An example for Darderi?

We can find some similarities in the games of Khachanov and Darderi; the Italian has to take inspiration from Khacha.

Darderi keeps improving on hard courts, he’s got big ambitions this season and I’m personally not surprised to see him holding his own on a fast surface given his qualities. Yes, he’s still missing a real big performance to confirm his progress because for now it’s just a win over Garin and then Báez, two clay-courters… Beating Khachanov here would be a real step up! With his serving power and the heaviness of his forehand he can put Khacha in trouble, he knows it has to come from an offensive approach otherwise he’s going to get shut down. Why not go after tight ends of sets and be super clinical? Darderi is definitely not the smartest guy on court, but he plays with his heart and bites the bullet when it’s time to go for it. He’s going to attack hard on second serves, play his game and not chicken out. There was also a little MTO scare for a foot problem, he was moving a bit weirdly against Báez at times but he didn’t say anything about it in the press conference afterwards, so it should be fine.

That’s what the Italian can bring to the table, but now Khachanov is a serious customer in Grand Slams. After a sluggish start to the year, the Russian has bounced back well and is going to grow into this tournament. After a good battle against Michelsen, he steamrolled Basavareddy who had no weapons at all to hurt him (on top of being completely cooked). Darderi plays a more powerful game and on paper is capable of hurting him, but I’m still pretty relaxed about Khacha, who knows how to handle this kind of match. The format plays in his favor, and so does the experience. There are quite a few scenarios where he comes out the winner, right? The big factor that could change everything is the heat, it’s going to be almost 40 degrees tomorrow!! And for those in the know, you’re aware Khacha hates that, he’ll need to be watched closely. On the other hand, even if Darderi is a pure clay-courter who’s supposed to be resistant to the heat, I’ve already seen him struggle when conditions were tough too, so in other words I think it kind of cancels out a bit.