Hit but not sunk

Etcheverry gets roughed up the way he should, but in the end it's still (almost) always him who wins

Another tiebreak to play for Etcheverry yesterday and not a feeling of domination at all, he really got pushed around by Faria in the first set! He kept his head down and then as the match went on he completely took over, especially physically, with Faria starting to cramp up right at the very end of the match. It bears repeating, but Etcheverry is a mental and physical beast, he is extremely hard to beat. I feel he’s particularly invested this week despite the difficulty, he wants to reach the final and he’s being positive in everything he says.

Another big match is waiting for him tonight against Kopriva, the Czech has been excellent this week and comes in with three wins without dropping a single set. He’s only been broken once as well, which is impressive. You also have to say that his opponents weren’t that great either; each time he was the better player on court. Against Etcheverry that’s not the case, this time he comes in as a real underdog and faces a genuinely good player; beating him would be a real achievement. Last week Kopriva played his matches before collapsing pretty heavily against Cerundolo, and I’m wondering if we’re not seeing his ceiling again here? He said he was quite tired in his second set yesterday and even though Etcheverry has played a lot, he, on the other hand, never cracks in that department… I have these two doubts in this matchup that completely stop me from backing Kopriva without reservations.