Nicolas Jarry and Tommy Paul treated us with an entertaining 2nd semifinal in Rome. Both guys put on a hard-hitting show with spectacular points and a beautiful warm embrace at the end. What it always should be about.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe quality was up and down from both players. Jarry was in control for the first half of the match, winning the first set and going up a break in the second. Paul was struggling to cope with the pace of Jarry’s serves and forehand (Jarry’s average forehand speed was 141 kph in the first set). The Chilean was hitting that ball like it owed him money.
Jarry could have won in straight sets, but got tight in the second set and broke himself with a particularly error-strewn game. After this, there was a momentum shift, and Paul won the tiebreak easily. Credit to Jarry that he was able to regroup in the third because I thought we might end up with a repeat of the situation in the other semifinal. Jarry had big problems serving it out, with Paul putting up a real fight, but got there in the end.
Paul made sure that Jarry had to take that win from him, he did not give it away. The American hit some insane passing shots and returns, especially a single-hander backhand pass on the run in set 2 out of nowhere. Paul had an amazing run, and made his first semifinal of a Masters on clay, beating 2 top-10 players including the current defending champion. He has made great improvements on clay.
Jarry has brought his career back from the brink
Nicolas Jarry is the first Chilean in a Masters final since Fernando Gonzalez in Rome in 2007. Jarry was outside the top 100 when he began the 2023 season and now he finds himself inside the top 20 and will reach a new career-high ranking on Monday no matter what the result will be in finals.
After I watched Jarry’s third-round match against Stefano Napolitano, I didn’t think he would go far but he won ugly and gave himself a chance to find his level in the next match. He then went on to beat Tsitsipas and now played a thrilling match against Paul to reach the final.
Two Chileans make the semifinal of a big tournament on opposite sides of the draw. One loses his semifinal, and the other, named Nicolas, wins his semifinal and moves on to the final. Sounds familiar? Because it happened before, at the 2004 Olympics. The players were Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu, who went on to win Gold. Maybe Jarry is destined.
