We’re watching you, Rublo!

The Russian is always on the verge of snapping, and if we can spot it early when that’s the case, the values rain down!

Horrible loss to Diallo in Indian Wells, indeed Rublev arrived very late in the tournament because he was stuck in Indian Wells but that doesn’t excuse everything, especially when you see the good performances from Medvedev and Khachanov on their side. What I mostly saw was the bad Rublev, the one who has chances (or not) and gets frustrated on every lost point, he even split open the back of his hand by hitting himself, it’s hard to see him like that. I’m going to watch his attitude closely, maybe with some rest and a good preparation for this tournament he’ll be a bit more relaxed, or not… Historically it’s not an exceptional tournament for him, he’s got a semi-final but the rest is very poor. We prefer him in slow conditions where he can hit like a lumberjack. Not really excited before this first round but we also have to see who’s on the other side of the net!

It’ll be a Chilean on the menu! Tabilo is one of those players who are easy to lay when he doesn’t care/when he’s mentally absent and easy to back when he’s in form. This season the trend is positive, he’s found his best tennis again, he’s in better physical shape and mentally fresh. His aggressive game with a good serve works well on this kind of hard court and he’s always played good matches in this tournament. Quite a few Chileans in the stands as well, there’s a good vibe for South Americans in general. He already has a match in his legs with his win over Comesana, nothing amazing but the score is one-sided and he did the job, Comesana is so bad that I don’t want to get carried away either. I see Tabilo as a particularly annoying player to face when he’s dialed in, and that’s the case right now.

And what about the match-up in all this? I don’t really have a strong opinion, if Tabilo serves well and focuses on being offensive on his service games he can hold often, just like Rublev. I’m expecting a tight match.