The shape of the moment?

Hijikata is out of qualifying, which is enough to be more reassuring than Carabelli who still seemed injured at the US Open

I say "seemed" injured because he still played doubles after and won two matches. With a good little break and few tournaments he should have recovered enough to be fit but once again we don't really know if that's the case or not. Opposite Hijikata at least gives physical guarantees, he's well placed in this tournament with two victories but I'll need a little more to get excited I'm starting to know him. He doesn't really like playing against good servers/aggressive players in general, which is not Carabelli's profile. I find him quite good from the back, capable of being aggressive and quite tolerant of long rallies, it's especially on the return and on the opponent's power that he struggles. In terms of matchup I'm therefore rather on his side here even if his game will not fundamentally bother Carabelli either. I just see a bit more form on Hijikata's side with also more hard court experience, it's not much but it's still something more than his opponent of the day.