My dear Walton!

The Australian is a pleasure to watch right now! Enough to upset the odds?

Not easy against the defending champion! Mensik is playing really well at the moment too. And his title here is anything but a fluke: the conditions are perfect for him. Big serve, great counterpunching ability, and aggressive, powerful tennis to make the difference from the baseline. On the other hand, it’s his first match here, there’s a bit of pressure on him to defend his title, he’s coming off a weird thing against Foki in Indian Wells (he felt like throwing up during the match), and he still plays quite a lot of tie-breaks in his matches. Walton, for his part, will have no pressure at all, but instead the motivation of defending his R16 from last year (he’s not going to beat himself up if he loses to Mensik, world no. 12), and he’s also playing very well right now. So I’m obviously going to try to grab an over or a handicap ;)