Achieving the Impossible?

Does anyone besides Alcaraz have even a small chance against Mr Perfect?

For Sinner, there is not a lot of exciting information about his last matches that I can bring you ;) As I'm sure most of you know, he had to retire in the first set in the Cincinnati final against Alcaraz (due to illness). His first and most recent match here at USO was one of his usual beatdowns, this time delivered to Kopriva in the fashion of a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 scoreline. I have more to say about Popyrin! There was a lot of pressure for him to defend his title in Toronto, and while he wasn't able to win again, he made the QF in a very tough draw (Medvedev - Rune - Zverev), battling through admirably. A few days later, in Cincinnati, he had a great battle in what was a narrow loss to a Rublev who is growing stronger lately. Popyrin was handed a nice opening round against Ruusuvuori, who is a good player but has been away from the tour for quite a while and thus not in the best form. Ruusuvuori brought a decent level and went a break up in the third set, but ultimately Popyrin came back and closed it in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6.

As for the matchup, I did a preview for Sinner vs Diallo in Toronto. Why do I mention this? Well, Popyrin shares the same playstyle label as Diallo, which is Big Server/All-Court Player. Without repeating myself too much, let me explain why I like that. Defeating Sinner from the baseline is almost impossible, especially for any non-elite player. So, let's avoid getting into long rallies with a big serve and the ability to finish points at the net! In theory, it sounds great, but let's be honest... that's not easy against Sinner either, cause he is one of the best returners who can neutralize serves, and it's hard to create an opening outside the serve to attack the net! And then you just get tossed around the baseline... but at least it's better to get some points that way than just a minimal amount in baseline duels! Playing against this version of Sinner is not so much about whether you will win or not, but more about how much you can mitigate the beatdown 😂. Popyrin is also a great profile for this big underdog role; he has done well many times before with big upsets (he has the strongest underdog stats out of all active ATP players). Lastly, he has an exceptional 25-5 W/L Game HCP record in the last years against Attacking Baseliners (Sinner is one), by far his best matchup!