Exciting!

Seeing the promising youngster facing a sad and injured Fritz, do we believe in it?

Well, that’s the whole art of this analysis: where is Fritz at right now? The American has always shown enormous resilience over his long seasons. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s able to string wins together of course. But wow, what he’s been taking since the start of the year! Abs, knee, elbow... His favorite tournament Indian Wells starts in 2 weeks, how does he usually prepare for it? I’d say it depends on his condition and how many matches he already has in his legs. Last season, he played Delray and skipped Acapulco. The season before, he hadn’t played much and he went to Acapulco to get some rhythm. Maybe he’s telling himself that he should do the max here in Florida, hang in there with the quality of his serve, then recover and skip Acapulco. But we’ll have to see the state of his elbow live, that’s for sure. Otherwise, what about Jodar? The Spaniard played at a thousand miles an hour against Quinn, who found himself with no solutions other than hitting harder. Now he’ll be up against the king of counterpuncher land with little Fritzy. The American is known for neutralizing his opponents from the baseline and serving steel. So yeah. Not the ideal match‑up for the young rookie. But if Fritz is a bit shaken by the sequence of matches and the change in conditions between Dallas and here, he might play a bit passively and leave some space for Jodar. I’d therefore look at the overs here...