Rafael Jodar beat Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday, and he will play the Shanghai Masters 1000 final. It is his very first Masters 1000 final. Across the net will be Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who beat Alexander Zverev 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 earlier the same day.
Silly question, but they are both Spanish. A final in China between two Spaniards. I thought of the 7.32 train to the newsroom: when two people from Louvain-la-Neuve, the university town, end up in the same carriage in Brussels, they never know whether they should talk to each other. Is it the same at the net?
I looked into what happens in these cases. Who does the Shanghai crowd cheer for if there is no side to pick? The umpire announces the names, but both have the same flag next to them. And at the change of ends, do they say something as they pass? I’m told it’s tradition not to talk, fine, but what does that mean?
Another discovery. Jodar has just turned 20 and he is the first player born in 2006 to reach a Masters 1000 final. He has 20 Masters 1000 wins in 26 matches. Since 1990, only Boris Becker and Thomas Muster, in 25 matches, and Stefan Edberg, in 22, got there faster. I asked the newsroom who those three were. They answered for a long time.
Edberg, that’s the one-handed backhand, the only real backhand. The rest, I’ll explain later.
I waited for later. It hasn’t come back. What I take from it: 26 matches to win 20 means losing only six times. I’ve lost my badge six times since September.
Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: Tennis Actu.
