You won’t find anything more local

The best tennis player in Hong Kong’s history is about to step onto the court for his second match here! Will the energy he gets from the crowd be enough to transcend him so he can overcome “clutch man”?

I think that to answer this question, you need to analyze the match-up more than Diallo’s actual level. I’m really wondering about the impact of the Canadian’s game on Wong’s. Why? Because there’s a bit of pressure when you’re playing at home, and Diallo is the kind of player you really can’t afford to make too many mistakes against. Points are played in just a few shots, he serves bombs, comes to the net, hits big from the baseline... I’m looking up Wong’s matches against big servers / aggressive players... Shelton in Miami: 7/6 in the third, Virtanen on grass: he takes two sets, losses to Basilashvili and Humbert, wins against Mpetshi, Walton and Janvier. Not a bad record. You don’t really feel any obvious struggle against that type of profile. A lot will come down to a few key points, and it’s pretty tricky to choose between the “clutch guy” and the fired-up local player. The Canadian is obviously the better player overall, but I still wouldn’t say he deserves odds at 1.45. I’d have put him a bit higher, like between 1.5 and 1.55. So let’s see what we’re left with...