STINGINGLY-MIND-BLOWING!

Darderi just won two matches when he was in serious trouble. This week, you have to beat him twice to come out on top.

After getting absolutely hammered by Paul, even though he played well, I felt his first part of the match against Zverev today was much worse from his side. Zverev was indeed playing very well, but it was mostly the Italian who failed tactically and in terms of tennis before pulling himself together and taking advantage of a serious drop in confidence from Zverev, who started just pushing the ball.

Physically, Darderi had to dig really deep, but it's mostly mentally that he deserves credit because he wasn't playing well and his opponent wasn't giving him anything. He twice came back from a break down in the second set and saved four match points before finally running away with it. This week, right up to the last point, he won't admit defeat. The back-to-back matches will become increasingly tough physically, but he'll make up for it with his mindset and the crowd's energy, that's for sure.

He’s going to need it because what’s waiting for him is seriously tough in the form of Jodar, who seems immune to outside pressure and has been playing blistering tennis for several weeks now. The Spaniard once again played a very high-level match against Tien, with only a tiny dip at the start of the second set, but he immediately made up for it by getting the break back in the next game. The rest was simply perfect: he doesn’t make errors, he attacks on the return; as soon as a ball is neutral, he hurts you. With that constant winner’s mentality, he doesn’t waste much energy celebrating and just dominates everyone. This guy is a threat and doesn’t seem ready to stop.

I get the feeling it’s going to be the same kind of match for Darderi as his last two: a bit of a sluggish start where he gets blown off the court by a guy playing better tennis than he is. Then, as time goes on and he gets into the match with a bit more aggression, he might manage to turn it around again. But looking at it before the match, I still see Jodar coming out on top most of the time here, even though I really like Darderi.