Damir!!

Damir Dzumhur came through qualifying and he treated us—two winning bets on him. Do we keep backing him?

Here I’m a bit less keen! First, because with two relatively decent matchups in qualifying, Dzumhur still struggled! These slow indoor hard courts were supposed to be to his advantage against the profiles of Halys and Kovacevic, but it took a real dip from his opponents rather than true domination from Dzumhur for him to get through. We can still acknowledge he stayed mentally strong to come back from a set down twice, and against Kovacevic he was a break down in the decider—you need several tries to put him away. He’s still around at this end of the season despite a drop in level; he’s more labored but keeps fighting. I’m a bit afraid that it’ll be too thin against players a notch above—namely Cerundolo. The Argentine played pretty well last week in Vienna; he was coming back from the UTS, which wasn’t straightforward, and I actually liked the attitude. The Argentine has made the round of 16 twice at this tournament, which isn’t bad, and since he’s often good in M1000s I think we can peg him as a dangerous outsider this week. As for the matchup, he likes facing players who are strong on the baseline and more counterpunchers; his record is excellent because in that kind of match he can easily dictate with his forehand and make the difference. Dzumhur is quick and mobile, but when Cerundolo’s forehand goes, it really hurts—the Argentine seems sufficiently armed and comfortable in the matchup. Sorry, Dzumhur!