What a match from Merida...

Merida faced a real wall in the form of Draxl in his R1. He pulled through, once again showing a lot of mental resources. I think he’s a bit of an underrated player. On top of that, he’s earned most of his titles and wins on hard courts. He’s really happy to play on it. Don’t mistake him for a typical Spaniard!

On Ugo’s side, where do we stand? He recovered well from his double loss to Bergs by playing an excellent match against Shelton in Washington. So we’re expecting him to be in good form!

The question with Ugo is always the same: how is his opponent going to react to his hyper-aggressiveness? (the very same that forced Shelton into a defensive position for a good part of their match). I haven’t forgotten that Zizou Bergs beat Ugo not only by being able to withstand it, of course, but also by being aggressive himself. Attacking the aggressor first is often a good idea depending on your game, and Merida is going to have to do that. That said, Ugo is also a lefty, and Merida’s main weapon is his forehand (even though he can absolutely hammer the ball on the backhand side too).

All in all, I think the Spaniard will put up a strong resistance before eventually cracking a bit physically in the face of the intensity on offer.