A story about gut feeling...

Daniil is trying to find his tennis again. I feel like he really wants it this time. Because in Cincinnati, it still wasn’t quite there, but the Russian did have the merit of fighting hard. And here, he received (and surely asked for) a Wild Card. So I’m making the connection and think he’s fully motivated to get back to an interesting level of form.

Against a Damm who seems to be playing well in this tournament (solid first round), you always have to be careful. On the other hand, the match-up should logically favor the Russian because of his counterpunching qualities. But it’s not that simple, because if he stays too far behind the baseline, especially on return, it could flip. It’s all a question of form and confidence. And I want to trust him for the reasons mentioned above.