In the first game, it’s not that João Lucas had a terrible performance. The Brazilian even had his chances on Draxl’s serve in the opening set. He had a break point in the first game, 0/30 in the fifth and 15/30 in the seventh. He lost important points by making mistakes, but he also saw the home tennis player serve well on some occasions. The Brazilian, however, didn’t serve so well. He scored 59% of first serves and only won 69% of those points. And worse: he only won 30% when he needed the second serve. History sort of repeated itself in the second set, with Draxl winning most of the big points. He broke João in the first and third games, saved break point in the second and thus opened 4/0. Reis even returned one of the breaks, but it was too late to react.
The second game saw a surgical Heide. He did little with the returns, but was extremely efficient with his serve in the first and third sets. His service was threatened a couple of times in both partials, but he always got away with it. Diallo contributed. He played poorly when Heide served at 0/30 in the sixth game of the decisive part. Then, he gave a couple of free points when the Brazilian needed to serve at 30/30 and then at “equals”.
When the tie-break arrived, Heide’s moral advantage was obvious. Not only because the São Paulo native won the first tiebreaker game, but because Diallo had the lost chances on his shoulders. A double fault on the first point made that obvious. The Canadian also went up to the net with a floating slice (and took a beautiful pass from Heide), threw a right hand to get 1/3 down and sent a forehand into the net soon after. Heide had the chance to serve at 4/1 and didn’t waste the advantage.
Things I think I think:
– Brazil is playing without João Fonseca, who took Davis out of his calendar due to the busy sequence of tournaments – he will compete in the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires, where he will defend his title, starting on Monday, and from there he will go to the Rio Open. Brazil’s current number 2, Thiago Wild, was not called up. Canada, in turn, plays without Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.
– Nothing is simple in a Davis Cup, especially away from home, but the current scenario couldn’t be much more encouraging. Luz and Matos have been playing well and enter the court as favorites. If the Brazilian victory in the doubles is confirmed, Diallo, who lost the last four games he played, will enter the court under pressure against Reis. And, even if the home tennis player wins, Heide will have the chance to seal the match.
