The Day After

Dzumhur spent almost four hours on court in a classic "Dzumhur match"...

Once again, Damir delivers the drama! It's just such a perfect place for him, isn't it? There is the Balkan connection, they are playing on a slow clay court, and the atmosphere is just great. While the match lasted for 3 hours and 40 minutes, I think we can take away 40 minutes from just Dzumhur arguing with the umpire! We know his methods by now... he fights for his life for every ball and provides no rhythm at all. Not during the rallies, and then the constant interruptions between points. This is something that throws off a lot of the younger players, especially; they start getting frustrated, and as a result, they sometimes just start hitting with more anger and less control. As for Arnaldi, it's safe to say that he is quite a streaky player throughout a match. There are moments when everything is clicking, and he is blasting winners, followed by long streaks of him being unable to put a ball on the court. Dzumhur is one of the worst opponents to face when you have these moments, since he is so good at taking advantage of them. Another highlight of that match was late in the match, Dzumhur getting a huge energy boost and singing along during a changeover when the DJ turned on a Bosnian song. Molcan could not do much at the start of his match as Fokina was hitting every shot, but he kept hanging in there, and Fokina's level completely disappeared for the next two sets. Molcan definitely did his part well, but the Spaniard was looking to finish points quickly, suggesting perhaps a physical issue from the previous match.

Molcan and Dzumhur are friends, so they will be familiar with how the other one plays. Dzumhur has a great backhand that is always going to be useful against lefties... and while his match yesterday was physically taxing, he is quite physically strong. Molcan did a decently taxing match against Prizmic as well, and he did play very late yesterday against Fokina, so we need to consider this for the physical aspect. While Molcan is not the heaviest hitter that will send Dzumhur scrambling around the court, the Bosnian's own lack of weapons could become problematic here...