Fire and Ice

Despite his traditional double faults and other dubious handling of tense moments, the Canadian showed a good level and strong motivation in his first round against Kecmanovic. On the other side, LVA rode his current confidence and took advantage of a Norrie who wasn’t at his best.

Two in-form players then, and the million-euro question: which playing style will prevail over the other?

First of all, I’m thinking about the Frenchman’s backhand. He’s facing a lefty again today, and a bit like with Zverev, it doesn’t really bother him.

Then, even if LVA is in the form of his life, I can’t help but point out that we’re already on outdoor hard, not his best surface, and that he recently lost to Droguet, Hanfmann, Kovacevic, and really struggled against Sakamoto. I don’t need to spell it out for you ;). It may seem paradoxical, but LVA needs a bit of time to defend. I’ve seen it several times against Droguet this season, and Titouan mostly put him under pressure when he played aggressively and with power. So yeah, against Shapo, the chief destroyer...

Of course, you need to keep a minimum of consistency, but I think we’ll see another good version of Shapo here. He’s the one steering the ship here, as often. My choice will therefore depend on the odds, as I’m expecting the Canadian to be around 1.6...