Brandon keeping his momentum going?

After his impressive run in Brisbane, here is the American again, ready to battle it out. Will he confirm his resurgence?

We didn’t necessarily think he was capable of beating the players he beat the way he did in Brisbane. We had him pegged with certain limits we knew about, like his discomfort when the play gets too aggressive, his reliance on his serve, or his lack of creativity. Those limits are still there of course, but he pushed them back in Australia. So now I’m asking to see whether this resurgence will last over time or if it was mostly the effect of a few New Year’s resolutions. On this upcoming American swing, which will run until the end of March, we’ll, I think, get a pretty solid answer. On the Italian side, I almost want to say it’s always the same story: you never really know what to expect. That’s exactly where you need to be good. I couldn’t watch his matches in Manama, but they look encouraging. He’s a guy who fights, and I think he’ll be playing his best tennis very soon. Especially since he needs points to get back into the top 100. For today, it still feels a bit early for me, but just enough not to take a Nakashima line that’s too low. The Italian can play some very good tennis in these conditions—very aggressive, while being like a leech in defense. But I still find Nakashima’s weapons just a bit too strong for him today. So it will probably be a match where we’ll need to gather information…