I've made it! Thanks to all the guys who trusted in me and supported me throughout the tournament - among others, Mohd who was my sparring partner. I'm very happy, not only for the title itself, but also for the mental and technical level I've reached without even training that much.
The real challenge started in the SF where I faced Isaldor, who I was afraid of especially because I know how well he can use Wawrinka. Indeed, his accelerations and defenses were incredibly deep and powerful, often denying me to play the offensive game I played and trained for before. Hopefully, I was cinic during the most important points and, in the second half of the match, released from the pressure, I managed to attack more and play a better tennis. At the end of the match, I was impressed by how severe the score appeared, despite a very good fight full of tied rallies and games that could have gone both ways.
As concerns the final, at first I'd like to congratulate TheBoss-94 for the incredible level he showed. During the match, I kind of felt like "He's better than me, I'd be very happy to pass him the 'torch' as next Italian captain if I lose". He was defending way better than me, and incredibly managed to return on the baseline most of my serves and attacks. Despite me having a slightly better attacking game, he hit more winners because he basically reached every attack of mine, so most of my "winners" actually were TheBoss's desperate defenses going under the net. On the other hand, I had a more advanced positioning and this let him hit more clear winners.
After the general stamina - and so, the ability to hit more winners than errors - had gone, it soon became a backhand to backhand fight, and the one who could hit deeper or down the line was more likely to win the point, as winners/errors and rally length stats show. On the one hand, he could punish my advanced positioning with lethal deep counters and a very good net play. On the other, I was more able to push him behind the baseline and so could punish his positioning with many dropshots that almost always bounced twice. These were our two main weapons.
The real keys have been, again, my experience and my cinism in most important points.
Admittedly, my two previous slams have been harder draw-wise - Richie, Pidzi and VMoe played at RG 2016; Pidzi, Vramvrim and VMoe played at AO 2017. But I left London with the awareness of my mental level still improving over the years. What I'm proud the most of has been beating two real top players, winning 6 out of 7 sets that could have gone both ways since our levels were almost identical.
