Metz Open Final "Beanalysis"
Bublik vs. Sonego
Alexander Bublik, despite the lack of publicity, has made the final with his consistency, and his servebot nature. Unlike fellow servebot Opelka though, Bublik matches are actually tolerable to watch. This one in particular will be because it will progress past three games, STAN. I get it, though, Stan was super tired, and I knew even if he played the match, he wouldn’t be able to win it. I’m glad he’s making a return on tour, and I hope to see him playing again very soon. Back to Bublik, though. I’ve already kind of gone over the ins and outs of Bublik’s game in previous writeups this week, and I can’t tell if anything has changed or not because he didn’t really even play a semifinal, and you may be asking “OH BEANZ! WON’T THE REST BE BENEFICIAL?” Well, yes, but also no. Sonego is relatively young, and he’s only played 2 setters up to this point, there won’t be that much of a difference in fatigue and stuff like that. Bublik does have a few advantages, but we will touch on that at the end.
Sonego is back for another randomly amazing year-end indoor tournament, but the difference here is that I think he can win the title. I don’t want to sound like a broken record here, but Sonego has been playing great all week. His match with Hubi was no different, my gut was apparently wrong, and I should stop putting so much faith into it. Hubi was playing at his normal level, but that level just seemed to be too low for an opponent like Sonego. I feel that this match will kind of go the same way if Bublik is playing at his regular level. A high-quality final is very much possible if both players bring their A-game, but I don’t think it’s going to be a contested one here. Sonego definitely holds the advantage when it comes to rallying, while Bublik holds the serve and volley advantage. That, I may add, is not a given either, because from what I saw from Sonego in the semifinal, he was serving very, very well, and his net play was nothing less than great. I think Sonego also just holds a higher advantage because he doesn’t give much off on the court, I haven’t seen enough of Bublik to know for sure with him, but I think Sonego won’t give anything away in this match, which will also play into his favor. I feel like everyone knows how this match is gonna end up going, and that’s Sonego in 2, winning him his first title this year!
(P.S, I should be back next week with Sofia, the draw is looking great. Looking forward to seeing you then!)