Even less obvious..

I was telling you last week about the passing of Garin’s dad a few weeks ago and how hard it is to approach this kind of match..

The same dilemma comes up, and on top of that we add the fact that it’s at home for Garin this time, the emotion will be at its peak and I wish with all my heart for him to win. I can’t say he played well last week, it was actually pretty bad, and he says the changes they tried to make in pre-season aren’t really working, he’s doubting a bit and wondering if he shouldn’t just go back to basics. Things are complicated for him off court and even on court as a result, he looks like he’s got no answers.

It’s the complete opposite for JM Cerundolo, who kept his foundations but has become much more aggressive than before, it’s a nice evolution. I’ve been singing his praises for a few matches now and I’ll keep doing it. He slipped up against Kopriva but it was an excellent opponent in front of him. In altitude conditions with a ball that shoots off the court a lot, he can become even more annoying than usual, but he’ll also be a bit easier to hit through since everything goes faster.

This will be their first meeting and JM Cerundolo comes in with a huge edge in terms of form, but also mentally to be fair. Garin has won this tournament once, but in other years he’s gone out quite early; I only see this very special context helping him pull off a little miracle at home, but I’m not going to bet based only on that unfortunately.