The two miracle men

Paul saved seven match points to prevail against Echeverry. But we shouldn’t forget that Altmaier was also down a set and a break before turning the match around against Shelton.

I’ll start by talking about Altmaier, who pulled off a great comeback against Shelton and once again proves he’s a real giant-killer when he wants to be. He played some good, solid tennis, letting Shelton dictate the game most of the time and only stepping in when needed to hurt him. I really liked the German’s performance, but a straight-sets loss would almost have made sense given that Shelton was playing very well for a large part of the match before collapsing at the end. I feel like sometimes we see Altmaier looking really strong and we know we have to be wary of him, but this time, I didn’t get that feeling during his win over Shelton. I thought he played a good match, but it wasn’t anything exceptional either.

On Paul’s side, it’s almost the opposite. You think he saved match points but kind of deserved to lose, yet no, he genuinely played a great match, and Etcheverry was playing very solidly. The stats are pretty impressive: Paul finished with 41 points won at the net out of 57, which shows a clear intent to come forward as often as possible to avoid long, endless baseline rallies against Etcheverry, who’s better than him at that kind of game. It’s a game plan that worked really well and one he can absolutely use again as soon as tomorrow, especially with Altmaier’s one-handed backhand still being quite vulnerable when you put it under pressure. I see Paul as someone mobile enough defensively to dig in when needed, but also sharp enough offensively to actually make the difference.

I bet on Altmaier against Shelton because I was aware of the danger he posed, but his odds are less appealing tomorrow, and I find Paul much harder to beat right now than Shelton.