No way...

Amazing that those two are facing off again already after their legendary final in Almaty!

And believe me, I followed their final very closely! I had an astronomical amount on Corentin, and I'd also watched the 10-minute highlights of their Washington match. So yeah, I know them by heart... Long story short, basically, Daniil deserved his win in the Almaty final. We learned he arrived wrecked from Shanghai and never thought he'd make it to the final in such good shape. If he beat Corentin, it's of course thanks to the quality of his serve, which earns him a good number of free points—huge when you're playing Coco. Then there's his game intelligence. In the rallies, he isolates the Frenchman on the backhand and waits for a neutral ball to hit either into the open court or wrong-foot him. It was so obvious! And since you can't mess up when coming to the net against Coco, sometimes he had the chance but preferred to play it safe by going back deep to his backhand. And third, I'd say of course his mental resilience. He knew how to take the lead when needed and go get the points assertively, especially in that decisive third set. Today's match will surely be different. Their final was grueling, and we're in Vienna—that is, a slow indoor with a high bounce. The adrenaline has come down. Moutet was a good sport; he readily admitted Daniil was better. He needs to be fresh for Bercy coming up, but how could he not go all out in this match... impossible for him. As for Daniil, he's got this tournament and then Paris to get through. After that, it's rest. He had another tough match yesterday against Borges. Which one is going to crack physically? They're both endurance machines, and they both looked good yesterday. But hey, if one of them has to crack before the other, it's...