Smells like Thiem Spirit ...

Rafa was stupendous today.  I thought he played beautifully, with great style and super focus.  But I also got told off by my Rafateer chums for saying he was playing lovely because I needed to relay more of the important stuff like how hot he was and how was his ass looking.  Lol.

I'd never seen nor really heard of Thiem before today's match, but I'd read a lot of the hype that he is currently tipped as tennis's "Next Big Thing".   *rolls eyes*  Now, I know we all have our opinion of what's good and what we like to watch, but if he's the future of tennis, then I won't be watching tennis in the future.  Sorry, but I really don't like his kind of player; someone who just bashes the ball for all it's worth.  You could literally hear the next one coming by the sounds he was making.  Now some people call this exciting, aggressive tennis.  Hhmmm ... hitting the ball as hard as you can in order to try for a winner may look spectacular when it comes off, but a lot of times like today ... he just hit out.  I prefer the art and beauty of watching a point being crafted, of seeing someone with a tennis brain.  I read a quote attributed to Thiem on Twitter (but I can't find it now) where he said something like he was playing Rafa today so he really wanted to step it up.  Well, every match you play Dominic is where you should step it up, not just because it's Rafa.  But again, that attitude is like [insert player name here] is having the match of his life!!  Sometimes, when Rafa may be slightly off, of for whatever reason ... sometimes his brand of tennis works.  But it's not sustained and it doesn't win trophies.  And I find little to be excited by it.

But amongst all the greatness of Rafa today, his defensive play against those bombs was fabulous.  His backhand was good, but it was the tick tock of his brain that I really liked.

He was just fabulous.  Keep it going Rafa because you're doing great.  Leonardo Mayer is next.