Never two without three?

Third meeting this year between the two men, and still no victory for Nuno. Is today the day?

To try to guess it, you have to understand why Father Nuno keeps losing all the time. The Portuguese hates being rushed. He even says it himself: “The way he is inside the court, playing very aggressively just behind his serve. I’m not the only one who doesn’t like that. I can’t play my game because he takes time away from me by taking control of the rallies really early.”

And yes, this isn’t new. Besides, if you saw the first set of Borges vs Kecma, it was exactly that: a lost Portuguese because of the Serb’s aggressiveness (who, by the way, admitted he’d been sick and therefore played even more in short, forward-oriented patterns).

Another bit of bad news for Nuno: Rublev has just come to the conclusion against Carabelli that as soon as he played aggressively, he bothered his opponent a lot more.

The good news for Nuno is that he can still adjust. First, we’re in a Grand Slam. There are at least 3 sets, and the heat does affect the Russian’s level of aggressiveness. Then, what can he do?

1: be the first to attack. That’s what many have done to bother Rublo. I’m thinking of Rinderknech at the US Open, of Fils, etc. Does he have the weapons to do it? Absolutely! Good footwork, short backswings… I think it’s mostly mental.

2: endure and vary. Exactly like Quentin Halys against Ugo Humbert yesterday. You aim for the middle so you don’t give too much angle. You loop your shots to buy time. You play a lot to the backhand. Sometimes you hit a big bomb, sometimes you slice, sometimes you play short… You have to throw the Rublo machine out of rhythm!

Easier said than done, right?

On Rublo’s side, he has to manage his nerves, as usual, plus the heat now… and the fatigue! His drop in aggressiveness in the second set of his last match was clearly due to fatigue. If he doesn’t manage his low phases well, he risks getting dragged into another complicated match here...