A Tough Test Awaits

Vukic is flying with confidence at the moment; however...

Will his momentum be enough to overcome a difficult matchup? Vukic has played three matches, and the average duration is still under 60 minutes! His serving has been monstrous... 29 aces and 0 double faults. He has not faced a breakpoint yet and is winning over 80% of his points on his own serve. Now, we have to add the asterisk to these stats... it has been against Dougaz, a physically hampered Dougaz, and then possibly against a Svajda who was not feeling 100% either. Musetti has only played one match here and was racing toward a quick win as well, before Arnaldi retired halfway through the second set. Everything we saw from him was good in the match, but it's hard to put too much into it since the "sample size" is quite limited...

So yes, this is not an easy matchup for Vukic. While he has been able to blast his way past his opponents so far with his serve and big forehands, I am more worried about what happens when rallies extend against a really solid opponent. Lorenzo's weakness on faster hardcourts is being rushed, especially if players can follow it up with a net approach. While the conditions are rather fast, there is a pretty high "bounce", which suits his game well. Vukic might struggle to exploit Musetti's deep return position (by coming to the net on serve & volley), which could lead to too many baseline rallies on the Australian's service games. Will Aleksandar be able to take the ball early, come to the net, and really put some pressure on Musetti? I am not completely convinced he is the perfect profile for this, but I also want to account for his great form and the fact that this is Lorenzo's second match after a long break...