Finally a bit of a breather?

You can criticize Kecmanovic for a lot of things, but the reality is that right now he’s only getting awful draws.

Kecmanovic’s clay season so far is a loss in a deciding tie-break against Norrie in Monte Carlo, then a loss in a deciding tie-break against Zverev in Munich, and a tight straight-sets loss to Altmaier in Madrid. The poor guy hasn’t had an easy match on clay against opponents everyone wants to avoid at all costs.

I don’t think he’s bad in what he’s doing on court, but across the net there are good players and above all, Kecmanovic is quite well known as a guy who plays good matches, puts up big fights, but ends up losing in the deciding tie-break as always.

The draw is nicer for him this week, since he’s facing a qualifier and not a big name. But watch out, because Svrcina is a tricky player to handle. The young Czech is mobile, intelligent, and able to break up the rhythm to the point of making his opponents implode. He’s not the kind of player you like to face when you’re lacking confidence.

He came through qualifying by beating Bonzi and then Kjaer in two pretty straightforward sets. I think this fairly heavy clay brings out his strengths.

On the one hand, I find the match-up and the opponent easier for Kecmanovic this time. Being the one who dictates play is not something that really bothers him. He’s got real firepower and plays well on clay because he also likes having time and not being rushed. The problem is that he’s low on confidence and, as I said, Svrcina can quickly turn into a trap match if you get bogged down a bit too much and let yourself get dragged into his rhythm.