Are we witnessing a new Fabio Fognini at age 31?

The Italian won the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Sunday for his first ATP Masters 100 title, but refused to look too far ahead afterwards. Fognini proved this week that he can beat anyone in the world when he’s at his best, but quickly shook off expectations of him being a favourite to win on clay for the rest of the season.

“I’m thinking about Monte-Carlo at the moment because I would like to enjoy this trophy tonight with my family and friends. And then tomorrow is another week. It’s my mom’s birthday, so I would like to enjoy it,” he said. “I’m just thinking about the next tournament, the next match that I would like to play, and we will see if I’m in really good shape. You have to be lucky also in the draw. [It’s] a lot of things. But it’s not my problem right now, believe me.

“If I’m being honest, the favourite is still Rafael Nadal. I’m not the only one that says this. He’s won, I don’t know how many times, and he’s still the favourite every week that we play on this surface.”

His incredible week in Monte-Carlo seemed improbable at the start. Fognini arrived at this event with no wins over a player in the Top 50 of the ATP Rankings this season and an 0-4 record on clay. He trailed by a set and faced five break points for 1-5 in the second set of his opening-round match against Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev, but found a way to pull off a comeback win.

Buoyed by the victory and aided by a second-round walkover against Frenchman Gilles Simon, Fognini came alive. Wins over third seed Alexander Zverev of Germany and ninth seed Borna Coric of Croatia were the appetizer to his shocking semi-final upset of Nadal, which saw Fognini take 11 of the last 14 games against the Spaniard. Fognini capped off the tournament with another high-quality performance against Dusan Lajovic of Serbia for the title.

“The first match I was really lucky. Second one, also,” admitted Fognini. “And then I started to play great. I think I played really good with Sascha. It was really tough against Borna, because we played last and the weather was colder than normal.

“In the semi-final, I think I played my best tennis from the beginning to the end. With Rafa, everybody knows that you have to play really good in the beginning until the end. And today was the final. The most important thing was the cup.”

Fognini’s happiness off the court is translating into success on the court. He spoke highly of the stability that his wife, former US Open champion Flavia Pennetta, and their nearly two-year-old son, Federico, have brought into his life.

“I have everything in my life,” said Fognini. “I have a baby. I have a wife. They are with me all the time, so there’s nothing more to ask than that.”

The family support seemed to extend to the entire crowd inside Court Rainier III, who loudly cheered him on throughout his matches. Fognini was born 45 minutes away in Sanremo and practised at the tournament site growing up. He admitted that Monte-Carlo feels like his home tournament and made lifting the trophy even more surreal.

“Parents and friends, I don’t know how many tickets they got during the week,” he joked. “I think they feel happy now because I have my name on this tournament. It’s something that I’ve been dreaming of since I was really young.”

It was a week Dusan Lajovic will never forget. Not even a toe blister could stop the Serbian from producing countless moments of magic, en route to his first ATP Tour final at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

On Saturday, Lajovic exclaimed, “I’m going to cut that toe off if it means I can play tomorrow.”

Thankfully, the 28-year-old did not need to resort to extreme measures to face Fabio Fognini in the championship, and despite falling 6-3, 6-4, he believes it could be a career-altering experience. It’s not often that a first ATP Masters 1000 final is also a first tour-level final, and Lajovic knows a week like that could change everything.

“It was my first time in a final, so a great experience for me,” said Lajovic. “It’s many more positives than negatives this week, so there is no reason to be sad even if I don’t feel as happy as the whole week today. But I know that it’s my best result, and I just hope that I can repeat this result in some other event, as well, in the future.

“Fabio is three years older than me, so he’s playing his best tennis right now. That’s also a good thing for me. I can see that it’s never too late. I’m happy for him that he won the title. On the other hand, I’m also happy that I had this experience this week and played a final at a Masters.”

