Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
It's amazing what playing slightly more sensible tennis does for both FAA and Shapo in big matches. It feels like a light has gone on with both of them early this year where they can start to navigate how to win matches without the urge to blow people off the court with huge strokes
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Denis's match certainly seemed to indicate that he was going that way but I thought Felix was still going for a bit too much and was missing a lot of shots he didn't have to in set 2 (especially long, he was in a lot of cases unnecessarily hitting them 2-3 feet past the baseline). Once Cilic started messing up and giving a lot of looks at 2nd serve that didn't matter so much, but it's something to look out for because I thought Felix could have done better.
I think the reality of the situation they're both in now though is that they kind of have to go for a big game. Rafa is a pretty bad matchup for Denis, in that his return game just compounds Denis's biggest weakness. Denis should be trying to get as many of Rafa's serves back into play as possible rather than trying to hit big returns, but will need to play pretty aggressively on return once the point is underway. And he'll need his first serve percentage to be higher than it has been.
FAA... I dunno man, try to survive? It's Medvedev. Basically you have to wait for your opportunities and then pounce on them, because he can get a bit in his own head if stuff is going his opponent's way. But there's just not a lot to be done other than to keep your energy up to chase down balls, hit your shots and... just... pray. The problem is that FAA just took 11 break chances before he converted one, so converting on opportunities isn't a strength. If break points come up for him he has to make them count.