Encounter in unknown territory

The luck will be decided in the second round here between these two hard-court players...

After his excellent match against Landaluce in Madrid, Walton took a beating against Khachanov in Madrid. Same story again?

We know his game well. It revolves around the serve, and he’s good at finding the right balance between aggression and patience from the baseline. But on clay, I find that mix isn’t quite polished yet. Especially since he’s up against a solid baseliner again, someone more solid than he is. He’s going to be forced to dictate play, and we saw that Svajda countered superbly against Popyrin in the first round. In my opinion, he should almost let the American take the initiative.

So, I don’t really believe in his chances. But I won’t back Svajda at just any odds either, because he has physical issues far too often and big swings in level. A real nightmare of a match!