The First Challenge

Elias cruised through the opening round against his brother, who wasn't match fit...

We saw a very emotional Elias after the win against his brother. There is not really anything to be taken from that match; it was really low quality, with Mikael looking gassed after 30 minutes. I was impressed by Fearnley, who very well could've lost his match against Griekspoor after getting broken serving for the match in set 2 and then losing the TB. Tallon was starting to really lock in and serve + hit heavy, but Fearnley was able to match his level. He has great control of a damaging forehand and is very good at following it up at the net, where he is excellent! This is quite a hard matchup for Elias; it would be more suitable for him to face someone (older) with weaker movement that he could exploit. While he can play with decent aggression himself indoors, his serve and forehand are not at the same level as Fearnley's, and he tends to become erratic while trying to ramp up the pace and match a better opponent. His biggest advantage will be his familiarity with these courts, as he has played on them so many times... and it shows; he looks more confident to assert himself a bit more. Another factor would be the "emotional" one... he and his brother have both plummeted down the rankings, and as I mentioned, he was crying after the match for like two minutes (thinking of all the things he and his brother went through, their father's sacrifices, etc). We have seen plenty of times before how players can get some kind of boost/confidence or "nothing-to-lose" attitude from certain things like this. Now we have to try and figure out how much value we should attach to this ;)