Shit again...

A clear logical favorite, but who’s been a bit erratic lately. Anything we bettors can do?

Not sure...

A big disappointment from the Italian in front of his home crowd in Monte Carlo, but it also reveals the state of his form at the moment. If you look closely at the losses, you mainly feel a lack of confidence with a player who’s being a bit stubborn. But it’s not super alarming either. Hubbie played it well in Monte Carlo, just like Trungelliti in Marrakech, and Landaluce and Hijikata before that. I often bring this up, but I think this player lacks tennis IQ, which he makes up for with excellent tennis qualities.

That works out well because Zhang doesn’t really go big on strategy and variety in his game either ;). On top of that, he’s coming back from injury and looking for rhythm. Clay isn’t his best surface unlike his opponent’s, but he’s not bad on it either. And in altitude conditions, his serve +1 could be a real asset. Except the heaviness of the clay slows everything down, and big servers aren’t that advantaged when you look at Rinderknech, Michelsen, Shelton...

So a match that will probably be won by Darderi in my opinion, with some good resistance from the Chinese player. I’m just a bit wary of how the Italian might react if there end up being a lot of rain interruptions.