6-2, second set

Already 8 meetings between the two men, and the matchup clearly seems to lean towards the Spaniard. Time for Daniil to fight back?

Anyway, the Russian is playing some really good tennis this year at IW. The conditions are a bit faster than usual, the balls suit him better, and he’s just dishing out beatdowns. On his side, all the lights are green. On the Spanish side, the guy is simply undefeated in 2026. His matches even turn into a joke sometimes, with sequences so insane, tennis-wise, that his opponent ends up laughing with him. It’s just monstrous. The guy’s composure on court, while still playing every point flat out. Carlos is on cloud nine. And the match-up suits him really well against Daniil because, apart from the serve, the Russian struggles to really make a difference in the rallies against someone as mobile as Carlos, and Carlos is powerful enough to crack the defense of the Russian wall. I’m not even talking about the rest, like the variety of shots and patterns Carlos is capable of, whereas Daniil, even if he’s improved, is not the player with the most feel in the world, nor the best volleys, nor the one who mixes up spins the most… Daniil has one huge weapon: his resilience (and his serve, okay). The Carlos of the past might have dropped a set by not knowing which shot to choose to break through Daniil’s defense, but those almost identity-level issues now seem far away, the Spaniard is so much on a cloud…