The Machac Enigma

World number 22, I have the impression that we never see Machac on a tennis court this year

The Czech plays very little, he is often sick/injured but not to the point of taking a long break, which means that in general when he comes back we don't really know how to position ourselves and since he doesn't win many matches it's even more complicated to know. Here we find him again without knowing and we have to deal with it. We have a little more guarantees on Nardi who is coming off a very good tournament as a LL, he likes this status and it has surely given him back his confidence! A good Nardi is annoying to play, he returns well, is compact and can also build the game intelligently. I don't like him a lot but he knows how to win matches in his own way and I can recognize that when he is in place he is a hard player to maneuver. In principle I prefer to lay Machac when he faces good servers because he doesn't like it too much, but recently he lost to Mannarino and it was the consistency of the Frenchman that bothered him. The Czech can quickly become a direct error machine and given his current form there is reason to go in that direction tomorrow. On the other hand, I stick to my initial position concerning him: at the top of his form he plays top 10 and with him we are sure of nothing. Which means that at any moment he finds his tennis and wins 6/3 6/3 6/3.