The World No. 48 defeated Malek Jaziri, David Goffin, Dominic Thiem, Lorenzo Sonego and Daniil Medvedev to record five straight tour-level victories for the first time in his career. Not only did he secure his first win over a Top 5 opponent with a 6-3, 6-3 rout of Thiem, but he did not drop a set all week entering the final.

But, despite his great success, Lajovic’s date with destiny was put on hold. He was bidding to become the first player to win his maiden ATP Tour title at a Masters 1000 event since Albert Portas in Hamburg in 2001 and just the second Serbian to ever raise a Masters 1000 shield, joining Novak Djokovic. He admits that while his performance on Sunday was not good enough to lift the trophy, all credit goes to Fognini.

“I was feeling on the court that I had to work much harder than him to win the points,” added Lajovic. “I think this was the key. He was pretty stable and solid from both sides, moving well. And when I was on and when I was aggressive, I was able to make points and put him under pressure. But at times, my game was just off. I had a lot of unforced errors.

“I was under the pressure of the moment, and all together, I think he was much better player today. Congrats to him… He just knows how to play tennis on clay. And he beat Rafa yesterday in two sets, so he showed that he can produce top quality tennis. He deserved to win the title here.

“He was a couple times in a position where he was able to get some good results and break into the Top 10, so I think that this will be a huge boost, because he never won a Masters 1000 before. So I think if he keeps playing like this, for sure he’s gonna break into the Top 10.”

While Fognini is pushing towards the Top 10 breakthrough that Lajovic refers to, rising to a career-high No. 12 in the ATP Rankings, the Serbian is projected to enjoy a breakthrough of his own. He ascends 24 spots to a career-high No. 24 on Monday.

Lajovic is right back to work next week at the Hungarian Open in Budapest. He opens his campaign on Tuesday against wild card Mate Valkusz, with a potential second-round clash against countryman Laslo Djere in the cards.

Before they hit the tennis courts at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem hit the football field on Sunday to meet the players of FC Barcelona.

The second and third seeds at the ATP 500 event, respectively, toured the grounds of the Ciutat Esportiva. Gerard Pique and other team members promised to return the favour and visit the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona 1899 to catch the ATP Tour action this week.

“I think everyone who comes from Germany has to be a soccer fan,” joked Zverev. “[Meeting] some of the players was very exciting. This is one of the best clubs in the world, so to see how they function and see the practice grounds was amazing.”

Thiem was among the players who attended Saturday’s league game between FC Barcelona and Real Sociedad. They also had the chance to meet the club’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu.

“I love football and I just met some of the best players in the world. They’re all really nice,” said Thiem. “It was good to experience the practice grounds and the game yesterday, so it couldn’t be better for a football fan like me.”

Zverev will start his week against Nicolas Jarry of Chile or Marcel Granollers of Spain, while Thiem begins his Barcelona campaign against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan or Diego Schwartzman of Argentina.

Fabio Fognini became the first Italian to win an ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, defeating Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes.

“I’m really, really happy. Nothing to say,” Fognini said. “I have to keep calm, maybe take a shower, relax, and think about this because it’s something incredible.”

The 13th seed converted four of five break points to become the lowest seeded player to lift the trophy since fellow No. 13 seed Gustavo Kuerten’s title run in 1999. Fognini will rise to a career-high No. 12 when the latest ATP Rankings are published on Monday.

“I was preparing for the match as best I can because he has my ex-coach and I knew it was going to be really tough, a lot of running,” Fognini said. “[It’s an] incredible achievement. I’m really, really happy.”

Fognini’s title in the Principality comes after a difficult start to the season. The nine-time tour-level titlist entered the Monte-Carlo Country Club with one win in his eight most recent tour-level encounters and had lost each of his four matches on clay this year.

Fognini’s journey to the trophy was packed with drama. The 31-year-old recovered from 4-6, 1-4 down in his first-round match against Russian qualifier Andrey Rublev and also overturned a 1-6, 0-2 deficit against Borna Coric in the quarter-finals.

