Mannarino's Resurgence

Mannarino has been producing Sinner-like scorelines so far...

I was completely wrong when I predicted Thompson would trouble Mannarino; he got absolutely smoked! It was quite clear that Thompson was far from his best in most aspects, but I want to give credit to Mannarino. What stood out to me the most was the quality of his return, his ability to completely read the serve, and his ability to put it back to Thompson's feet, whether he was still on the baseline or came forward for a S&V (as he did frequently and failed). I also thought that Mannarino served very well, so serve and return are looking great, especially! Machac's last match since his injury was against Opelka in Toronto. I thought he played fairly well in a high-quality match; the issue was that he had dips at the wrong time, which Opelka punished. I did not see any obvious signs of huge rust in his shots or movement...

Okay, we have to start with the fact that they faced last year, and Mannarino won 6-1, 6-2 in Indian Wells. In that meeting, Machac was spraying errors uncontrollably and was constantly being rushed. Shortly after, at least he got the chance for some kind of revenge, in the Mexican UTS exhibition event, where he won 3-0. I'm not sure how much we should take from the meeting in Indian Wells, as Machac is quite streaky. I recall some other matches where he couldn't find his game at all, and it often ended up in embarrassing scorelines. Normally, he tends to prefer facing the regular "Solid Baseliners," where he gets into a good rhythm and is able to construct points, utilizing his athleticism and net skills to win the match. Against Counter Punchers, like Mannarino, it gets a bit tougher. They tend to deny the rhythm a bit more with variety and unpredictability, and they take even more patience to hit through! Some other things to keep in mind are that Machac only has a match without rhythm against Opelka so far... and he tends to do worse against lefties than against right-handers! Now, Machac has the advantage of knowing what to expect in this match, unlike their initial meeting in Indian Wells. Still, with a Mannarino playing well and Machac's lack of rhythm and matches since the injury, it might not be so easy for Machac to take and maintain control over this match...