Huge Atmosphere

Two players who are made for the big moments...

Shelton finally managed to win a match without having to go to tiebreaks and deep sets; it's been a while! I was a bit worried about his confidence heading into Montreal, but even in the match against Brooksby, I found him quite relaxed, and he seemed to be enjoying himself without stressing too much (defending points). I liked the way he played it tactically in both his matches here in Montreal so far, being very patient with rallies to not feed pace to Brooksby/Bergs, which is something they both love. When you combine his serve quality, athleticism, and power (which enables him to hit winners at the right times), we know what a dangerous player he is. More than anything, it reminds me of how he played when he won the title in Toronto last year, especially his match against Alex De Minaur. Well, that tactic is especially excellent against ADM, since he lacks the power to really cause any damage.

Against Fonseca, it's obviously a bit more dangerous, since he has huge weapons. The Brazilian was able to raise his level and play a really solid match against Ruud, but it has to be said that the Norwegian was simply not "killer" enough in the big moments; he definitely should have won the first set. Also, it's a combination of Fonseca being clutch. Ruud more or less fell apart after losing the first set tiebreaker, and if it's something he really struggles with, it's adapting tactically during a match. I don't think it's a good matchup for Ruud, but he was camping his backhand corner to such an extreme that Fonseca was able to hit backhand up-the-line winners over and over without even going straight to the line ;) While Ruud is rallying, he also tends to provide quite a lot of rhythm, which suits someone like Fonseca, who will just get into it and blast you off the court. Shelton tends to mix up his game a lot more...