Just like at home!

Etcheverry and Navone have a lot of support from the crowd this week and many members of their respective families are there. You can feel that it’s an important moment for them and that they want to make a good impression.

I’ll start with Navone, who’s having an impressive tournament by knocking out Djokovic and Berrettini back to back, two monsters in Grand Slam format. Sure, Djokovic completely broke down physically in the last two sets, but you still had to get the win, and Navone played a great match. The Argentine backed it up with a big victory over Berrettini in a very intense and tense match that finally ended in four sets. Again, Navone played a great match and wore his opponent down physically, who in the end just couldn’t keep up. Navone is like a little battery, he’s ultra mobile, doesn’t make any errors, and has become more efficient offensively. He’s turned into such a complete player, even on faster surfaces. However, he did face two types of opponents whose profiles suited him quite well, where his solidity made the difference. He’ll need to do a bit more against Echeverry because we’re moving to a completely different kind of match.

And yes, when you say Argentine, you think baseline toughness and the ability to play for hours without making mistakes. Etcheverry fits perfectly into that category, and even if he’s beating less high-profile opponents, in my view those are still very good wins. Because taking out Kopriva and Fearnley is no easy task, especially given how badly Etcheverry is lacking confidence at the moment. You could feel all the tension and pressure on his shoulders at the end of the match after the interruption. He admitted he was very nervous and afraid the match might slip away from him, which is normal in that context. But this kind of win will also help him move forward. We know how capable he is of playing well in Grand Slams, because this format is tailor-made for him, and even if his tennis isn’t yet at its best level, everything else is already there.

I’m not going to take Etcheverry’s two wins over Navone into account, because they’re from a long time ago and Navone has especially improved a lot since then on this type of surface, where I think Etcheverry used to have the edge. As I said, a completely different match awaits Navone, and he’ll have to do more than just be solid, because in that kind of battle I think he might lack physical and even mental freshness after two massive fights. He’s played a lot in recent weeks, and when you see how physical freshness might be the single most decisive factor in this tournament, I’m going to keep a very close eye on little Navone.