Another night session for Wong.

After a match that finished at 2:30 a.m. local time, Wong won’t have much time to catch his breath before facing Medvedev, but fortunately he’s scheduled in the last slot.

Beautiful win from Wong, who still lacked some composure to make the match easier for himself against Valejo. The player from Hong Kong was true to himself with excellent serving and a perfect attitude. His temperament and energy make him a constant threat, able to fire himself up and put on the pressure at the end of a set. He’s already made a few breakthroughs in tournaments, and I often repeat that his average level of play is higher than it looks. He’s in form and relatively fresh physically, even though his match finished very late. As I said above, another night session is coming up and he’ll have time to recover and play late once again. It’s not ideal, but it could have been worse.

I was quite surprised by Medvedev’s level; he played a very interesting match against Royer, where he had to be wary of the Frenchman. Daniil didn’t get broken at all in the match, but he still had a close call in the second set. It’s exactly the kind of match where, recently, he could have dropped a set and completely lost the thread of the encounter. I think it’s good that he got it done in straight sets and also showed some clinical finishing. The conditions are very good for him and he now faces a ‘decent’ match‑up where his returning quality can bother Wong, who relies heavily on his serve. Either Daniil manages to return well and neutralise the opponent’s serve, or Wong rushes the net and takes the ball early to rob him of time and go all‑in.

I’ve already seen Wong play exceptional tennis when he had nothing to lose against top players. Even though Daniil really impressed me in his first round, his odds are very low. Once again, you’d have to go for a very risky bet on his side if you really want to back him. That’s something I’m not sure about yet, and even less convinced of.