The two servers

Their profile was interesting this week and they’re confirming it properly.

Hanfmann has been really on point in this tournament with big wins and no real problems; he’s built for these kinds of conditions and reminds us that he’s probably played the most matches of his life here. He loves this tournament and feels comfortable at it. Here he is in the semi, fresh and well set. When that was the case in Santiago at the start of the year, it took something serious to knock him out. Do we consider Halys as “something serious”?

The Frenchman is doing everything to be considered as the real deal anyway. He did a big training block before Roland and unfortunately it didn’t pay off in terms of immediate results, but maybe what comes next will be beneficial for him. He keeps insisting that he was missing his serving quality on grass and that now that he’s found it again, he feels strong. At the same time, he’s been dominant on his service games and that gives him confidence to then go and look for opportunities on return. A confident Halys who’s feeling his serve well is dangerous.

Halys is leading 2–0 in the H2H by the way, and both were indoors, where he definitely has an edge over Hanfmann. The conditions in Kitzbühel suit the German much better this time, and he’ll be keen to get his revenge. I’m expecting a pretty tight match, and watch out because Hanfmann hasn’t faced a profile like Halys so far; he’s only played real clay-court grinders who stay solid from the baseline, and he always had the game in his hands. He’s going to be under threat on return and on every neutral ball against Halys. It was great in the first three matches, but the next one is different...