Zizou scores, and we win 3–0 ;)

It’s still getting more and more tense for the Belgian, he’d better not get too cocky!

The Belgian follows up with Eastbourne and gives us a back-to-back against Ugo. And it’s deserved. The books were wrong twice in a row, and we weren’t even capable of taking Zizou’s ML. What should we do here?

My first thought obviously goes to the back-to-back for Zizou. He clearly dropped off in sets 3 and 4 against Ugo, and at the start of set 5. As a reminder, the win in Eastbourne is the first ATP tournament of his career.

On the other side, the Portuguese player is putting together a huge Grand Slam run. First, he qualifies for the main draw for the third time in a row this season, but it doesn’t stop there. He’s playing excellent matches afterwards! Already in his R1 against Shimabukuro, I was a bit surprised by his level. Apart from the first set, he was very often on top in a lot of areas. On serve, he was unplayable for quite a while. From the baseline, he wasn’t necessarily the better player at times, but he was the toughest.

Against Zizou, I really like his grit. He often forces one more ball. He just has an overwhelming desire to win, plain and simple. And Zizou’s power and aggressiveness? Will he be able to handle them at the same level again? If yes, I’ll be honest, I don’t know Faria well enough to judge whether he can neutralize Zizou’s power. I’d be inclined to say yes, given his match against Shimabukuro and his hard-court stats.