Fabulous innovative tournament is revealing some hidden major talents.
Alexander Blockx of Belgium has been the most impressive so far, facially and demeanor-wise he resembles Stefan Edberg but with a more modern game. Heavy striking from the baseline and a ferocious fire beneath the cool facade. Blockx stands 6-4 and has a 2-9 ATP Tour match record so far.
Rafael Jodar of Spain is another future elite player, he has the big power baseline game and big serve like Blockx, Hurkacz and Raonic and the fiery Hewitt mindset. fueling his engine to vault himself to the big time.
Martin Landaluce, also of Spain, essentially is very similar to Blockx and Jodar, excellent offense, defense, serve and also movement. It’s uncanny how well these big bodied youngsters run around the court.
Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway at 6-3 is another titan giant and like Blockx is an unbeaten 2-0 so far. The 19 year old is 5-7 so far in the ATP.
Little guys like Learner Tien, Justin Engel, Nishesh Basavareddy seem outmatched and in the wrong weight class – even Dino Prizmic seems small at 6-2 – but they are all marvels on the court too. Prizmic is 7-12 so far on ATP Tour.
This tournament, staged this year for the last time in Saudi Arabia, has been a wonderful success. It will move on next year to a yet to be determined new site, hopefully Key Biscayne, Madison Square Garden or some other worthy venue. I’d also like to see surface variety, why not have it on clay?
Dino Prizmic · Learner Tien · NEXTGEN