Alongside comeback victories against Rublev and Coric, Fognini also defeated two Top 5 opponents in straight sets this week. The Italian upset World No. 3 Alexander Zverev to reach the quarter-finals and stunned 11-time champion Rafael Nadal in the last four. Fognini is the first player to defeat Nadal en route to a clay-court title since Pablo Cuevas’s triumph at the Rio Open presented by Claro in 2016.

After dropping his second service game on Court Rainier III, Fognini levelled the opening set at 2-2 with precision and power. The Italian flattened his backhand to push Lajovic behind the baseline and, following a well-placed drop shot, levelled the match with a forehand volley into the open court. Fognini moved into a 4-2 lead following multiple unforced errors from his opponent and grabbed the opening set after 44 minutes with his 12th winner of the set; a perfectly-timed backhand up the line.

With his forehand proving to be a key factor in his semi-final win against Nadal, Fognini continued to enjoy success from that wing early in the opening stages of the second set. Fognini broke for a 3-2 lead with great defensive skill, retrieving balls from behind the baseline to extend points and extract errors from his opponent. The 31-year-old maintained his advantage through to 5-4 and served with confidence to claim the title, converting his second match point as Lajovic mistimed his forehand return.

As the lowest-ranked Monte-Carlo finalist since Hicham Arazi in 2001, Lajovic was bidding to become the first unseeded player to win in Monte-Carlo since Thomas Muster in 1992. The World No. 48 did not drop a set en route to his first ATP Tour final, defeating Malek Jaziri, David Goffin, Dominic Thiem, Lorenzo Sonego and Daniil Medvedev to record five straight tour-level victories for the first time in his career.

Fognini earns 1000 ATP Rankings points and receives €958,055 in prize money. Lajovic gains 600 points and €484,950 for his run to the championship match.

Did You Know?
Fognini is the eighth player to win his first Masters 1000 title over the past 17 events at the elite level. In the 92 ATP Masters 1000 events prior to 2017 Rome, only eight players won their first Masters 1000 crown.

Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor saved one championship point on Sunday to win the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, beating Robin Haase and Wesley Koolhof 6-7(3), 7-6(3), 11-9 in a dramatic final.

The seventh seeds, making their first appearance as a team since the 2017 Swiss Indoors, won 76 per cent of first-serve points (37/49) to claim their first title together. Mektic and Skugor earned three straight points from 8/9 down in the Match Tie-break to lift the trophy after two hours and three minutes.

“It feels amazing. I knew we could do really well because we did already in the past, not having too many matches together, but we still had great results like the semi-final at Wimbledon,” said Skugor. “But it is our first week since we decided to play together again and winning a Masters 1000 is just an amazing feeling.”

Mektic has now won three ATP Masters 1000 titles in the past year, following wins at the 2018 Mutua Madrid Open (w/Peya) and this year’s BNP Paribas Open (w/Zeballos). The 30-year-old owns seven trophies from 12 tour-level doubles finals.

Skugor has now won tour-level doubles trophies in two straight weeks. The five-time tour-level titlist also triumphed alongside Jurgen Melzer at the Grand Prix Hassan II last week.

“It is definitely the biggest title for me and one of the best moments on court,” said Skugor. “It was a really tough match and not the perfect conditions to play, but still, winning such an event is just an amazing feeling.”

Haase and Koolhof recovered from 0-3 down in the opening set and saved three consecutive set points at 5-6, 15/40 before claiming the opener after 51 minutes in the tie-break. After Koolhof fired a forehand return winner down the line to break for a 5-3 lead, Mektic and Skugor raised their game to turn the match around.

After racing out to a 6/0 lead in the second-set tie-break, Mektic and Skugor claimed the second set on their third set point. The Croatian duo then saved championship point as Mektic moved up the court to pressure Haase into a forehand error and, after a forehand volley error from Koolhof at 9/9, the seventh seeds converted their first championship point to claim the trophy.

