A chance?

Medvedev’s profile seems to be the perfect kryptonite for that of the Hungarian. Let’s take a closer look...

And their head-to-head confirms it: 2–0 Daniil, without losing a single set. We can take that into account, but to put it back into context, Maroz was terrible in Almaty at the end of the season, and Daniil at the 2024 US Open was playing top-5 level every single day, so yeah... In terms of level of play, as said in the introduction, it’s also hard to picture Marozsan as the favorite in their match-up. Maybe indoors with little time to react, Fabian could really let loose with his legendary aggressiveness, his silky drop shots, and his volleying quality. But outdoors on a big court, not so easy. Given Fabian’s current level, over one set I can see it, but over a full match in this format, no thanks. We’ve just seen how big the gap is between a Daniil and a Quentin Halys in terms of endurance. And Fabian is not what you’d commonly call a Grand Slam format player. It’s simple: he’s had big drops in intensity in each of his last four matches. You’ll tell me, “yeah but Daniil always self-destructs a bit in every match”: okay, even if that’s a bit strong, he does let his opponent back in a bit too often. But what happens after that? Before, with Cervara, he really could self-destruct and lose the match. Now, he pulls himself together quickly. So, not much value for me here...