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After facing off at the Australian Open, we have a rematch, and this time Darderi is the favorite.

Baez was around 1.60 in their previous meeting, which made sense given his form advantage and his blazing start to the season, that obviously played into the odds. In the match I have to say he was disappointing, but it was mainly physically that he looked tired from the run of matches. A lot more unforced errors than usual, less resistance from the baseline, and a good Darderi too, to be fair! The Italian then backed it up and is having a huge start to the tournament in Buenos Aires, he’s a player in great form with a powerful game, and he’s now the bookmakers’ favorite.

Baez is still having a good start to the tournament too, very focused. He saved two set points yesterday against Carabelli and gave himself a bit of a scare in the rallies with lots of unforced errors before accepting to slow things down and construct points. On the other hand, he says he’s tense and stressed, maybe he’s putting huge pressure on himself at home, because given his results on the Golden Swing in general and his results here, there’s a gap. It’s the first time he’s reached the semifinals at this tournament and so far it’s nothing special, really.

I still feel like Darderi is making a huge leap this year and that he just has better weapons than Baez to perform.