Heavyweight vs Featherweight

Another unconvincing performance from De Minaur...

Well, we have seen him do it many times. ADM plays it safe against players that he should beat, leading to quite "ugly" tennis. This was not the case against Diallo; he struggled massively. Serving for the first set twice (double break), failing to close it out, and going to a tiebreak that he should have lost (Diallo missed a really easy set point). It became a battle all the way into the third, where he was a bit more solid against Diallo, who became increasingly erratic. We have to credit him for the comeback, but there were a lot of dips for him in this match. I don't think he has been playing his best tennis for a while now. Khachanov looked on his way to a dominant straight-sets win against Fonseca but had to go into a decider when Fonseca "redlined" a bit in the second set. However, he regrouped nicely, and the combination of Khachanov being solid on serve and Fonseca somewhat fading physically ultimately resulted in a win for Karen.

For the matchup, there are some positives for both players. ADM's slices have the potential to really bother Khachanov here, since the bounce is not very high, and anytime Karen gets pulled forward from the baseline or has to deal with low balls, he struggles. Karen is coming off two Attacking Baseliners that provided a lot of pace; now it will be a bit trickier. However, he has been returning really good in his last two matches, and with ADM's more vulnerable serve, he will have some chances. In these conditions, he also has a lot of time to load up his forehand and start to dictate; he has enough power to penetrate even these slower courts. ADM was not able to consistently rush Diallo on his FH, and I think it will be the same here...