The buddies face off

Neither of them will be happy with this draw, but there are so many Argentinians in the draw this week that it was bound to happen!

Carabelli just defended his title in Rosario the way he was supposed to: he wins the title again and I really took advantage of it! I followed him all week and damn, what a great level of tennis. He’s finally at 100% physically with no niggles, and I can assure you he’s going to be really tough to beat on clay again. On the other hand he still has a weird attitude and is affected by fatigue (let me remind you he loves to sleep and take naps), so his ability to string matches together will need to be monitored, even if it’s fine this time since he has a day of rest and his matches weren’t super tough from the quarters onwards. He really impressed me, while Comesana was a bit of a disappointment! He completely blew it in his second round against a Brazilian I didn’t know. His serve didn’t work and he sprayed balls all over the court, that’s his little guilty flaw. I hope he’ll get back to his best level in Buenos Aires, but the momentum is clearly not on his side.

As for the H2H, we only have one straightforward win for Carabelli, so it’s hard to rely on that. Beyond the match-up, I’m putting more weight on current form: we’ve got two players who can either transcend themselves or completely collapse on a bad day, both in terms of tennis and attitude. I have Carabelli as the favorite in this one after his title, but Comesana can pull out some great matches when you least expect it, so I’m staying cautious.