Zverev moves forward in the shadows, literally.

Two matches won in the middle of the night for Zverev, who isn’t making things easy for himself at the start of this tournament, but it’s kind of always the same story with him.

The German was pretty clear-headed in his post-match debrief: he’s not playing well and he won thanks to his physical strength (and his experience too). As for his level, that’s another story; we’re still seeing a very average version of him, and it’s been like that for a while now. He’s become shaky again on the forehand side and even his serve is faltering a bit more, especially on second serve. I’m seeing a player who sometimes doubts himself, and that’s not good. Those are the negative points. On the positive side, we can highlight that he’s winning matches even when he’s playing badly, and once he finds his real level again, he’s going to be dangerous.

On Tabilo’s side, it’s not the same tournament at all so far. We’ve got a very solid and strong Chilean who’s having an excellent start to the week. Two well-deserved wins against opponents who are not easy to beat, no physical drop-off, and a bunch of Chileans backing him – everything is in place for him to play his best tennis, and for now that’s exactly what he’s doing! He also says he feels a bit more capable of giving Zverev a hard time tomorrow than in their last meeting here last year, which was in the first round. Tabilo is on a roll and will be a massive underdog with nothing to lose. Zverev has spent quite a bit of energy and isn’t playing well; this could be yet another potential trap match looming for the German…

But it all depends on him. When I see that Tabilo took 27 aces off Popyrin, I’m worried about the return, and there’s also that famous Zverev stat against left-handers – it’s just the best match-up in the world for him.