But no...

As I like to say, when life tests you, it doesn’t do things by halves. Our talented Korda will be facing here a Zheng against whom he completely slipped up at the Australian Open. Payback time?

Hard to believe in the pride of a champion with Seb Korda, isn’t it? And yet, in the short term, I do believe in it. It might not be pretty, but I think he’s going to win this time. That pride, I feel he’s already shown it by playing the San Diego Challenger where the No. 2 seed (Hijikata) is a guy outside the top 100. And even if he loses in the final against a guy who, like Zheng, has a game that can bother him, I still see that as a positive sign. Then, we’re indoors now, no longer on outdoor hard courts with a best-of-five format under fairly hot sunshine. And finally, Zheng has played again after his injury, and it wasn’t very convincing. He lost in singles and doubles to players ranked beyond the 1000th place in the world. Nothing here makes me want to back the promising youngster, apart from a tricky game style that could trouble a bad version of Korda. But I think the odds are on my side...