The serving machine

If Hurkacz is dialed in on serve, he’s supposed to have a quiet week on his service games

Good start for Hurkacz, who has an interesting track record at this tournament. He just beat Rublev, who also could have become dangerous if he'd managed to raise his level. The problem is that the Russian was completely off today. His serve was atrocious, and the overall quality of his game was just as worrying. Hurkacz played a great match on his side, but honestly, across the net it was a disaster. It's hard to rely on a match like that to really highlight Hurkacz. We'll have to wait and see against some real opposition.

Can Altmaier be considered real opposition? I’m inclined to say yes. The German surprised me in his win over Basilashvili, even if, once again, the Georgian self-destructed, especially in the second set. But from Altmaier’s side, it was surprisingly solid on grass. He had already managed to take a set off Tiafoe last week by serving extremely well, and he repeated that with another big serving performance. He really seems to be feeling the ball on that shot this week, it seems. And there’s also an extra, hugely important addition in the form of Dustin Brown, who has joined his team temporarily—maybe longer, I don’t have that information. And when you know Dustin Brown’s grass-court expertise, for me it’s no coincidence that all of a sudden Altmaier starts playing well on grass and winning matches.

There have been two meetings between Hurkacz and Altmaier, both ending in a win for Hurkacz on clay, with a tiebreak each time. On grass, the Pole has such high-quality serving that it’s going to be very hard for Altmaier to have any impact on return. But he’s really inspired right now and playing with a great attitude. This is the kind of moment when he’s capable of pulling off something big. We know him. If he also maintains the same quality on serve, there’s a good chance we’ll see a match that’s at least somewhat tight and hard-fought.