Ignacio Buse beat Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Rolex Paris Masters. I got my stats folder out before the match had even finished, and I filled it in with a biro.
First set: no break until the tenth game. Medvedev serves at 4-5, it goes to 30-30, he is broken. Buse closes it out on his first set point. 30-30 at 4-5, I know that one. It’s the moment my doubles partner looks at me and my phone buzzes in the bag. That shot, I make it. Not every time, but I make it.
Second set, Medvedev leads 4-2. Then 0-40 on his serve. And Buse strings together five points in a row to get back to 4-4. Five points in a row from 0-40 is a pattern I work on Tuesday evenings, when court 4 is free, which is to say never. In all, Buse saved five of the six break points he faced. That is intent.
And then the unforced errors: 27 for Medvedev, 18 of them in the second set. Medvedev said: “I mean, I feel the surface is quite fast, but hitting a winner is almost impossible.” Me, I’d have put it down to the strings. Strings explain everything, people don’t realise. But I respect other methods.
Buse, I was already watching him. On Monday he beat Zizou Bergs 6-2, 6-4. He won Hamburg and Winston-Salem this season. Two practice sessions away, mind you, we had the same calendar, apart from the tournaments.
He saved five break points out of six. The sixth, we leave him, like the last slice of pie. The scoreboard, for its part, left nothing to anyone.
For the last 16 against Nuno Borges, a lucky loser, I’ve already set up a “break points saved” column in the folder. If Buse makes five out of six, I’ll note him down as a peer.
It’s true, we checked: Tennis Majors.
