Navone, the Hardcourt King

After a disappointing clay season, Navone has devoted himself to the hardcourts to avoid slipping too far down the rankings!

OK, so first of all... writing this Navone preview hurts me! I did the preview for him against Walton in Cincinnati (as a lucky loser) and recommended his side. He was heading for a straight-sets victory, serving for the match two times... before losing in a TB and completely unraveling in the third set. I could forgive him if it was against someone like Djokovic or another great... but man, it was against Walton! Even in his first match against "Suresh," he got nervous serving for the match, going 0-30 down and having to save a BP. I would say that Navone has a better chance of breaking for the match than serving it out, because his forehand gets so tight that the ball is flying into different zip codes... Enough with the Navone hate. What about his match against Suresh? Well, it was a perfect opponent for him... he was never able to hit through Navone regularly enough, and Suresh faded physically. Giron must surely be very disappointed with his return to hardcourts so far. Losing to Munar and Mannarino in straight sets before losing to Blockx in Cincinnati. We know that Giron is a fighter, but he is simply making too many easy, unforced errors right now for someone with his playstyle.

And now he is facing someone who can hang with him physically and enter WALL-mode. With Giron's current form, I'm not sure that he will be able to hang in rallies consistently enough against Navone. So, that will force Giron to take some initiative... something that he might not be completely comfortable with, especially since hitting through Navone is not easy. I want to say once again that this is a focused Navone that can play decently on hardcourt, especially against players who don't have huge firepower to put him away. He was the better player against Walton before the "choke" (yes, this word can be overused, but trust me, it's suitable here). Is Giron better than Walton currently, or does he possess some X-factor that could turn the match in his favor? I'm not so sure... Well, it's not all gloomy for Giron. While Navone is solid, he is quite predictable, and Giron will have some time to find his level here. Even if he falls behind, a comeback is very possible since Navone does not play well while leading. Damn, I sound really salty about this, let's check the odds...