Déjà vu!

Remake of their match in Doha where Rinderknech held out for a long time!

Rinderknech had resisted and, above all, he even got himself two set points! It's funny, he almost always manages to bother Carlito when they play each other, there are often tie-breaks and all that. It's not surprising in the sense that Rinderknech loves this kind of match, he’s already pushed Sinner as well and becomes a very interesting outsider when he can play his relaxed tennis, but it’s still a surprise because we’re talking about Alcaraz! The Spaniard can hand out heavy beatdowns and he just did that against Dimitrov, he’s dialed in and motivated to take the title back here! The conditions are ideal for his game and a bit less so for Rinderknech, but Doha was almost the same and yet the Frenchman held on. I was going to say that Rinderknech hasn’t played a match in the tournament yet and that he might need one to feel strong, but that was also the case in Doha so yeah. The only difference is that Alcaraz hadn’t played since the Australian Open, so it’s not illogical that it took him some time to find his rhythm; now it’s different, he won the title in Doha and just had a great first round, there shouldn’t really be any adjustments needed this time.

When I look at how their match in Doha went, there are quite a few games where Rinder finds himself struggling on his serve, the margin is thin and it worked out back then, but precisely this time Carlito should be even more ruthless...