Gala match!

Who said that the first laps of M1000 over 12 days were boring? ;)

Korda has found his brilliance again. This player can be impressive, playing at a top-10 level every morning. He has a pure, forward-thinking game, and when he’s in a good place mentally and physically, he can do a lot of damage. Now, the first thing I say to myself is OK, Korda is doing better, which could mean he might give us a bad match. We’re traumatized by this player and we’re being cautious. All the signals are green, and it’s often in these moments that he struggles. But we’re going to assume everything is fine and factor that risk into our stake. On the other side, we’ve got an Australian who’s not in great form, at least not in his best form since his win in Rotterdam. He hasn’t performed much, which is actually a good sign in the sense that his Australian swing was exhausting and his loss to Alcaraz must have stirred up a lot of things for him. However, he responded well by winning in Rotterdam. Then he lost to a Kypson. He wasn’t very good, but it was his first round and Kypson, the American, played out of his mind, so we’re not going to hold it against him too much. The conditions aren’t that bad for him in the sense that it’s a bit slower, which suits him. However, because it’s slow, he’ll be less able to make the difference with his accelerations. He has a rather flat game, which is also the case with Korda. In terms of match-up, I think both of them, with their style of play, can make each other look good. Generally, it’s the Australian who comes out on top because he’s much more consistent. He’s much tougher mentally than the American, but with the American, we allow ourselves to believe. It all depends on how much this factor has been built into the odds, but I can definitely see the American doing something here.