Can Nava still pull off a surprise?

The American is having a good tournament so far and is heading into this match as the underdog for the third time in a row.

Against Berrettini it made sense to see him as the underdog, he was coming off two bad matches and on the other side it was supposedly a tough opponent. But against Vallejo yesterday we didn’t understand why his odds were so high with such crazy closing numbers… He managed his match well, getting his serve and forehand going beautifully, his two main weapons that really hurt in these conditions. He says he’s confident, that he feels good, so obviously we’re going to have to be wary of him once again!

Things change a bit in this third match: he’s up against a much stronger opponent than what he’s faced so far, and whenever that was the case in previous tournaments he took a beating. Berrettini and Vallejo are not at Cerundolo’s level; the Argentine is coming off a title in Buenos Aires and a retirement mainly due to fatigue in Rio. For his first match in this tournament yesterday, he rolled over Moller easily. Nothing to get carried away about, but he’ll once again be the favorite for the title this week and on paper he’s supposed to be twice as good as Nava. With his returning quality and weapons similar to the American’s but more solid, Cerundolo has this match on his racket. I’m afraid it could be a straightforward score once Nava runs out of solutions and starts forcing things…