The anxiety combo

Goffin is a lucky loser and on top of that he’s up against his nemesis again; a rematch is already tricky to handle, but now you add the LL status.

It’s revenge week for Goffin. He already ran into Comesana in the first round of qualies after losing to him last week. He got his revenge, but I’m not sure this next rematch will be similar. For starters, Goffin lost while playing extremely poorly in Brussels—he was tight and tense—whereas this time it was much better and you could see the difference. Against Cilic I didn’t find him bad at all—quite the opposite, it was solid—so the gap in level between his loss and this rematch won’t be as big. I also think the matchup isn’t easy to manage in fast conditions to begin with: Cilic is an excellent server but also strong from the baseline, and that mix isn’t ideal for Goffin. They’ve played 10 times in their careers and the head-to-head is 5–5; they’ve faced off on all surfaces (no match on grass). There’s no clear edge for Cilic either, but indoors I do lean his way! In their qualifying match, Goffin mostly started poorly before getting back into it properly; once he did, it was really close. With the little relaxation that comes from being a Lucky Loser and the fact the pressure is on Cilic, I think Goffin will be in a better spot and potentially dangerous tomorrow! If the odds have pushed even more toward Cilic just because of his win in qualies, I’d be more inclined to side with Goffin without any real regret.