An explosive poster

Against Fils, FAA will have to contain the young Frenchman’s aggressiveness.

What a matchup for a “simple” ATP 250 quarterfinal today.

Fils backed up his first-round win yesterday with a solid victory against Blanchet. It’s far from perfect, but you can feel he’s already physically ready, and that he only needs rhythm and high-level matches to regain confidence. Whether he’s already ready to do that as soon as today against a clearly superior opponent is the big question of the day. FAA had a reassuring first round against Wawrinka, a match he controlled overall. We know FAA indoors is very, very serious, and he showed yesterday that we’ll have to reckon with him as early as this week.

First meeting between the two men — how can we see this match playing out?

FAA will, as always, rely on his two big strengths, serve and forehand, while Fils should logically be superior in the backhand diagonal. If Fils wants a chance, he’ll have to better manage his level of aggression and limit the errors, which he didn’t really manage to do effectively yesterday. There are also questions about playing back-to-back; he’s not used to it anymore, so it’s possible he might lack a bit of freshness today, which could matter in the key moments of the match.

Do we have any betting opportunities here?