Here we meet again...

Remake of the semi in Acapulco, I have things to tell you!

Nice, interesting chance for revenge for the Serb after his defeat in the semifinals of the Acapulco tournament a week ago. The two players are facing each other again. If you didn’t see that semifinal, it was the Italian who won it, 3 very tight sets with shifts in momentum and a match that could have swung either way. My interpretation is that the Italian, Cobolli, played with a bit more heart on the big points, whereas the Serb is sometimes a bit tired, passive, or at least not quite ruthless enough. He doesn’t manage to find an extra burst of energy in those crucial moments, which means he loses quite a few very tight three-set matches, but his consistency and technical quality also allow him to win some of them, including one against Zverev in this same tournament. So it’s also a body language we’re interpreting, and it’s not that bad. What’s the difference now between this match in Indian Wells and their match in Acapulco? Of course, the timing. Cobolli, the Italian, won the title in Acapulco, so he comes in with a bit more satisfaction than in Acapulco, where he was on a mission. That matters because the desire for revenge and pride in a tennis player fuels motivation, and I think that’s why the Serb is now the favorite. In terms of pure tennis, it’s very close between the two men, and I picture a long match, with the Italian possibly making slightly better use of the characteristics of the Indian Wells courts which, admittedly, are a bit faster this year but overall remain slower than average and produce a bounce and conditions similar to clay, which are therefore logically a bit more favorable for the Italian.