“It was just important to keep going no matter what was happening,” said Mektic. “We were up and then I made some double faults and all of a sudden we were down… They made some mistakes to bring us back in the match. In the end, like Robin said, we just won the last point and it could have gone either way.” ;

Appearing in their second tour-level event as a team, Haase and Koolhof were also aiming to capture the first trophy as a team. Haase owns five titles from from 14 tour-level championship matches.

Koolhof was bidding to go a step further after also finishing as runner-up alongside #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas at the Miami Open presented by Itau last month. The 29-year-old claimed his fourth ATP Tour doubles title alongside Marcus Daniell at the Brisbane International in January (d. Ram/Salisbury).

Mektic and Skugor receive 1,000 ATP Doubles Ranking points and split €284,860 in prize money for their title run. Haase and Koolhof gain 600 points and share €139,020.

The forehand broke.

Fabio Fognini stunned Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-2 in the semi-finals of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters on Saturday with Nadal’s forehand starting strong but misfiring the further the match progressed.

Nadal was broken in his first service game, then broke back twice in a row to lead 3-1 in the opening set. His forehand was behaving perfectly well in the first four games, as he made an impressive 46 of 47 forehand groundstrokes and returns, including one winner.

And then it started disintegrating into the beaten red earth. Nadal lost 10 of the next 11 games to trail 6-4, 5-0, with the Spaniard committing at least one forehand error per game, and sometimes four. Rarely have we seen forehand errors flow as freely from Nadal’s racket, as he described his performance as “one of the worst matches on clay in 14 years”.

Nadal put 46 forehands in the court in the first four games, but only put 89 forehands in play in the next 14 games to the end of the match. It completely moved from an asset to a liability. The stark contrast can also be seen in the error column, as he had just one forehand error in four games, then 26 forehand errors in the next 14 games.

Overall, Nadal committed 27 forehand errors while hitting just five winners.

Nadal’s Forehand: Winners & Errors
Forehand Return = 0 winners / 3 errors
Serve +1 Forehand = 1 winner / 5 errors
Return +1 Forehand = 0 winners / 3 errors
Rally Forehands = 4 winners / 16 errors
Total = 5 winners / 27 errors

What was shocking to see was how little control Nadal had over his forehand in the big moments. When serving at 4-4 in the opening set, Nadal hit seven forehands in the game, with four of them being errors. He lost his serve to love.

Fognini’s forehand was solid throughout the match, particularly when returning serve. He hit 19 forehand returns for the match, missing just one of them.

Fognini’s Forehand: Winners & Errors
Forehand Return = 0 winners / 1 error
Serve +1 Forehand = 3 winners / 4 errors
Return +1 Forehand = 2 winners / 2 errors
Rally Forehands = 4 winners / 10 errors
Total = 9 winners / 17 errors

Fognini won several small battles around the baseline, which all helped add up to his impressive victory. Fognini’s average groundstroke speed for the match was 123km/h, which was faster than Nadal at 118km/h. Overall, Fognini played more down the line than Nadal (43 per cent to 32 per cent) from the baseline, identifying another area where he felt more control.

Court position was also a telling indicator of how well Fognini owned the baseline exchanges. The Italian only hit 22 per cent of shots from at least two metres behind the baseline, while Nadal hit 42 per cent of all shots after the serve and return from back deep behind the baseline. The Spaniard was trying to buy more time and not have his shots rushed, but it in turn opened up angles for Fognini to attack. Nadal only played 34 per cent of his shots from that deep in the court in his quarter-final victory over Guido Pella.

Nadal will now play in the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell where he is the top seed. Fognini has one more match in Monte-Carlo – the final on Sunday against Dusan Lajovic.

Walking onto Court Rainier III at the Monte-Carlo Country Club to play Rafael Nadal is a daunting task. The Spaniard has won 11 titles on the main court at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.

