World No. 40...

And yep, the indestructible Van Assche has climbed a bit further up the rankings after his win at the Quebec City Challenger. There he is nicely slotted between Merida at 39, and Borges at 41. I have to admit it felt a bit weird to see!

Beyond that, here I am once again in a situation where I have to anticipate the form of an LVA who’s playing back-to-back. After his win in Estoril, I bet on him to keep the momentum going. Sure, he served for the match against Droguet in Montreal, but the level of play was nowhere near as good as in his matches in Estoril. Then again, that’s kind of normal. New conditions, a bit of fatigue, an opponent whose style bothers him... Is that the case again today?

Kovacevic is giving us matches that are, let’s say, rather decent. He struggles with consistency, but it’s not a disaster either. He goes three sets with Borges, gets a win over Khachanov, and then serves up a real stinker against Nakashima. Here, his R1 was fairly comfortable with Balshaw, who was also a bit tight at the start of the first set and literally handed him the break early in the set.

In terms of match-up, we’re going to have to factor in Kova’s power against LVA’s resilience. What bothers LVA against someone like Droguet, for example, is that he’s capable of big forehands and powerful serves while also being solid from the baseline. Kova’s game is a bit riskier. He doesn’t really do things by halves.