Can Khachanov solve the Brooksby riddle?

Or perhaps he is facing him at a very bad time...?

Khachanov is coming from a long and successful run in Toronto, and there were worries about fatigue since he had little time to prepare for Cincinnati. Khachanov put in a solid performance in the first round and managed to close the match in straight sets after winning the second set tiebreak from set point down against Royer. He let out a huge roar and moved on to the next round. Brooksby should have won his first round against Muller in straight sets, but he kind of "fumbled" the second set. No worries, he recovered nicely by winning the third set 6-1. After that, he faced Cazaux, where he played the pressure points extremely well, and after a 25-minute game at the start of the second set (where he eventually broke), the match was over. Cazaux looked like that game mentally and physically broke him...

Khachanov might have clutched his first match against Royer in straight sets, but this is a big trap that awaits him now! Brooksby has exactly the kind of game to really bother Khachanov, especially in his current state. Brooksby's strength is undoubtedly his tennis IQ, and despite his lack of power, he will be able to really hurt Khachanov. Unorthodox shot selections, changes of directions, weird slices (can be used to bring Khachanov into uncomfortable forecourt positions), paceless balls that Khachanov can't work with... along with a lower bounce that doesn't sit up as much for Khachanov to unleash his FH to dictate! Khachanov, on the other hand, is very one-dimensional, and Brooksby tends to do very well against this kind of opponent since he has excellent prediction skills, and that gets even easier when the opponent is predictable! Lastly, I would say the conditions definitely favor Brooksby here... the fast and slick court conditions here allow his serve to be less vulnerable and despite his lack of power, he is still able to execute more offensive shots on his own, with the way conditions are here (Mannarino has been doing this excellently here as an example).

After losing a final, it's not unusual for a player to come into the first round in the next tournament with a bit of anger and adrenaline... I see the second match as the bigger test! We also have to consider that Khachanov is great in Slams; he surely believes he has a chance to go deep in the US Open. Does it make sense for him to completely exhaust himself here? Especially in a tournament where he has historically not had a lot of success, he also pulled out of doubles with his good friend Rublev due to a right ankle injury; make of that what you will. Finally, they faced each other in Indian Wells in 2022, and Brooksby won 0 and 3, reading Khachanov like an open book! I think you can see where I'm going with this...