Giron's Revenge?

A third-set tiebreak loss in Chengdu, can he get the better of Nakashima this time?

Well, they are facing off on indoor hardcourts for the first time. That should be a positive for Giron; I find him better on indoor hardcourt, while Nakashima tends to do better outdoors. Neither player is in their best form right now. We know that these conditions are great for Giron, fast and low-bouncing, can't get better with his extremely flat groundstrokes ;) We can't take a lot from his first-round win against Pedro Martinez, since he is just a "walking BYE" at this point. As for Nakashima, the last time we saw him in Paris was against Alexandre Muller, where he looked really flat (going up against a fired-up Muller and crowd did not help at all). So, was it due to facing an opponent with a big crowd behind him, or is he simply "going through the motions" now at the end of the season? Something to keep in mind is that Nakashima can get seeded for the Australian Open 2026 if he gets a good result here, so that should be good motivation. I'm expecting a motivated Giron also; he needs to fight for ranking points, and he seemed very frustrated with himself in Paris against Altmaier, when he couldn't find his level at all. I don't think the matchup is that great for Giron, mainly cause of how solid and clutch Nakashima is behind his own serve. Giron is quite good at keeping his own serve, but he tends to have more of those "loose" service games and to be shaky in the key moments. Something else that I don't like is that he lost the match in Chengdu, despite being the better player on the day...