How’s it goin’?

Valentin Vacherot gave us a good shitty match in Delray, but I think it’s...

Probably due, I hope, to his Davis Cup run. He had actually chosen to let a week go by, skipping Dallas before coming to Delray. But the Davis Cup is a huge emotional discharge for him, and we also tend to forget that every tournament he plays now is something new for him. His very first match of the year in Brisbane was very similar to the one in Delray. But very quickly, we all said to ourselves: “OK, the guy really is still playing at his ranking level, actually.” So I’m expecting a Val who gets back on track here, without of course having the extreme confidence he had during his hot streak. On Wong’s side, his game is there, but the sequence of matches worries me a bit. I didn’t see his Q2 loss against Kypson though. The American can hit like steel when everything is clicking, but I still suspect Wong is a bit wiped out. And he’s a guy who needs to be precise with his footwork to play aggressively. In Acapulco, they often play at night. Apparently it’s not too humid, but you’re still in conditions that wear you down. The courts and balls don’t seem very fast, and to beat Val, you really need to be all-in. So I’m picturing a Val win with a bit of a margin, and I see Wong’s lucky-loser status more as a handicap due to the scheduling and fatigue than as an opportunity.