But on Saturday, Italian Fabio Fognini felt no fear. In fact, he says he played up his chances to Nadal himself.

“With Rafa, it’s always difficult,” Fognini said. “I was telling him yesterday that I knew that I have the game to play against him. Sometimes I won, a few matches. One crazy one in the US Open and two times on clay. So I knew that I had nothing to lose, because, of course, especially when you go with him on clay, it’s always really tough.”

After a stunning one-hour, 36-minute display, Fognini is into his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final. The Italian ended Nadal’s Monte-Carlo streaks of 25 straight sets and 18 consecutive matches won.

Fognini arrived at this event having lost seven of his previous eight tour-level matches, including four in a row on clay. In the first round, Andrey Rublev took a 6-4, 4-1 lead against Fognini and had five chances to make it 5-1. But the Italian battled back, and he has not looked back since.

“If you told me at the beginning of the week, I will see you on Sunday, I would laugh in your face. I was 6-4, 4-1 down and break points for 5-1, and I made an ace on the line,” Fognini said. “But that’s incredible sport, so I was lucky. Now I’m in the final. And of course I’ll go for the title tomorrow.”

Fognini arrived in the Principality without momentum, trying to bounce back from a disappointing first-round straight-sets loss in Marrakech against Czech Jiri Vesely. Just days later, he is the first Italian Monte-Carlo finalist since Corrado Barazzutti (l. to Borg) in 1977.

“Fabio played an unbelievable match. He played so well. Rafa is Rafa… it’s a fantastic result,” former Italian Davis Cup Captain Paolo Bertolucci told ATP Tennis Radio. “We couldn’t imagine that after Marrakech… But the sport is like this. Something very important could change in one day and then you can see your next match much easier and start to play much better and finish on Sunday.”

Listen To ATP Tennis Radio’s Interview With Paolo Bertolucci:

It’s a fitting location for Fognini’s resurgence, as he lives only a 45-minute drive from the Monte-Carlo Country Club. It’s closer to his residence than the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, a Masters 1000 tournament held in Rome.

“Today playing against Rafa, even if you play in Italy, it’s really tough,” Fognini said, with a smile. “I’m living really close by, and it’s a big opportunity to them to come here and try to watch me play. So I don’t know tomorrow how many they are coming, but that’s not my problem. It’s his problem. I hope that they are coming, a lot of people.”

Fognini’s friends and family have been able to come out to support the 13th seed, including his wife, 2015 US Open champion Flavia Pennetta.

“It was an amazing day. He played really, really well. He was really consistent, really focused on the game. It was not easy to play today, a really windy day and Rafa had some mistakes, a few mistakes in important moments,” Pennetta told ATP Tennis Radio. “It’s not that usual that you see that from Rafa, but it was really difficult to play today. I saw Fabio also played really well yesterday with the wind. He’s a guy who in these conditions, he plays really well.”

Listen To ATP Tennis Radio’s Interview With Flavia Pennetta:

The 31-year-old will meet Serbian Dusan Lajovic — who had never made an ATP Tour final or advanced past a Masters 1000 quarter-final — for the trophy. It is a big opportunity for both men, as this is the first Masters 1000 championship match between two first-time finalists at the elite level since the 2017 Rolex Paris Masters.

“I think it’s the best moment for him. He was working all his career to get to a final at the best tournaments. This one is one of the best after the Grand Slams,” Pennetta said. “It’s a really important day for both of them because normally you face Rafa, Djokovic, Roger in the final. It’s a big chance for both of them so it’s going to be a really emotional moment.”

“It’s going to be really tough. He has nothing to lose. I have nothing to lose. We start 50/50,” Fognini said. “Even if in the [ATP] Rankings I’m higher than him, I know that I have to run a lot tomorrow.”

Did You Know?
Fognini is the fourth man to claim three or more victories against Nadal on clay, following in the footsteps of Novak Djokovic, Dominic Thiem and Gaston Gaudio.