Serbian exploit?

Miomir Kecmanovic is starting to string together matches full of seriousness and consistency. Enough to go and challenge a Zverev who’s also in good form but still on the comeback?

The Serb has already beaten the German once in their three meetings, that was in Cincinnati in 2019. A historic win, important for his confidence. A very easy victory for Zverev in Paris in 2020, at Bercy. I don’t remember the Serb being good at the end of the season indoors. A third match in Chengdu in 2023, two and a half years ago, the first tournament of the Asian swing after the US Open, so a tight match is understandable.

Z showed a calm and relaxed attitude against the Frenchman Moutet in his first round. His serve quality and his forehand, which indicate whether he’s in form, worked very well. The Serb is going to have some work to do. What I find lacking in the Serb is a bit of game intelligence or tactical decision-making. Against the German, there aren’t many options. From the baseline, Kecmanovic is impressive. But that’s not the weapon that usually bothers Zverev, especially not in Acapulco conditions. I won’t try to tempt fate here. But if Zverev is pushed back a bit, Kecmanovic could take advantage to hit an over on games. So I’ll quickly go and look at the odds to see what’s going on.