"Cream of the Crop" Beanalysis: Sofia Round Two
Sinner vs. Borges
So Jannik Sinner is back again for his 3rd consecutive Sofia Open title! Honestly, I don’t see why he couldn’t win it. He played one heck of a match against Alcaraz at the US Open, and unless something mental gets to him from that match, his form looks great, and he can take this trophy home for the third time. Sinner has a great game that is rivaled by not a lot of people at this tournament. I think the thing that brought Alcaraz to a victory at the US Open was his return, a return that is not replicated by any player at this tournament, and unless someone pulls some magic ace card, I don’t think they have a chance at taking him out. The main problem for Sinner will be making sure that he doesn’t let errors happen often, he doesn’t have much of a problem with them, but they seem to be the only thing that would give an opponent any advantage over him. I like Sinner to take this entire tournament, and this match will be a good foot to start out on.
NUNO BORGES COMING IN HOT PEOPLE! Except Sinner is the ice in this situation, because his fiery hot wins are gonna cool off. Borges has been near the top of the challenger tour, and he has been nearing the main tour breakthrough very closely. I think he has the stuff to make it work. He’s gonna need some help in the draw department, because going up against Sinner in round 2 is not going to help his cause, but I’d enjoy seeing what he can do here. I have not seen very much of Borges, considering I don’t follow the Challenger tour closely at all, and just look at these players’ past results for this information. I think he can put up something, he won’t just roll over 6-2 6-1, but I also don’t know if he can pull off an entire set off of Sinner, unless something goes wrong with Sinner, which I hope does not happen. This one is definitely going to be Sinner’s in 2 sets, sorry to anyone who thought otherwise. (Those of whom I question their sanity.)
Vukic vs. Verdasco
WOAH. That was not supposed to happen. I really thought Fognini had that one in the bag, I guess not. This match is going to be very interesting. 2 dudes that are very low in the rankings for two very different reasons. Vukic has simply not made enough deep tournament runs to get into the top parts of the rankings, and Verdasco is getting old and he can’t maintain the level needed to stay in the top of the rankings. I do not know a lick about this Vukic guy, but I shall research him. This dude has been doing absolutely nothing this year. His only notable win on the main tour this year was a first round victory over Lloyd Harris at the Australian Open, which is not half bad. The only problem is that he has won nothing of note on the main tour since. He played a total of zero matches in between Roland Garros and the US Open, and he lost his first round qualifying match there. He played 3 challenger tournaments in the time since his US Open qualifier loss, and had mediocre results. He had no reason to win that match against Fognini, yet here we are. If I had an explanation for you, you would have it, trust me. I don’t know what else to say about this dude. So on to Verdasco it is.
Verdasco surprised us one more time here at Sofia. I already explained why he is so low in the rankings, and also went over him in general in my last writeup, but I am genuinely happy with him beating Basilashvili, he did the only logical thing to so when you play Basil, play simple tennis and let him blow himself off of the court. I don’t, however, think that the tactic will work as well in this next match, and I honestly think that Verdasco can play his normal game instead of coming up with any crazy tactics, and who knows, maybe he’ll win this one. I like his chances here, but to be honest with you guys, I didn’t do this match for the prediction part, it was more to cover these two pulling off crazy upsets and then getting pit against each other. But if you made me pick someone here, I’d pick Verdasco in a tight 2 or 3.
Sonego vs. Rune
Fun fact about Lorenzo Sonego: He has not played two players from the same country since the US Open, and he could technically keep that streak going for the rest of the tournament if his semifinals opponent is Sinner or Borges, and his finals opponent is Otte or Huesler. Anyway, let’s go Lorenzo! He took the win at Metz, which I totally expected after he beat Hubi, and now he’s sporting a chance at making the semifinals, maybe even the finals! I really like how Sonego has elevated his game after the US Open, and I think he has a good chance at pushing his ranking back up to the 30s like it was last year, if he plays well at this tournament and has a good couple of runs in 500s and Paris, he could do it. I like Sonego’s game for many reasons, and one of those reasons is his serve. Take a serve-bot, now make them better in every way, but take a bit off the serve, and then you have Sonego. Sonego is amazing at serving, but he is also good at the other aspects of tennis, and he is a perfect example of why being a one-trick pony is not a good idea. Specializing is good most of the time, but when you put so much time and effort into one single part of something, it doesn’t function as well. So that’s why Sonego is winning so much, he’s focused on his serve, but not enough to have neglected the other parts of his game. I’m excited to see what he pulls off at this tournament.
Holger Rune is back in business baby! He’s back to winning matches he is supposed to. That’s step one in the comeback process, now step two is pulling off an upset, and oh look, here’s a player who’s just off a title and will definitely be a favorite here. Rune, I don’t think he can do it yet, he’s just not ready, and also, his game is more suited to the clay courts, and his style of play will do absolutely nothing against the mighty serves of Sonego, and with any bit of accuracy, Sonego is gonna serve Rune off the court. I think Rune is gonna really begin his comeback soon, but I think it’s gonna be sooner than you guys think, so I’d be looking out for more Rune in the very near future. This match definitely is one that goes in Sonego’s direction. Sonego in 2.