The Kotov trap

Beneath his appearance as a counter pillar with his double fat and his pulled-up socks, Pavel Kotov is an animal all the more dangerous because he seems harmless. We will have warned you Cameron!

If the Briton Cameron Norrie is known to be a hyena on the court, Pavel Kotov is too often underestimated in this register in my opinion. First of all, I'll stop you right away with the physical parameter: the guy can last for hours and hours, even with a bulge. Then, he's a guy who holds his line and imposes his pure game. He's not going to stand 3 meters behind and squirt you for 3 hours, that's for sure. Norrie will therefore have to move it, right/left, forward/backward. That's good, he's a mischievous player, who's also left-handed (left-handers put more angles into their trajectories in general). The slow surface with high bounce had already favored his game during their meeting in Barcelona. He is therefore logically favorite in a match up to his advantage. The problem is that we don't have too much certainty about Norrie's level. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad luck, sometimes it's bad... I find this guy quite difficult to pin down. And so far, his results at Roland are not in line with what he can produce on earth, and with his average level of play. A mystery !