The Russian Showdown

First time meeting between the 28-year-olds...

Yes, Roman is still young! Sometimes it does feel like he is much older, doesn't it? Could it be his "mature" looks and the serious demeanor? Well, anyway, it has not been easy for him lately, now outside the top 100. A lot of the time, it's the same story... he plays good matches, but then either self-sabotages at the wrong time or is unlucky. Truth to be told, that looked to be the case against Kym in his final qualifying round - but he made it! Rublev tends to be quite reliable when it comes to early rounds of Grand Slams, but I do worry a bit about his form heading into Wimbledon. His loss to Hurkacz in Halle was disastrous; his serve completely deserted him. He has since played two matches in the Boodles Tennis Challenge against Shevchenko and Kokkinakis and seems to be in a decent mood.

As for the matchup, it seems rather straightforward - both are Attacking Baseliners that like to smack the ball! Rublev is (obviously) the better and more consistent player. However, we know that he can be vulnerable against other aggressive players; we have seen it plenty of times - coming up against an opponent "on fire". Safiullin can play at a really high level due to his high-risk/high-reward game, but the issue is that the "floor" level is also low due to this. I would say I also prefer him either against a passive player that he can overpower or against a Big Server, where his return quality can shine. If he doesn't get to dictate the rallies and has to defend instead, he's in big trouble!