I think Filippo deserves a cheering thread. He was amazing in Umag, where he reached his first ATP final and gave Moya a run for his money. He created quite a stir in Umag, and I hope he returns next year.
He is described as a serious, modest and sincere player, who is a gentleman both on and off the court, and I have to concur with that from what I've seen. He often applauds his oppenent's great shots. I find that admirable. I want all my faves to believe in sportsmanship.
I find his groundstrokes incredibly beautiful and elegant, especially his backhand. He's also amazingly fast and will return just about anything back into court. He says of himself that he is an aggressive player who likes to hit winners from the baseline, only he prefers his forehand.
Pippo lost 1-6 2-6 to eventually title winner Dolgopolov in Umag R2.
He lost in doubles today with Poto 2-6 3-6 to Rosol/Wassen in Kitzbuhel. Tomorrow he plays Granollers in singles, who won Gstaad this past week, so fatigue could be a factor. His draw isn't too bad so hopefully he can take advantage and get some wins.
He defends over 100 points these next couple of weeks, so good results are critical, although he will remain in the top 100 without the points.
Filippo plays Pashanski in R2 of Napoli after a 3 set win over Lojda. Don't know what to expect this week, back down to earth after Bucharest maybe? :lol:
Filippo would be ranked #52 with a win in the finals of Rabat. This week he's gotten into the final not playing great tennis, but his B/C level is good enough at this level to beat most players. Given the fact he's lost first round in every single tournament outside of Sao Paulo, a good run here definitely is a positive for Filippo and his season, and should give him confidence for the ATP Euro clay season coming up soon. He's got a lot of points to defend in April so a run here was necessary. Hopefully he can win the title in Morocco over Klizan.
Filippo played a bad match in the final and lost 2-6 3-6 to Klizan. Been quite a weird season thus far, as he's really only been in form for one event, but that event shows us what he is capable of when he's playing well.
Filippo withdrew from Miami, presumably due to his right ankle which he took a medical timeout for in his SF match. Personally, I think the injury is a slight reason why he withdrew, but really, he just hates playing off clay :lol:
So his next event should be the Barletta challenger in a couple weeks, where he defends finalist points. Hopefully he goes deep there and fully recovers from whatever ailments he is suffering from with a couple of weeks off from playing.
Filippo plays Bautista-Agut in the first round of Barletta. He should be very motivated here to have a great run and hopefully he can defend most if not all of his points, and of course, winning the title outright would be even sweeter.
Pippo won 7-5 6-4 over Bautista. It was a tough match, Pippo made quite a few errors, but hit his trademark beautiful clean winners and hit the ball and moved very well overall.
His next match will be against Milijan Zekic on Thursday. Very winnable and he needs to take advantage!
Filippo won 6-4 6-3 over Zekic. He got down *0-3 0-30 but from there got back and took control of the match. He made a fair bit of errors but generally played well.
He plays Brands in the QF, the second match on the center court Friday. Another winnable match so hopefully he gets through it comfortably!
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Mens Tennis Forums
18.5M posts
87.7K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to male tennis players and enthusiasts. Talk about everything from the ATP, NSMTA, to college Tennis and even everything about equipment. It's all here!