Time for Revenge?

Duckworth recently won against Sonego in Winston-Salem...

I don't want to put too much focus on these kinds of "revenge matches", but perhaps it can serve as a bit of motivation for Sonego ;) He is a player who loves big matches; he has a tendency to turn up flat at a lot of smaller events. Like a lot of other players here in Chengdu, I think he's had a pretty decent hardcourt summer swing, even if you can't really tell by his results. His match against Zverev at the USO was great, and he keeps being competitive against good opponents; he hasn't had easy draws either. So yeah, his ceiling is quite good... the issue remains his average/floor-level, which wildly fluctuates. After the USO, he went home to Italy and played the Genoa Challenger, losing in the first round against an inspired Passaro. I'm not really alarmed by this loss; we see it quite often when an ATP-level player drops down to some CH event at home before going back to the main tour.

It's perhaps a bit tougher for Duckworth, who lost in the Davis Cup against Majchrzak on Sep 19, back home in Australia. We are seeing the 34-year-old Australian showing up more and more on the main tour, which is great. Similar to many other Australians, he has a playstyle with a lot of variety that can bother a fair number of players. A good slice, the ability to play well all-around the court, a good amount of power, and a decent serve. However, he tends to be a bit limited when he comes up against a player who is more "talented" than him... his match against Wu at the USO would be a good example. That means that Sonego has this match more on his racket, but he is also the more error-prone one, so if we see a Lorenzo who is not completely committed here, Duckworth is in a good position to take advantage. Unless he is also not at his best due to a rather short turnaround from the Davis Cup, combined with a lot of travel...