Your Patience Will Be Tested

Will Rune be able to remain calm?

Rune's match against Quinn was a good match-up for him on paper. It turned out even easier than expected, with Quinn more or less completely losing it after Rune was able to extend rallies. This is the feeling I've had about Quinn for a while, and Rune exposed his weaknesses (basically anything that isn't serving or hitting big strokes). I will say that Rune played his part well, but I didn't find him to be exceptional - he didn't have to. As for Brooksby, he fell behind straight away against Darderi, but it did not take long before he started to ask him a lot of questions... despite this, Darderi had 6-3 in the TB, didn't manage to close, and lost the set. From then on, Darderi was completely roasted, and it was basically over. Similar to Rune, I think that Brooksby had a solid match with some good moments, but in the end, it was not a challenge beyond the opening set, since Darderi couldn't play.

This should be a fun matchup! Both players are extremely solid from the baseline and tend to vary their shots a lot. Rune does have a higher ceiling, but also a lower floor. Rune is at his best against attacking players that do not have a big serve (Attacking Baseliners), cause he is very good at moving them around the court and extracting errors. He struggles a lot more against Big Servers since his return is one of his weakest attributes. Rune also finds it difficult to face counterpunchers that make him work through them, cause he can lack the patience when he has to take control (trying to hit a winner from a bad position), and then there's also the potential fitness issues in this kind of matchup. Brooksby also struggles with Counter Punchers and Big Servers! It will be interesting to see how Rune approaches this match, if he is content to hang back and try to outwit him from the baseline, or if he will take on a more aggressive role. Something that I think helps Jenson in this match is his mentality; he is calmer on court, and if Rune starts getting impatient, Brooksby will capitalize! Lastly, I want to mention that Rune is quite good at finishing points at the net, but that could ultimately be a negative for him - Brooksby is one of the better players at punishing players with great passing shots and lobs...