Headache

Not an easy one to decipher, is it....?

We have one player who seems to play physically compromised most of the time (and still puts up decent performances now and then), and the other one is a player who is extremely hit-or-miss. So yes, welcome to the show. Let's start with Carabelli's last match in the Cancun CH... retiring at 6-2, 5-0 down, really, man? He might have lost in straight sets to Norrie and Kecmanovic in Montreal and Cincinnati, but I didn't find him THAT bad in either match. Struff hasn't really been that great lately either... he had a hard time against Burruchaga in Cincinnati. He is not the kind of player you can put your trust in to beat any kind of opponent, since he can lose a match simply by firing almost unlimited unforced errors. He did have a pretty great run last year, though, winning six matches (including qualies)! That's kind of the thing with Struff: he can catch fire in some tournaments, and in other ones you will see him struggle a lot. I remember that we were on his side recently against Burruchaga, but it was not easy by any means!

I'll admit, I do struggle with any pre-match bet in Carabelli's matches, largely due to the fact that I have a hard time judging how much he is going to be impacted by any potential physical issues. He is usually great at "playing through it"; I'll admit that. I don't see anything specific in the matchup... Struff should have the advantage, but I have seen so many bad matches from him against these kinds of opponents on hardcourts that I don't want to take a lot of belief from a matchup advantage on his side...