Landaluce + clay = 2

The Spaniard is showing us a level well below what he showed us on hard courts recently. Does he have a chance of beating Cilic?

For me, lucky loser status or not, when Cilic smells blood, he doesn’t let go of his prey. The Croatian has the chance today to reach the third round against a guy who’s still not comfortable on the surface and whose rhythm-based game will suit him very well. I’m not asking for more than that. Especially since I’d gotten into the habit of judging based on Landaluce’s level in Miami at first, but for now, that’s a one-off tournament in terms of performances.

So then, won’t Cilic’s game also suit Landaluce since the match will probably look like a hard-court match? Yes, that too. And that’s why Landaluce was this close to beating Quinn in Aix. But he also lost to Walton in Madrid. That takes some doing when you see the Australian’s level in his next match against Khachanov.

Sure, there’s been improvement from the Spaniard in Rome. But when I total everything up a bit, I think it’s Cilic who’ll have the final say in quite a lot of scenarios.