King Juan Manuel!

J. M. Cerundolo is having an incredibly solid season and he’s just taken out Rinderknech on a fast surface—who would have believed that last year?

The Argentine can count himself lucky to have won the match because he deserved to lose it in straight sets. Yesterday, he served worse than usual and had no answer to counter Rinderknech’s playing style, which was really hurting him. Between the Frenchman’s good serving level and the fact that he kept coming to the net to take time away from him, Cerundolo spent the whole match on the back foot and couldn’t impose his own pace. On the other hand, he hung in there well and eventually wore the Frenchman down before beating him physically. That’s a scenario he’ll surely try to reproduce tomorrow, but he’s already spent 3 hours 35 on court in tough conditions. I’m not even sure he really has the physical edge against an Auger who is extremely fresh after playing only one match since Wimbledon, and the Canadian wasn’t out for long with his back issue. It’s not as if he’s just coming back. In any case, his tournament is already a success and he’s earned himself an interesting match to play. If he finds his first serve again and Félix takes a bit of time to figure out how to really hurt him, he might have a shot.

I want to stress the idea of finding the right solution because Auger has already lost to him: it was in Madrid last year, and he completely ran into a wall against the Argentine’s defense and variations, and Cerundolo has improved even more since then, adding a few offensive weapons to his arsenal. The surface will strongly favor the Canadian, but he’s a player who comes to the net less often than Rinderknech, for example. And we’ve already seen him struggle against this type of profile this season. I’m especially thinking of his match against Navone, where he got pinned to the baseline and spent the whole time forcing things. On the other hand, I’ve also seen him be very sharp against certain profiles, notably Moutet, who in some respects can resemble Cerundolo with his very loopy forehand, a few backhand slices, and a desire to add height and break the rhythm. If Félix has a good day, he could also hand him a real thrashing, though.