Pure dis-belief.
Even at 4-6 0-5 I still didn’t quite believe what was happening in Monte-Carlo. A man who has only lost 36 career matches on clay until now picked up defeat number 37 as Fabio Fognini perfected his way to a first Masters 1000 final.
The performance was sexy, this is clay court tennis at it’s spellbinding best.
24 hours ago he was down 1-6 to Borna Coric and has now just recorded his 3rd top ten ranked win in 3 days and now in a Masters 1000 final, truly remarkable!
His whole game connected, I can’t tell you what part of his game didn’t stand up. He stood on that baseline and really went for it and there is a big difference in going full throttle and going full throttle with composure and my god the execution was immaculate.
Image Credit – Sky Sports
A phrase in tennis is painting the lines and the first part of his game which really stood out more than any was the backhand which is something I will go into separately in more detail but the way he lines up and released it like a bullet and to get that depth and accuracy time and time again is no fluke.
He did the same with the forehand and never really went central with it as we all know what angles Rafa can produce when he has time on the ball whether he’s using his forehand or backhand.
This run in Monte-Carlo is his 81st Masters 1000 event in his career on the singles tour and the first time he has made it to the final of one of these events on his own.
Rafa said in press that it was his ‘worst match on clay in 14 years’ but at the same time you cannot take anything away from Fabio Fognini for a stunning performance and what has been a stunning week with wins against Rublev, Simon, Coric, Zverev and now Rafa!
