Daniil, the survivor

The Russian has been on a roll since Hangzhou. He’s cramping, sweating like a pig, gasping for air, but winning. Has he still got anything left under the hood?

The guy’s impressive in terms of endurance and mental resilience. People already thought he was a bit cooked against De Minaur, but in the end, not really. He can now play with a much more offensive profile than before, and De Minaur’s lack of power let him turn into a wall (the Australian could’ve been more enterprising too, but he respected the Russian’s passing quality). And there’s something new with Daniil: he was clutch. He went and took the important points. That’s good news for him, but it’s also a sign that he was maybe doubting his physical capacity a bit in a three-setter against the Road Runner. Today, with no day off, he faces the red-hot Arthur Rinderknech. The Frenchman now has very few unforced errors in his game and walks into big matches with a kind of freakish serenity and calm. Since Roland-Garros, we’ve known he’s a different player. Is that the right matchup for Daniil? The first thing I think of is of course Daniil’s returning quality, and he doesn’t even need to stand eight meters back anymore to return well. Annoying for a big server like Arthur. Now, the Frenchman has made huge progress from the baseline. He misses less than he used to, and he can hang with guys like De Minaur. His main strength from the back is being able to absorb/neutralize and then pick the right moment to pull the trigger, mainly with his forehand, but also his backhand. And then, excellent court sense at the net. The thing is, his disruptive attacking shot will probably be handled pretty well by the Russian wall. In short, Daniil’s profile is really not a good one for Arthur. Arthur’s going to have to step a bit outside his DNA and make Daniil play more to bring the physical factor into the matchup. Tricky, isn’t it?