Tennis Parlay Luciano Darderi + Andrey Rublev: Estoril

Estoril 🇵🇹

• Last Sunday, in Bastad, these two were fighting for a title. Andrey Rublev prevailed over Luciano Darderi, and five days later I find them both in Estoril, each in their own quarter, the two best clay courters left in this draw. Might as well put them together on a single ticket.

• Darderi first, his Swedish final left him with no aftereffects: on Wednesday, he dispatched Pedro Martinez 6-0, 6-1, a start-to-finish demonstration, the kind of performance that says a clay courter has found his cruising speed.

• The trap is the setting. Jaime Faria is playing at home, buoyed by an entire crowd, and he's no newcomer: he even won their last clay duel, in Santiago last year. I'm not going to act like this quarter is a foregone conclusion.

• But unsettling Darderi in the span of a week is one thing, doing it when he's rolling like he is now, on a slow clay that rewards the heavier of the two forehands, is another. And the heavier forehand is his. I see him managing the noise and fervour to get through.

• Rublev next, and the gap in level speaks for itself. The Russian just lifted a title in Bastad, he's knocking on the door of the top 10, and he's approaching this quarter with a momentum that few can match today. On the other side, Luca Van Assche has the merit of having eliminated Carreno Busta, but he's clearly moving up in class.

• Their sole previous meeting went the distance, in Washington two years ago, except it was on hard and the balance of power has shifted even further since. On this clay, Rublev's flat and early hitting takes the Frenchman by surprise before he can even impose his own game.

• Two favourites who don't have the luxury of letting up, but who each possess a class above their opponent of the day. I see the ticket unfolding in two sets per match, with the real battle on the side of Darderi and the Portuguese crowd.