Taking care of business

A very nice opening draw for Felix... right?

We still have not seen a lot from Felix since coming back to hard courts, just three matches in Cincinnati. I was very impressed by his level in the first match against Tsitsipas; he was so good! I liked his next match against JMC as well... but then we saw an erratic FAA in his next match against Tiafoe. I do think his consistency has improved lately, and his big serving tends to give him a decent floor level, at least if the conditions are not really tricky with a lot of wind or so. He has a lot of points (semifinal) to defend here at USO, so it will be important for him! As for Hijikata, I've actually found him quite decent so far in both Cincinnati and Winston-Salem. He is not doing anything amazing by any means, but he plays his tennis, and it has been enough to scrape out a few wins against decent opponents. However, once he comes against a guy in really good form or simply a top player, I am not so optimistic about his chances; he doesn't really have the weapons or attributes to bother these kinds of players, at least most of the time.

Felix used to really struggle in his opening round matches, not being a stranger to dropping a set as a big favorite. However, looking at his results, he seems to have cleaned up this part quite a bit. I see a lot of straight-set wins against players he should beat, both in opening rounds and later on. Are we going to have odds worthwhile enough to trust him to continue this pattern...?