MONITOR CLAY FORM

“I trust her more, I trust her body more in these matches and these tournaments. She's 20 and this season against everyone that isn't Sabalenka, Goff, Swiatek and Rybakina. She is not taking bad losses at all, you know, and she's healthy, she's played a full schedule, but she's also, to David's point about Sabalenka, I think, playing a smart schedule. She's pulling out of events, you know, looking through the season.”

“Returning to number one in the race, David is an interesting one for Rybakina, isn't it? Because absolutely nobody is arguing with Irina Sabalenka being the world number one, the best tennis player in the world. And yet, with quite a large sample size now, coming up to four months, Elena Rybakina has been the best player in the world in 2026, and I think somehow those two things are both true.”

“She'd lost six times in a row to Goff. And she'd actually lost three times in a row to Svitolina. So to flip those head to heads around in consecutive matches, I agree with you, this does feel like a real step for Muchova. Her forehand picked up where it left off against Mertens in the round before and was absolutely brilliant coming up with so many angles, such pace on it as well.”

“She'd lost six times in a row to Goff. And she'd actually lost three times in a row to Svitolina. So to flip those head to heads around in consecutive matches, I agree with you, this does feel like a real step for Muchova. Her forehand picked up where it left off against Mertens in the round before and was absolutely brilliant coming up with so many angles, such pace on it as well.”

“How does Klay hide Shelton's weaknesses? First off, it's easier for him to return serve. He's easily rushable on the return. He's worked very hard on abbreviated technique in order to improve on the return. But based on his numbers coming into this Munich final, that remains a real work in progress and a bona fide weakness in Shelton's game, his ability to return effectively.”

“Arthur Fils's first title since coming back from injury in Barcelona and discuss why he's a legitimate threat to Sinner and Alcaraz. Finally, the first installment of the French Open Power Rankings.”

“And on clay, I do think the indoor clay is a good surface for a little bit of time on the ball and so dominant on both serve and return. This time she just resorted back to the brilliant form that she'd been in all season. I think Andreeva and Muchova were not quite either of them at their sort of physical best in the semifinal or final, they both perhaps faded a little bit, but Rybakina was just awesome.”

“I think maybe the more significant point is they feel more like the Sinner Alcaraz. Rather than worrying about who's number one, who's number two, they feel different to everybody else right now. I think that they should be going into probably, and certainly the next Grand Slam as the favorites really, because it's Clay, and I was looking at Rybakina's Roland Garros record, hasn't been that great.”

“And on clay, I do think the indoor clay is a good surface for a little bit of time on the ball and so dominant on both serve and return. This time she just resorted back to the brilliant form that she'd been in all season. I think Andreeva and Muchova were not quite either of them at their sort of physical best in the semifinal or final, they both perhaps faded a little bit, but Rybakina was just awesome.”

“Shelton's heavily spun forehand cross court was an ace up the sleeve for him. It was the most impactful ground stroke on the court to my eyes throughout the match because Kaboli's backhand contact points ended up being nightmarish. Absolutely nightmarish. Because of the way that ball was jumping up on him.”

“I trust her more, I trust her body more in these matches and these tournaments. She's 20 and this season against everyone that isn't Sabalenka, Goff, Swiatek and Rybakina. She is not taking bad losses at all, you know, and she's healthy, she's played a full schedule, but she's also, to David's point about Sabalenka, I think, playing a smart schedule. She's pulling out of events, you know, looking through the season.”

“Returning to number one in the race, David is an interesting one for Rybakina, isn't it? Because absolutely nobody is arguing with Irina Sabalenka being the world number one, the best tennis player in the world. And yet, with quite a large sample size now, coming up to four months, Elena Rybakina has been the best player in the world in 2026, and I think somehow those two things are both true.”

“I want to talk about his serve though. You cannot properly credit Ben Shelton's serve for how good it is without talking about his second, which I believe has become the best second serve in all of men's tennis. He is the leader right now in 2026 on second serve win rate. In order, it's Shelton, Fiese, Sinner, Alcaraz, Zverev. That's the top five.”

“Munich is in some altitude, which is worth mentioning. Definitely increased the serve effectiveness on both ends. But Kaboli with a, real string of missed first serves at five o. He missed, four first serves in a row.”

“I think maybe the more significant point is they feel more like the Sinner Alcaraz. Rather than worrying about who's number one, who's number two, they feel different to everybody else right now. I think that they should be going into probably, and certainly the next Grand Slam as the favorites really, because it's Clay, and I was looking at Rybakina's Roland Garros record, hasn't been that great.”