The danger

Damm is the kind of player you absolutely want to avoid in these conditions; with the quality of his serve and the confidence he’s been building since the qualifiers, he’ll be hard to take out.

The young American is starting to get results: after coming through qualifying at the Australian Open, he’s doing it again here, and it’s even less surprising given his qualities. Huge serve, high-risk attacking game – in these conditions it’s a crap draw, and Hurkacz completely collapsed against Damm today. I also like what he says: he’s really focused on his own level and his own tennis rather than the opponent’s, he wants to be the aggressor, and that’s what caused Hubi problems, just like it should cause problems for Agut, no?

The Spaniard saved two match points against O’Connell in a good-quality match, and he ran into an Australian who was much more motivated than in recent weeks. His first win since coming back from injury! The follow-up won’t be easy, physically I find him more and more limited and he also had good support on his knee. That said, the intensity of this second round won’t be as high, there will be lots of short points. Agut doesn’t really like Damm’s profile though, he doesn’t return well and doesn’t like being pushed around in defense; his attacking phases are still good with his flat shots, but as soon as he has to move, it immediately gets more complicated.

Given the form and the match-up, it’s Damm I’m making the favorite in this one, what about you?