2021 Serbia Open...ATP 250...Belgrade, Serbia

[stroke]

Oddmakers definitely on board with shock and awe Karatsev. He is slight favorite over Berrettini. Berrettini has a massive forehand, but it does not appear to be one iota better that Karatsev's.

[don_budge]

Tremendously gutsy performance by the Russian Aslan Karatsev. His picture should be under the word courage in the dictionary. He had to have been dog tired but he stepped up to the plate and took Matteo Berrettini to the very end of the night. There is so much to like about the competitive performance he put on this week in Serbia. He went the distance with the opponent in the round before Djokovic as well. He never quit and just ran out of gas in the third set tie-break. I didn't look to me that he had his A-game the entire match but he made do with what he had. Gutty performances by Novak Djokovic and Matteo Berrettini as well.

[stroke]

Karatsev obviously has the weapons(more weapons than anyone I would say) to beat anyone on clay or hard court. No player would be looking forward to seeing his name up next at the FO.