WOW

I'm talking about Shevchenko as much as Humbert; if both are at the same level as in their last round, it's going to be incredible

Not necessarily surprised by Humbert’s level, we know he has that in his arm; what’s really cool is the timing because I was coming off a few pretty average matches that didn’t inspire much confidence for what’s next. He says he practiced well between IW and Miami and he’s just scored an easy win against Diallo, a rating of 8.9 that perfectly reflects the quality of his match. When Ugo plays like this, he’s not far from top-10 level. Historically his results in Miami aren’t amazing and I don’t really get why, his attacking game should work well there. Just one big match so far, but now he’s dangerous for the rest of the tournament, we know how he can be in this kind of week.

The surprise is Shevchenko! The Kazakh just knocked out Shelton and he fully deserves the win, his match was seriously top-tier. I’d already seen great things from him against Arnaldi, especially in terms of attitude, which rarely lies in his case, but this time he’s stepped up again and at this level he’s a very dangerous outsider too. The fact that he just beat another powerful lefty is great for him, but he’s down 3–0 against Humbert, who still plays very differently from Shelton.

The Frenchman cuts off the angles, grabs you by the throat and puts on a level of intensity that’s tough to handle; he gave Shevy a beatdown at the start of the year and apart from their match at Wimbledon there was another thrashing. I do think the Frenchman’s game is way too hard for Shevy to contain, since Shevy also likes to dictate play on his side, but on the other hand he’s playing his best tennis and raising his level at the big tournaments, and that has to be taken into account.