The floor is Nava

The American Emilio Nava has fire in his racket: a game that could really appeal to the Brit...

And yes, especially since—I didn’t want to say it in the introduction—but I think Nava’s tennis is crumbling as his body takes more and more punishment. On January 12 in Auckland, he finished the second set against Baez clearly bothered. Six days later, he plays Jacquet here. The start of his match is perfect. His power is on a completely different level compared with the Frenchman. But he can’t maintain that level of play for 3 sets in a row. As the match goes on, the inaccuracies grow, Jacquet’s eye sharpens, and the gap narrows. Nava will play the last two sets in a “do or die” mode. And then it worked out in the super tie-break… Two full days of recovery later, where will he be at? If, like me, you think it’s more about minor physical issues than outright fatigue, then the likely scenario is clear: a blazing start from Nava, knowing he can’t last 3 hours against good old grinder Norrie, then the momentum gradually shifts. So we wait to take Norrie’s ML live. How was the Brit? I couldn’t watch the match. He says he had a decent level, despite a few dips, especially on serve. Physically? “I felt like I was flying on the court in the fifth set, it was fun!” That’s mainly what I wanted to hear. I want Norrie to be fit enough to counter Nava, whether by defending or by attacking so he doesn’t get attacked.