The long-awaited duel

Can Marozsan stand up to the Russian wall?

He already held his own against R2D2, even if the latter hits his ceiling when you really get after him. My analysis is pretty simple here. Fabian has to be at his prime to beat Daniil here. Because to beat Fabian, either you take him on at his own game (example: Tsitsipas) and take time away from him to throw him off, or you “Munar-ize” him by neutralizing his power and making him move as much as possible. The thing is, Daniil can almost do both now. The Russian didn’t play super well against Walton, but credit to Walton, who put in a solid match except in the big moments. It was an R1 on a new continent after a pretty tumultuous Asian swing; I won’t hold it against him. What I don’t know, though, is whether there’s some lingering fatigue. Even though we know Daniil: he’s usually an endurance monster. I also felt, during his interview, that he knew he had the keys to play Fabian, but he was still wary of the prime version of the Hungarian. With the low bounce helping his drop shots, medium/fast conditions that still give him time to set up his game, and his last good match against Nakashima, there’s reason to believe, right? Yes, but Fabian is a rare Pokémon! He could absolutely start spraying it all over the place...