Van Assche without panache!
A little less good for Luca who nevertheless started the year with a bang for Australia with the added bonus of putting in place new elements in his game. Let's see what happened!
2 wins and 5 losses from Australia. Poor results for the Frenchman. It starts with Marseille where he said he had recovered too little from his trip to Taipei in the Davis Cup. Either... Then he hits a local in Rotterdam, Cressy in Doha, Marterer in Dubai... Let's be honest, he shouldn't have lost all these matches. What's happening to him ? Maybe it's since the Davis Cup that he's been a little worse. He was playing for France for the first time in his career and admitted to having had a lot of pressure and emotion. We know his opponent Hsu, he plays quickly, robs you of time. And Luca said he was happy to have played it on a slow surface. I tell myself that maybe that's what upset our Frenchman a little, this period of hard indoor play a little faster. I was courtside in Marseille when he played against Ruusu, and when I think about it, Brouwer, Cressy, Marterer and Khachanov all have one thing in common: they are aggressive. Luca likes it but in slightly faster conditions (I said in conditions and not on the surface), his counterplay is less expressed. And then one defeat leads to another... So we potentially have a Luca who will feel better on the slow Plexipave of Indian Wells, but therefore without much confidence. His opponent doesn't have many more victories but has much more convincing matches with a victory over Fritz! We know him by heart at Tennis Metrics and we are starting to nickname him Mr. 3 sets. We could witness a great battle on a surface that will please both players, with a small bonus on the Italian side for fitness and experience (he has already done IW once unlike Luca). Let's see what the odds are like 👇
