Against All Odds?

Several "mystery" medical time-outs and two comeback wins in qualifying...

Is this the moment Mackie McDonald has the tournament of his life? Is this his "Sinner-ill-in-the-bucket" in Beijing 2023 that transformed him? Well, maybe not quite that dramatic. First of all, let's look at who he had to make comebacks against... Trungelliti and Mochizuki. Yeah, that's not great. He did play pretty good in the second and third sets in each match, though. I would say that the conditions are pretty much perfect for him... very quick and with a low bounce, suits his strike zone and flat strikes! His returning numbers in his qualifying matches are a lot better than they have been for a long time. When it comes to returning, I see him a bit as Tommy Paul... he has a huge ceiling as a returner but he lacks the consistency in his returning, if that makes sense. As many other players, Etcheverry has been someone who has really bounced back in the second half of the season, after having quite a bad first half. We saw great matches from him in Asia, before he got injured against Moutet. He came back in Stockholm and has played well in most of his matches during the entire indoor hardcourt season. As usual, he has been very good at beating the opponents he should beat due to how solid he is, while struggling against better opponents like Rune and Musetti. He suffered a major upset against Carabelli as a 1.18 favorite in his last match in Paris, but I don't want to see it too negatively. Etcheverry didn't play that bad, he simply faced a Carabelli that played extremely well, absolutely blasting his forehand (he followed up with a good performance against Zverev). Something to note is that Etcheverry has played all his indoor tournaments in rather slow conditions and that is something that will change now. He is still very capable in faster conditions, however, Mackie benefits a bit more from it...