The new Tiafoe

The American has apparently gotten seriously back to work; he’s now 100% devoted to tennis and doesn’t want to have any regrets later on.

Tiafoe is almost talking about an “intervention” from his close circle to get his head straight again, since he was letting himself go a bit (or at least could have been doing more). Words that really resonated with him; he’s going to give it everything and he knows it might take time before it really shows on court though. In any case, he still has real status at Grand Slams given his track record, it’s his favorite playground. He was super focused in the first round and apart from a pretty sluggish first set that he could have lost, it was good. We’re ramping up the intensity with this second round which looks exciting! Comesana is often presented as a giant-killer at Grand Slams actually: he disappoints when he’s the favorite, but he’s always a real pain as an underdog. In his case he lost a set in the first round, but it wasn’t really deserved given how calm and composed he was. His ceiling is always on a knife-edge, he can play amazing matches then suddenly fade and nobody knows why, but given the length of the format and the scale of a Slam, I’d say there’s little chance he blows it now.

I’m wary of the Argentinian, especially in a night session that doesn’t look like it’ll be very warm; his defensive skills and variety are going to be tough for Big Foe to handle in conditions that should be much slower this time. I think Tiafoe’s long-term work will really pay off in a few weeks or months, that all his problems aren’t fully solved yet, and that up against such a dangerous, gritty opponent we’re going to get a match full of twists and turns!