Igor from Rio

Who are you, Igor Marcondes?

The Brazilian came through qualifying, his best ranking is 258 in the world and he’s 28 years old, so what if this is the feel-good story? I won’t lie, I’m discovering him, it’s the first time I’ve seen him play and I missed his qualies, so I went to watch a few of his past Challenger matches this season to see what he’s about. I honestly found him pretty light: he’s a lefty, two-handed backhand and very little power. His serve isn’t impactful and his forehand isn’t technically pretty, but he’s a real grinder, just how we like them! He puts a ton of height and topspin on his forehand and uses a lot of drop shots, he can wear his opponents down but not really beat them with speed or power. I honestly don’t know how he managed to beat Tseng and Faria in qualifying, did he transcend himself? 16/18 break points saved, you can’t exactly say he’s rock solid either but everything seems to be going his way… This R1 is winnable as well, he avoids the seeds and gets Buse.

The Peruvian is back to competition and it really showed in Buenos Aires, big lack of rhythm/feel. He scraped out a win against Passaro before playing a good set against Baez and then being cooked; that’ll be the main angle to watch, if the match goes long he could completely cramp up and fall apart. But in terms of level of play he’s well above, great serve quality, powerful game, modern profile, it’s supposed to be a fairly clear win if both players play to their level. Now, as I said, Marcondes came out of nowhere, beat two good players and will have the crowd behind him, so you have to be wary of that…