The lion's awakening

Yes, but which one? ;)

Khachanov played pretty poorly in his last match, but he’s the defending champion here and indoors suit him so well. He’s actually been playing quite poorly since his Toronto final against Shelton, when he was serving up top-10 level for breakfast every morning. It’s crazy when you think about it. Struffy, meanwhile, picked up a few easy first rounds in Challengers, as usual. You could say it let him skip the Asian swing. He clearly raised the level here in his first round against McDo. That’s 20,000-level, clutch... Good Struff in the last two sets (since set 1 was catastrophic). Honestly, this isn’t an easy first round for Karen. Struffy has absolutely nothing to lose here. He comes forward a lot, and we know that’s perfect against Khachanov. The bounce doesn’t help the Russian’s topspin and keeps the ball at a nice height, I think, for Struff to fire his bricks. There are two schools when you’re tall: either low balls are a pain, or it’s cool because your arm comes through better. It also depends on the guy’s grip. I saw McDo play Struffy in rhythm with straight, flat trajectories, and it was comfy for Struffy. All that to say the conditions, current form, and matchup seem fine for the German. And when he decides to bring a big level at a tournament, he can go deep... Let’s see how big an underdog he is here!