Cincipas!?

The Greek is fighting hard...

Yes, we have been a bit critical of Stefanos since he started to play on hard courts again. I want to stand by it to some degree; I didn't love the way he lost against ADM or Fonseca. However, in the matches he was supposed to win against Damm and Royer, he has been extremely dominant (more so than the scorelines indicate). That is a bit of an issue in itself; it also highlights one of the biggest flaws right now: he struggles on the big points, and he is not ruthless - which is really punishing against top opponents, like Fonseca. What stood out the most to me against Royer was how great his forehand was; it was causing damage from every part of the court... he ended up with something like 25 forehand winners in two sets. His return and backhand have both been decent, at least by his standards.

Well, we will find out how much his return has improved, because he'll be up against one of the better servers, Felix. At least Stefanos gets to face someone who also doesn't have the best backhand! Felix has also not played since Wimbledon, while Tsitsipas has been playing a lot of sets and matches. On paper, it can initially look like a tough matchup for Stefanos, due to FAA being a big server and aggressive player, but his record against him is actually not that bad, across many different surfaces and conditions. We also have to keep in mind that FAA is not the best returner himself; he is a player who really loves rhythm, which Tsitsipas doesn't really provide...