I’ll have to give this one to him, not to hate on Rublev or discredit his win, but beating a trashy Cam Norrie is a lot less impressive than beating Rafael Nadal. I think Tiafoe in 4.