Generali Open Kitzbühel: Roberto Bautista Agut - the Djokovic shock
Roberto Bautista Agut is one of the favorites in the Generali Open 2021 in Kitzbühel, which begins on Monday with the main draw matches. The Spaniard was one of the few players to stand up to Novak Djokovic in recent years.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jul 23, 2021, 09:08 am
True story: When Roger Federer made it clear to the second round at the US Open in 2014, the Swiss mumbled a bit lost in thought to the group after his press conference that he didn't even know that his upcoming opponent was playing. That was based on Roberto Bautista Agut, whom Federer then definitely defeated in three sets. As in all the following, eight games so far. How does Bautista Agut play? Non-Spanish, measured against topspin artists like Rafael Nadal , Fernando Verdasco or David Ferrer.
The now 33-year-old prefers the flat ball, which means he was among the top ten players in the world and was already a substitute at the ATP Finals. At the moment "RBA" is at position 16 in the ATP charts, the tennis year 2021 has not yet turned out quite as desired. In Kitzbühel you can still expect Bautista Agut, he knows the events well: Last year, the veteran played at “Thiem's 7”, the invitation show fight of the currently injured Austrian exceptional player.
Bautista Agut beats Djokovic twice in a row
The ashes are not necessarily the favorite surface of Bautista Agut, he celebrated his greatest match successes on hard court (and also eight of his nine tournament victories, one came on grass). In 2019 he was able to defeat world number one Novak Djokovic twice in a row, at the beginning of the year in Doha, a few months later in Miami. Bautista Agut did not make the triple, but in the semifinals of Wimbledon the now 20-time Grand Slam champion prevailed. Novak Djokovic and Best-of-Five - that remained an unsolvable puzzle even for Roberto Bautista Agut.
So will Roberto Bautista Agut win his tenth career title at the Generali Open? The competition is fierce, especially Casper Ruud could thwart the 2019 Davis Cup champion. The last Spanish champion in Kitzbühel was Marcel Granollers. What should give Bautista Agut hope: Because Granollers, meanwhile one of the best doubles players in the world, corresponded to the type of clay court burrower just as little as he did.
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