YES!

Arthur has a slightly tense first round to get into the tournament, then he puts together a very solid match against a type of player who can really bother him, and here he is, all fresh, for his third round, ready to pull off something crazy! Because, as I reminded you in my last analysis of Arthur, for the past 3–4 years there’s always been some kind of madness happening at the US Open.

And because Arthur, when he’s in Super Saiyan mode, is capable of anything. His game is surprising because it’s unorthodox. He’s mainly oriented towards attacking, but look at him against Munar. He ran like a rabbit, reading the Spaniard’s trajectories perfectly. I’ve seen him pull off crazy stuff in Monte Carlo too. Basically, it’s more a question of form than match-up with him.

On the other side, Daniil has become solid again here, but he’s blown a fuse or two recently against big servers. Even physically, he was at his limit at times! So my takeaway is that the bad Daniil is never that far away.

They’ve played twice on hard court, and it’s 1–1. Daniil of course still has the edge because he beat him in 3 sets here, and last year in Shanghai there was something special in the air for Rinderknech and Vacherot. That said, Arthur has his chances, and he knows what he has to do: exploit Daniil’s baseline game, which is sometimes passive and lacks power. The Frenchman has to use his weapons in short patterns. The drop shot of course. The volley. The serve. Daniil knows this, and he’ll have to be aggressive.

They’re playing on the Grandstand, outside, at 1 p.m. local time, in 31 degrees with a bit of humidity. Conditions that are therefore a bit more favorable to Rinder’s game, although it also helps Daniil generate more power...