Damien Kayat previews selected men’s and women’s matches from the 2024 Rome Open round of 128 as Jack Draper faces Borna Coric and Naomi Osaka takes on Clara Burel.
ATP/ WTA Tour
Masters 1000/ WTA 1000
Italian Open
Foro Italico
Selected Ro128 Matches – 8 May 2024
ATP Tour
Jack Draper 79/100 | Borna Coric 99/100
22-year-old Jack Draper has been a tad unfortunate with his draws in recent weeks (a natural consequence of moving down the rankings due to injury). He pushed Hurkacz to a third set tiebreaker in Monte-Carlo and was then dumped out of Munich- also in a third set breaker- by Taylor Fritz.
He has looked really competitive on the clay and he just needs a little luck to go his way. He started this season in inspired fashion, reaching a second career ATP Tour final in Adelaide. He unfortunately had to withdraw from his Acapulco semi-final with de Minaur due to an unspecified illness.
He took some time to recover from that setback but his recent near-misses on clay auger well for a return to form. Draper moves deceptively well on these surfaces and hits the ball cleanly off both wings. A natural right-hander who uses a lefty grip, Draper’s backhand wing can be absolutely explosive.
These courts are quite laborious and may nullify his whopper of a serve. But he still possesses the power to penetrate the court and will take some beating.
27-year-old Croat Borna Coric must be one of the most infuriating players in the men’s game. The three-time ATP Tour winner has been plagued by injury and general inconsistency throughout his career. But he just has the inalienable ability to somehow pull a huge performance out of nowhere.
A runner-up at the 2018 Shanghai Masters, Coric became the lowest-ranked winner of a Masters 1000 event when he stormed to victory at the 2022 Cincinnati Open. Sure, Coric hasn’t reached a clay-court final since 2017.
But he enjoyed the best clay-court campaign of his career last season, reaching the semi-finals in Madrid before a solid quarter-final run in this very event.
The defensive baseliner reached the final in Montpelier earlier this season but has been anonymous otherwise. It would be just Ike him to suddenly spring into action when people least expect it.
Verdict: Coric to win in three 7/2
This will be the first career meeting between these two. Coric may struggle with Draper’s booming lefty serve (especially seeing that this is their first meeting). But I just have a feeling that the indefatigable Croat could thrive in these slow conditions. He will chase down everything and just force Draper to hit shot after shot. He could wear the physically vulnerable Brit down with his sheer tenacity.
WTA Tour
Naomi Osaka 9/20 | Clara Burel 17/10
It’s quite crazy to think that Naomi Osaka is already 26 years of age. It feels like just yesterday that the fresh-eyed Japanese star shocked the world with that 2018 US Open triumph. The four-time Grand Slam champion has experienced her problems in recent years, fighting for mental health advocacy while her game slipped into the doldrums.
I think that her pregnancy hiatus may have been the best thing to have happened to her from a tennis perspective, giving her some time away from the game that had pushed her to the brink. She hasn’t been exceptional since returning to action (she comes into this event with an 8-8 record for the season).
But she hasn’t looked overawed at any point and I fully expect her to come into some type of form as we approach the North American hardcourt season. But this is clay and Osaka is yet to reach a clay-court final in her career. In fact, she has never progressed beyond the third round of the French Open.
This match represents a great opportunity for 23-year-old Frenchwoman Clara Burel to get back to winning ways. A former two-time Grand Slam junior runner-up, Burel has made steady progress since turning pro back in 2018, cracking the top 50 for the first time this season.
Burel has been one or two wins away from a very impressive season. She reached the quarters in Linz and had Coco Gauff dead to rights at Indian Wells, somehow conspiring to throw away a 4-0 lead in the decider.
But she will take some heart from that performance on the slow Indian Wells courts. She was ultra-aggressive against Gauff, pulverizing anything remotely short. She also picked up the first top-10 win of her career when she beat Pegula at this year’s Aussie Open. She just needs to rein in some of those errors.
Also, she is an accomplished clay-court player, finishing runner-up in Lausanne in two of the last three seasons.
The Verdict: Burel to win in straight sets 7/2
This will be the first meeting between these two. I really think that Burel has the chance to pull off a notable win here. She has a decent clay-court pedigree and has looked extremely competitive against some elite players this season. Osaka is not renowned for her ability on clay and is largely using this portion of the season as preparation for the quicker surfaces.
