Too hard for Stan

A more challenging test for the Swiss against a very solid Russian

Medvedev got his tournament off to a perfect start by handing Shang a heavy defeat. The Chinese player was still physically diminished, but the Russian did exactly what he needed to do with great focus, in line with his easy win over the same opponent two weeks earlier. Here, the slightly fast conditions suit him well: they highlight his quality of serve, his depth of shot, and his ability to pin his opponent far behind the baseline.

Wawrinka, for his part, produced a clean and disciplined first-round performance against Hassan. The Swiss let his experience speak, without rushing, but the challenge is clearly much tougher today. Against a player as consistent as Medvedev, he will have to maintain a very high level over time, which is difficult at 39, especially against an opponent who excels at forcing you to play one more shot. In this matchup, it is hard to picture Wawrinka genuinely disrupting the Russian. Medvedev should be too solid in the rallies, able to absorb the power of the Swiss’s backhand and, above all, to force errors by extending the exchanges. While Stan can still produce spells of very high-level tennis, sustaining that intensity over two sets seems difficult in this context.