Sand me and sand me

Norrie’s been good lately. But careful, I think his wins are a bit misleading. Quite a few players choking, not in great form, or with a bad match-up against him. I haven’t seen any big performance in Norrie’s matches. His second set against Arthur Fils was very good. His wins against Carabelli and Buse were solid, not letting it slip into three sets. He does the job, and basically plays well for one set when the level is higher.

On LVA’s side, it’s a career-high ranking thanks to his wins at the Estoril tournament and the Quebec City Challenger. He was playing at a really high level in Estoril too. He grinds until he gets confident and starts taking risks. He serves well for his size, and his backhand can really do damage.

Against Norrie, they’ve had three meetings that all went to three sets. It hasn’t been easy for either of them to really take control for a while. They grind, wear each other down, test each other… And I think they read each other well by now. Norrie has the edge in Grand Slam experience of course. But it’s not going to be easy to get Luca out of there!