On Wednesday, Rafael Nadal will play Hyeon Chung in his first match of the ATP’s Paris Masters after the Korean beat Mischa Zverev in the opening round. Rafa beat Chung in their only previous encounter on his way to a 10th title at the Barcelona Open in April.
Date: 1 November 2017
Match time: Rafa is third match on Center Court. Around 2.30 PM local time / 9.30 AM EDT – New York, Montreal / 1.30 PM GMT – United Kingdom /2.30 PM CEST – Spain, France, Germany, Italy / Thursday, 00.30 AM AEDT – Melbourne. To convert to your local time, use this website.
According to ATP World Tour.com, Rafa has always reached at least the quarter-finals during the indoors Paris tournament. His best finish came during his debut 10 years ago when he lost in the final against Argentine David Nalbandian.
GOOD LUCK & VAMOS RAFA!
75 64 Rafa through to the R16
Congrats Rafa for the “landmark win” :). YE no1 is “official” now. 🙂
But I have to admit I feel very sorry for Chung. Rafa was lucky to win this match with help from Chung at the end of both sets. Only have best wishes for the youngsters. Hope he will break the top 20 next year.
Expect a more confident with MUCH better tactics from Rafa tomorrow. Rafa overplayed the FH BH CC exchange today with little success and regressed to moonballing too often; even his slice was way too high.
Cuevas can be tricky. Again the player I prefer Rafa to play lost his match :p. But no excuses. This draw is favourable even though the top half is too packed up compared to the bottom.
Hope this match will fire Rafa up like the Pouille match at Beijing.
Vamos.
Sorry, my typo. The score was 75 63.
Chung is pretty impressive at the net today, so calm and confident. But that’s not too surprising to me. Rafa doesn’t like it one it and just hit a sublime volley of his own.
Another comfortable hold. 4-3 2nd set. 1:45m already. Please finish it in this set, Rafa.
0-30 on Chung’s serve
Small window here.
Rafa breaks in a flash with some big help from Chung. Such a shame for him since it has happened in both set when he’s serving to stay in the set/match.
Rafa pls close it out now with no trouble.
2-2 2nd set.
Rafa followed his trend of the year and failed to break having 4BP’s in a 12′ game with 7 dueces, 2DF’s. Massive hold. Kudos to Chung.
From 1st BP (ad 1), Rafa he looked lost, hitting 3 comsecutive blunt IOFH’s with no angle and bite whatsoever then going to Chung’s BH again, only for him to hit a stunning BHDTL to save the break.
Finally a comfortable hold for Rafa after the disappointment.
Still Chung is still outplaying him overall, running him around comfortably.
Rafa’s playing horrible right now. As expected, he’s playing too nervy, especially in matches like this. Facing BP’s in every single service game and gets broken twice already. Saved one from 0-40 after breaking back the 1st time but just couldn’t hold the next service game.
I expected Chung would trouble him but definitely NOT this much, worse set he’s played on HC so far. Chung is talented and playing well but this Rafa has no excuses.
Finally hold after a lengthy game at lead 6-5. Don’t like this at all.
He’s always a slow starter. His first matches in tournaments are nearly always nail-biting affairs for his fans.
Hi Sarah. Yes we are all aware of that. But the fact is Rafa didn’t play well today. Nothing was clicking except his clutchness. Also since this is a “landmark match”, I expected Rafa to be more nervous than usual. Remember the 1000th match at Miami? 🙂
Good luck today Rafa , go and secure that number one spot.
Good luck Rafa 😘🍀 Vamos champ! 🎾💪🏼
I second that…YAAAAA👍🤗
RAFA WILL ROCK CHUNG OFF THE COURT
Rafa I am praying that all goes well, and that you have a great start.
Love and prayers,
AlaineXXSydneyXXAustraliaXX
“Nadal is one win away from clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking as he heads into his opening match against Chung at the Rolex Paris Masters. It would be a well-deserved honor for the Spaniard….” [Ricky, The Grandstand, 10/31/2017]
Go get-em tiger!
RAFA ROCKS 150%
Go get him early and often, Rafa. We’ll be there. Vamos!
Rafa just play the way u know ,u are the best tennis player and Millons of yr fans will be watching and cheering for u💕💕💕💕
RAFA, just play your game!!! You can win ANY game! GO, RAFA, GO!!!!
Rafa, have a winning match against Chung. YES YOU CAN.
RAFA ROCKS
Vamos, Vamos Rafael. God bless n be with you. I will be excitedly watching you winning tonight. Your Aussie Abuela Nan Shirley. 🐂🏆👑⛵️💥💥💥
Rafa good luck tomorrow .and vamosssssssssssssssss champ love your fans for ever.🎾🎾🎾🎾❤️👍👍👍👍🇺🇸❤️😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘❤️
Good luck and Vamos Rafa <3
only the best to RAFA from a fan for many years. You are the best to watch play tennis.
Chung just dismantled Mischa Zverev 60 62 yesterday. Must have had a good day practising his passing shot. He has a good BH and quick feet and plays aggressive.
I still remember how he gave Rafa a good run for his money during the 1st set in their Barcelona QF. Rafa started nervy and conservative as usual. Chung BH was standing his FH test with little trouble. Then after getting the break back at the 6th game, he woke up, adjusted his shots, made Chung play higher shots uncomfortably, used more angles and attacked his FH. Voila, he demolished the gusty youngster in the TB 7-1, playing a “revealing volley” with his lightning quick hand and incredible control in the process. Still remains one of my favourite points from Rafa this year.
2nd set, Chung’s intensity/lelvel dropped; Rafa raised his, won it comfortably 62 and praised Chung a lot post-match.
