A Confident Korda?

Could Greece and no pressure be exactly what he needed right now?

"Every time we play, we battle. He's an incredible player. I'm sure next year he's going to be doing even better than he did this year. Hopefully, we can play many more times, and hopefully we can play deeper tournaments next time." On playing in Greece: "Yeah, beautiful. First time in Greece, so I'm really enjoying it. I have my girlfriend here — I'm sorry, my friend Basile, my physio. We're enjoying it, and it's been great so far."

I'm not sure I've ever seen Korda with this kind of "energy", even cracking some jokes! I really liked his first-round performance against Popyrin in a tricky rematch from Stockholm. He is a top player; his "underlying metrics" are really good and complete. We know what the issues are... his mentality and clutchness. He did show some strength in that area in the latter stages of that match, which gives me hope (along with his post-match energy). However, he has to be careful... because he'll be facing one of the most underrated players on tour - Dzumhur. And if Korda played a good match, so did he. Honestly, he made Fearnley look absolutely helpless on the court; he had no answers whatsoever! As I mentioned in the preview for that match, Dzumhur can play on faster surfaces as well! Like many weaker servers, the added boost to their serve is an underrated benefit (same with altitude), since it is way more exposed on slower surfaces. Dzumhur is a great returner with good reactions and speed, so he can make an impact on return even on faster surfaces as well. Once again, I mentioned in my other preview for him that he struggles more against Solid Baseliners with bigger weapons like him (like Cerundolo). He has an absolutely incredible 18-2 HCP record when facing Attacking Baseliners. And yes, Fearnley is an Attacking Baseliner... and so is Korda. They are also both quite "unreliable" in their performances. This is something that someone like Dzumhur can really exploit. So, will Korda meet the same fate? I'm not so sure, at least not early on. I have a feeling that we'll see a confident Korda that imposes himself in the first set, especially against a Dzumhur who was great but perhaps also slightly overrated due to a poor Fearnley performance. Can you see what bet I'm leaning towards...?