Old gladiators pitted against the new

FRIDAY the thirteenth unlucky for some not for the World No 1, Novak Djokovic, who had to produce his best tennis of the season to get past young Canadian, Felix Auger Aliassime, to secure his “Penthouse” (No 1 position) in the ATP rankings and his 13th semi-final at the Italian Open.

Arenas in Rome have historically produced great gladiatorial battles and the Fiora Italico is no exception.

It was surprisingly the first time these two players had confronted each other on court.

The draw pitted old warriors against the new Iga Swiatek vs two-time Slam champion Victoria Azarenka, Dennis Shapovalov vs 21-Slam Rafa Nadal, Jannik Sinner vs Fabio Fognini, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Grigor Dimitrov.

In every other of the above matches the younger players prevailed, no doubt fired up by teenage Carlos Alcaraz’s feat in beating two all time greats, Nadal and Djokovic, back to back last week in Madrid.

For Djokovic there was more at stake, apart from his already bruised pride. A semi-final win against fifth seed Casper Ruud would secure his 1000 Masters win on tour, another milestone in his quest to be the best GOAT.

More importantly the Serbian No 1 has no intention of relinquishing his status as World No 1 on the brink of the French Open, where he is the defending champion and the opportunity to equal Nadal’s 21-Slam title cache beckons.

His steely determination has been matched by the Canadians, Auger Aliassime and Shapovalov, who have excelled in Rome, as they both did earlier in the year post winning their debut ATP Cup for Canada, which ignited their collective confidence going into the Australian Open.

Both play a brand of tennis that is the perfect antidote to entrenched base liners, of the calibre of Nadal and Djokovic they are expert volleyers, aggressive in attacking the net and constantly find ways to move forward on a tennis court.

It was one shocking missed volley at net by Djokovic, in the second set, that was one of those defining moments in a match which came close to turning it around in Auger Aliassime’s favour.

As brilliantly as the top seed was serving, his points won at net significantly lagged behind the Canadian’s.

Shapovalov, however, did come out on top against Nadal in their match, employing brilliant athleticism and prowess at net, before succumbing to Ruud in the quarters.

As for the other semi-finalists, Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev, there is an epic rivalry developing between the two, still respectively hunting down their first Major, which will endure into the next decade and probably replace the Federer vs Nadal showdowns.

One less compelling observation, that has to be made in Zverev’s defence, given the extent of the penalty, fine and ban he rightly received, after his meltdown in Mexico, in which he demolished his tennis racket, (after a point went against him in a doubles match) is that the same rules don’t seem to apply across the board.

The flamboyant former Italian No 1, Fognini, also lost his cool in the throes of losing to his young compatriot, Sinner

In front of a packed home crowd of adoring Italians, he found reason to comprehensively and completely unnecessarily destroy the offending weapon, the only difference being he chose the clay against which to smash his racket, whereas Zverev chose the umpire’s chair, with the umpire sitting on it.

Fognini received little in the way of come-uppance, apart from a muted warning of a code violation. I’m sure had Caesar been present, Fognini would have got the thumbs down and the classic treatment to match, yet on the modern day Court Pietrangeli, no Italian official was prepared to denounce one of their own.

Fortunately Sinner seems to have a smattering of Viking blood running through his veins, so there is little chance he will emulate his popular predecessor’s on-court antics.

Both he and Norwegian Ruud are the least emotional, out of the cream of the crop of Last Eight gladiators fighting to the finish in what promises to be another explosive finale in the Eternal City.