Anyway, long story short, I would have preferred Rafa to play Mischa much more than Chung, especially in a match he can’t lose. He needs this match to confirm his YE no1 ranking and gain confidence to win the tourney for the 1st time, which should boost his chances at the WTF tremendously IMO.
What I would like to see in this match is Rafa playing aggressive with good control and finishing the point quickly, flattening his FH and keep going for his trusty BH. Also I hope to see him coming to the net a lot more, something he almost abandoned at both Beijing and Shanghai compared to the USO for some reason – maybe because there was no Moya or Toni to push him?
Let’s do it, Rafa. Win this match, YE no1, and the whole thing once and for all. In the meanwhile please be extremely careful with your movement. Don’t let your opponents run you around more than you run them and please play a bit more “arrogantly” (even though I know you won’t). 🙂
Go, Rafa! 💪🏻💪🏻
Hi Rainier, Mischa is nowhere at the level of his brother Alexander [Sascha].
Having played Chung already I would hope Rafa remembers how he beat him. Any thoughts on that?
RAFA ROCKS 2017
Nah, Rafa stepped inside the court very often at Beijing, changing directions of his shots at will, and that’s how he beat tough opponents to win his Beijing title. His level dropped a bit at Shanghai, playing B2B on quick HCs at later stage of a season was never easy for Rafa (he’s not Djoko on the HCs).
Paris HC isn’t as quick as Shanghai, and Rafa after two weeks rest should be fresh (fresher physically than at Shanghai) and I think he wants this Paris title (as well as WTF), so he’ll play his best to win his matches.
Hi luckystar. Not sure about your ‘nah’ since I don’t see what you wrote contradict what I wrote? You’re only adding your points?
Hi Margo. Yep, no doubt the younger Zverev is the better player overall than his brother – *not* at slams so far though. And yes, Fedal is the nightmare matchup for Mischa; while Sascha will take over them in a few years.
Of course Rafa and his team “remember how to beat him”. But this is a differen court and I already wrote what I’d like to see Rafa play. He wouldn’t want a grinding contest with Chung and overplay the FH BH exhange since Chung’s BH is Djokovic-like (which I like) and his court coverage and speed are pretty impressive.
Watch Chung v Coric Chennai hightlights if you miss Murrovic matches 😀
That said, he is stronger, better at the net and overhead than Djokovic at his age imo. But the most important thing is he doesn’t have Djokovic’s tennis IQ. As resilient as he is, outsmart/play him and he tends to just push and hit harder.
But my main point is Rafa should try to finish the point quickly whichever way he choses to play
IMO.
Yes Rainier, Toni has been saying forever that Rafa needs to finish points quickly. I don’t know why it’s not sinking in. I am exhausted reading so many mentions in various articles about Rafa being so far behind the baseline that he missed shots he should have made. Makes me CRAZY. Seeing it is even WORSE. 😁😁😁
EXASPERATING.
RAFA WILL ALWAYS ROCK FOR ME
Oh one more thing, that Barcelona QF, Rafa was “supposed” to play Sascha but Chung beat him in straights in R16. Zverev was so frustrated at his Djokovic-like playing and ended up doublefaulting at MP.
Despite his demolition of Djokovic at Rome final this year, that match is an example of how I expect a prime/inform Djokovic would beat Zverev because he’s simply better than both youngsters at everything.
Of course they’re only 20 and still have a lot of rooms for improvement. I like them both and hope they will develop a good rivalry in the future.
Rainier, Sascha Zverev is gone. I hope Chung doesn’t cause our champ anything more than a hiccup.
RAFA ROCKS THE TOUR
Hi Margo. I don’t know what is really happening with Zverev. Since the Laver Cup he seemingly has lost the fire a bit. Hopefully it’s not physical.
Chung is a solid player and he has been improving quite a lot. I think he will continue prove to be a tough matchup for Zverev.
Hiya Rainier, I was going to reply to your earlier post of what Rafa has done this year and becoming No. 1, again. You stole my thunder but since you did such a great job of encapsulating what I was gonna post, kudos to you.
As far as Alexander is concerned, he may just be tired. If I recall correctly, he stated that he is working on strengthening his body and building some bulk. We are used to Rafa who had been working on his body from a young age. When Rafa was Sascha’s age he already had the musculature of a more mature male. I remember the first time I saw him….I had never seen a tennis outfit such as his. After I got over that, it was his body that kept my gaze….those muscles….WOW WEEEEE 💪💪💪💪💪
So hopefully Sascha is just a little tired.
Margo, do you receive the alerts for all the new comments here? I only receive them when someone directly reply to my comment via the Reply button.
As for the “encapsulating comment”, you mean the “record” one?
Thanks. But that record stuff has been roaming around long before Rafa reclaimed the no 1 ranking this year. You know, tennis loves records and predicting records. 😀
Now since everything is finally “official”, I had the first chance to post them. I never want to post stuff like that before it actually happens. 🙂
Re Zverev, yes I hope he was just tired. Better scheduling next year is a must.
He has put on like 10 pounds of muscle this year and is actually more muscular than he looks. But I agree he doesn’t have the best physique for a top or even ATG level tennis player.
Rafa is more blessed and but he also has his unfortunate “Achille’s heel”. All in all I think the player with the best physique overall is Federer.
You might not think much of his thin arm, but he doesn’t need those biceps as much. His score strength and legs are incredible. And like Rafa, he has one of most well-propotional bodies in the game.
Tbh I’m still a bit worried about Rafa’s knees. He had to scramble too much today. I don’t think he can afford running more than his opponent in 99% of his matches much longer…
All the best, champ and good luck!
We believe in you!