Average match coming up...

This match doesn’t exactly get me excited. Between Hurkacz, who's coming back from injury, and Giron, who's just plain bad at the moment, we really shouldn’t be seeing a great tennis match.

We last saw our friend Hurkacz with an abdominal injury at Wimbledon. Unfortunately, the Pole’s body is letting him down again, but he’s back fairly quickly, which is rather positive, even if abdominal injuries are not easy to treat. Many players on tour could testify to that.

As usual, the question of coming to play this particular Masters 1000 is up for debate because we don’t really know with what mindset Hurkacz is coming here. Maybe it’s simply to test himself, or maybe he’s already back to 100%.

No physical problems on Giron’s side, that’s at least something, but the American is really not reassuring at all with his recent performances. Maybe he needs to find his smile and motivation again during a US swing that could suit him, but for now, what he’s showing in recent tournaments is really dreadful. He lost to Hewitt in a shameful match last week, and now he’s coming out of qualifying after barely beating Llamas Ruiz. These aren’t easy matches, I can give him that, but we expect more from him.

This doubt around Hurkacz is really a shame because otherwise I find the match-up excellent for him. The combination of a very high-quality serve and solid baseline play is a problem for Giron, who doesn’t really have answers against this kind of profile. There’s a reason why the Pole already leads 4–0 in their head-to-head. The problem is that with this small question mark, you can’t stake big on his win. You need to be reassured first.