Tennis: Road to Turin, anyone seen Rafa?

[IceandIndigo]

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Well done Flavio.

Another loss for ADF- really not been his year, and I don't think he's in the Davis Cup squad, but maybe he will make an appearance in Malaga for the big send off.

Well done Flávio - he seems to have developed into a good player since he lost to Rafa and looked a bit like a rabbit in the headlights (can't quite remember when that was - possibly last year?)

ADF has new hair - maybe he needs to grow it back to regain his powers!

I really do feel sorry for Domi with the way that his career has ended - it's good that he got a nice send off in his home country

They just showed a young Swiss player Jerome Kim playing Ugo Humbert at the Swiss Open - he was one of the players I saw at Rafa's tournament

Ooh time for a bit of Matteo in the afternoon - nice

I think Flavio played Rafa in Barcelona this year, Fizzy- though it suddenly feels a long time ago!

This is the time of year when the tv seems to swap a lot from Vienna to Switzerland without warning, and I lose track.

Good thing they have the name of the place on the court.

Yes it does seem like a long time ago Raahh - I'm losing track of the years!

All of these indoor tournaments do look very similar

Hard luck Jerome Kym - I'm expecting him to be the next Roger Federer

Humbert was very excited by his win!

I watched a bit of Kym. He looks like a footballer!

It is a real shame that injuries have scuppered Domi’s full potential. Also a bit of a shame that his retirement is being rather overshadowed by someone else’s (although maybe he prefers that?)

I don't think Domi would be under any illusion that Rafa's retirement will get more attention than his - but he stuck to his plan to retire on home turf, and I admire him for that. Not necessarily his best surface either, indoor hard courts, rather like Rafa.

I think that Domi is at peace with his decision to retire which makes things a bit easier I think - it must be a hard decision to make

Not sure what's going on with the mikes in Vienna

Poor Richard Gasquet announced his retirement at the same time as Rafa! He is holding out until the French Open though

Well done Matteo!

Aww Sascha's dog

Schwaerzler has such a baby face. Going to be confusing having another JJ on the circuit

Stop pronouncing Zverev like that

6ft 6 you say? We never knew.

Robbie is commentating in Basel. Hopefully Andrey can keep his head today.

Meanwhile Jakub Mensik is doing ok, going with serve in the first set in Vienna. It's a lot brighter over there. The Basel court is very dark.

Jakub and Andrey both through.

I see the ITF is allowing coaching from next year. Still don't agree with it. Nor does Shapavalov.

I'm not a fan of coaching either kazza.

In better news, Djok has withdrawn from Paris. So that will make it much more fun to watch.

And if others do well, then he's probably out of the tour finals too.

Ahh well. Never mind.

That’s great news that Djok’s not playing Paris. I wonder if he’ll play Turin? I think it’s mandatory to play if they qualify but I’m sure he’ll get some bogus exemption if he wants it.

Watching Denis Shapo vs Jerry Shang and one of the ball kids just took a serve to the head, had to leave the court in tears

Ice he may not qualify for Turin - there is still time for a 2/3 of the players behind him to overtake him if they do well this week, I never thought I'd be rooting for Tommy Paul , but he's playing this week, also Belgrade , as well as Paris, so a lot of opportunity to gain points- as is Alex De Minaur. Stef is an outside chance too.

Djok doesn't have the safety net of being a slam winner this year- which would be how he would automatically gain entry,outside the top 8 (Barbora Kreijikova is on the women's finals for this reason).

I suppose it depends if there is anything wrong with him. or he's just scared of losing to Jannik

"Why does he need a towel?" Obviously never seen Big Foe playing before

Frances being driven to insanity by the shot clock

Hope that ball kid is ok Ice

It would be great if Djok didn't qualify for Turin Although he'll probably say he doesn't want to play it anyway

I saw a photo of Fritz with a head full of bleach