The other miracle survivor

Barrios saved two match points then Seyboth retired a few minutes later, crazy

It’s almost like a lucky loser showing up against Darderi here; Barrios has nothing left to lose and can already consider himself lucky to be in the second round. He got dominated in every aspect against Seyboth, he was less sharp on serve and in rallies, he took a lot of pressure without ever managing to turn the match in his favor. He’s going to face a pretty similar profile in the sense that Darderi is very powerful on serve and impactful from the baseline with heavy shots. The Italian is excellent on clay and he’s started the season well on hard courts with big ambitions. I think his pre-season with Sinner fired him up and now he feels even stronger than before. I rate him highly, I defend him on hard but on clay I don’t even need to, because he already has titles on the main tour and everyone knows how dangerous he is. In this tournament he hasn’t really performed yet, but he hasn’t had good draws either, he lost to Báez and Cerúndolo. This time he comes in as a seeded player and gets Barrios in R1, that’s a lot nicer!

We always wonder whether the favorite will start his tournament well or drop a set before finding his rhythm; personally, I see a much higher chance of getting a good Darderi right away than the opposite.