No time to waste

Manageable first round for Mpetshi, but then it's Bublik—gotta get some confidence and show up in good form to try to take down the Kazakh after!

So yeah, of course we’re already thinking about the next round, but first you’ll have to win this opening round against Sachko. The Ukrainian is a LL, a particularly dangerous status that Mpetshi needs to watch out for! But let’s be honest, Sachko isn’t a scary guy—he’s hardly ever put up good results on the pro tour and he doesn’t look particularly in form. So why could he win tomorrow? Because Mpetshi is an intriguing profile as an underdog but not very reassuring when he’s the favorite like this; he’s not good on return or from the baseline, his serve is his number one weapon, but he can’t manage to be better than this kind of baseline guy. Sachko doesn’t do anything crazy: he serves fine, has a good forehand, doesn’t move all that well; I don’t have much to say about him except that this status gives him a nice opportunity and he can hope to knock off a player who very often locks himself into TBs. Mpetshi has played some very good players lately, but he’s disappointed me—I just didn’t like his level, plain and simple. You’ll need pretty high odds to trust him.