Superb encounter between earthlings

Tiebreak and tight match expected, interesting...

We’ve got two very good servers who rely on a serve +1 combo that works really well. Damm is ultra aggressive and tries to shorten the points by taking huge risks, but when you look at the history of big servers in this tournament, you figure he’s going to be a pain to face; on this weird clay with no real depth he’s going to be hard to break (unless he breaks himself). Strangely, he’s played quite a few clay matches in Futures, which is interesting, but Houston is closer to a hard court, it’s just nice to know he’s not showing up there discovering sliding for the first time. After a great breakthrough indoors he hasn’t backed it up at all though, he needs to get back on track, and fast.

Nakashima also needs to bounce back, but he has excuses. I’m a bit disappointed with his IW/Miami swing, but he lost to Zverev and Cilic after having a match point, and that’s his number one weakness: tense matches. When it gets close to the key moments he tightens up and doesn’t play as well; Cilic beat him with experience… Historically he’s good in Houston, in two appearances he’s made a quarterfinal and a semifinal, which isn’t surprising for a player as serious and consistent as he is, even if I admit this first round does look a bit like a trap when you think about it. Nobody wants to get Damm in a first round, it’s scrappy and dangerous if Damm’s having a good day, Nakash is really going to have to be careful.