Way above Berrettini??

1.44 on the Italian, you really have to be convinced he’s going to roll over Mannarino.

For those who didn’t know, Mannarino recently lost his mom. After Garin, who lost his dad, I have to analyze another very particular case, and it’s so hard to know how each player handles this kind of thing. If I refer to Garin, he said that playing allowed him to think about something else and do something he really enjoys, and I imagine it’s kind of the same for everyone: their comfort zone is on a tennis court. I didn’t see Mannarino’s match last week but apparently it wasn’t great, without being a total disaster either. I’ll just point out that he lost to Shimabukuro, who’s on fire and just qualified for the R1 of Indian Wells as I’m writing this. I’m not expecting the best version of Mannarino, but I think he’ll show up and play his match, and if that’s the case he’s got a chance to win.

Because yes, it’s the Frenchman who leads the H2H, he’s 2–0 against Berrettini, including a win last year. I’m not really surprised: with his lefty touch and low shots he really pisses Berrettini off. The Italian is tall, heavy, and weak on the backhand side, so it makes sense. He also has to handle a small transition since he’s coming from the Golden Swing! No big results there, quite the opposite, it was labored every time and disappointing in the losses. Physically he’s still far from his peak, and tennis-wise as well, where there have been some big shortcomings. Mentally, though, he seems to have the edge; that’s his biggest strength in my opinion, and with the particular situation on Manna’s side, I think that’s a major factor. With him we know he’ll fight from the first to the last point, whereas at any moment Manna might just have had enough..

I’d say that in pure tennis terms Mannarino still has every chance to win, but everything else really holds me back..