What a first round!

A match that I find insane for a first round of an ATP 250, and that I also find pretty easy to decipher in a way. Here’s why:

Titouan is in the phase he loves. He’s playing his best tennis. And it’s an aggressive clay-court game. Heavy, looping balls, big serve, coming to the net…

Except, well, you can see where I’m going with this. Carabelli is in form too. I liked his level in Umag, and he’s one of those infuriating counterpunchers when you have Titouan’s style of game. He kind of wore down Carreno Busta even though I rated the Spaniard very highly. And Titouan, after just one match, quickly got tired against Van Assche. His game eats up a lot of energy. It’s not very hot in Estoril, but Carabelli is a guy who wears you down. So I think my bet is pretty obvious...