The two gems!

At 19 and 20 years old respectively, we’ll be seeing them for many years to come, and that’s to our great delight given the tennis they’re playing.

What a performance from Jodar against Arnaldi! The Spaniard is simply a monster who seems unsinkable. Even when he was down a break in the third set and had the whole crowd against him, he finished super strong and once again showed his mental strength and resilience, even at his young age. When I see the quality of his first set, I can’t help but think that Tien is going to suffer, especially if he doesn’t land his first serve, because Jodar attacks as soon as there’s the slightest neutral ball. We could see that even Arnaldi, who is a very fast player and good at countering/defending, couldn’t contain the Spaniard’s power.

The only lull Jodar had was when Arnaldi tried to take the initiative in the rallies, hit harder, and take time away from him. That’s what Tien will have to do tomorrow, but the American is not a powerful player; he mainly shines thanks to his intelligence and his angles. I’m a bit afraid he’ll be overwhelmed by the pace and won’t have enough time to set up his game properly.

I have to admit I was surprised by Tien’s level against Bublik. Even he says he’s improving on clay and is even starting to enjoy the surface. His tennis is excellent, that doesn’t change, and even if it doesn’t perfectly match clay-court tennis, he’s still an excellent tennis player and that’s more than enough to beat a whole bunch of players, period.

As I said, I’m a bit worried for Tien because he tends to get choked too often. I also wonder about his ability to reproduce matches of that quality on clay, because he doesn’t fully master the surface yet, unlike Jodar. The Spaniard seems way too far ahead to me at the moment. But the odds are awful as always.