Zverev, really obvious?
Not at all at first glance. And I'll explain to you why...
Well, if we look at the guys' stats in the final, it's a little scary. Roman Safiullin won none out of 4. But! Because there is a but... the 4 finals he played in are over the last two seasons. He is playing at the best level of his career at the moment (ranked 55 at the start of the tournament, but 33 in the ELO ranking, he will be around 40 at the end). And in my opinion, not only is he playing his best tennis in these last two seasons, but he is playing one of his best tournaments here. Musetti sometimes gave his coach looks of disgust like “How can the guy do that?!”. Not only does he return well and is an excellent baseliner (his best surface is indoor hard), but he proved this week that he also knows how to delay and be intelligent in constructing the point. Mentally, it's Russian, it's cold, it's very strong. Only the fact that he has never won a final can weigh against him.
On the German side, nothing exceptional either. He held on like the champion he is to overcome Kecmanovic in the second set, then beat Dimitrov as he had already done 6 times in his career. Nothing too fancy, even less his first round against Kotov. Only here, he is well classified, can serve fire (we are at altitude), and he is Zverev. But his first 2 matches lasted 3 hours (the 3rd much less), and an important aspect to take into account: Safiullin does not let go of his service line and puts constant pressure on his opponents. So, what do you think?
