A Life-Changing Season

What a year it has been for Tirante...

While the Argentine was always going to be dangerous at times with his serve and forehand, I don't think a lot of us predicted him to be ranked 42nd in the world by now. Personally, I thought that his backhand and consistency were always going to be major limitations for really breaking through on the ATP Tour, but he has proven me wrong. He has excellent footwork that really allows him to hit some extra forehands, and while his backhand is rarely a weapon, it has held up a lot better under pressure and during regular rallies than I expected. Besides the huge forehand and serve, we also have someone who has great endurance and court coverage, which makes him quite hard to beat at the moment. Tirante is coming off two big tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati, but at least he chose to skip Winston-Salem to get some rest, probably a good choice.

We have been defending Mannarino a bit in his recent losses, partially due to hard matchups. I still stand by that a bit, especially since his last four opponents have all played Mannarino before, which is a big advantage. Still, it would be ridiculous to say that this is the only reason. Adrian is simply not playing that well right now... as Marcos pointed out in another preview, his serving especially has been off. Not only that, we are simply seeing too many errors that we don't see him make at his best. It's a bit of a shame, since Adrian tends to play well at this time of the year. Now, can he somehow find his form quickly enough? I do think that his biggest advantage here is simply the fact that Tirante has not played against him before. Also, of course, we have the lefty into the Argentine's weaker backhand, which we should still consider, even though I feel like Tirante can find ways around this, especially if he gets to dictate play (more forehands). Something that I want to point out in favour of Tirante is the fact that I have found him quite tactically good recently (not just mindless ballbashing)... the main example would be against Mensik, where he kept varying pace, height, spin, and played with variety (he did say that his team prepared him for this). That's exactly what you should do against Mensik, and it gives me a bit of faith that he will prepare well against Mannarino as well. If he can find that nice balance of offense and defense, he should have a big advantage against a Mannarino who is far from his best...