Joao Shapo ! 

Wonderkid Fonseca versus the unpredictable Shapovalov

Excellent start to the tournament from Shapovalov, but even so he had to save set points and break points in both of his wins. A nice bit of mental resilience, which is pretty rare for him, but this week he looks determined! He’s cutting down on double faults, keeping some stability in rallies, and continuing to bring big intensity whenever he can—I like what he’s doing for now. I stress the “for now” because with him nothing’s ever a given, and I also want to see him on the main court, which I find slower than Court 1 where he’s been thriving. Crank up the adversity and pressure again with a crowd that’s always fired up behind Fonseca, and then we’ll see if Shapo holds up. As for Fonseca, we only have one match to chew on this week since he benefited from Mensik’s withdrawal in the second round; everyone loved his R1 against Mpetshi, with genuinely high-quality returning. He was really amped up, and I can’t wait to see what he does tomorrow—if he keeps that same returning quality, it’s going to piss Shapo off. Then in the rallies, we know the Brazilian can match the power; he’s still lacking stability, but Shapo isn’t the kind of guy who makes you play 50-shot rallies either. It could be very quick on both sides, and I’m afraid the match might not be great quality, with a lot of unforced errors. Either that, or we get the match of the tournament between two guys trading bombs without taking a step back. I have to say Shapo’s made a good impression on me this week, but I think Fonseca can make him crack where Giron and Royer came close.