Truthfully, we haven’t seen that many points but a few things are pretty obvious from what we have seen. Sup would be one of the better 3.5 players I have ever seen at that level. Other 3.5s would struggle against him and he certainly could be a lower 4.0 IMHO. He certainly is not hitting the ball nearly as cleanly (many, many more slight mishits) than his opponent (not surprisingly) but against his peers, I bet he hits much cleaner. That lack of timing could keep him at the 3.5 level but as I said, against another 3.5 or 4.0, I bet he hits it much cleaner. His footwork and technique are also nowhere near as clean as his opponents (who is taking it very easy). He is struggling with the pace on shots even hit to him on the BH side, let alone if he was stretched out as evidenced by how far off his timing is on a few shots. His serve would be pummeled by Wilson if he was trying harder (except the one out wide that surprised him because he was not expecting such a good serve as that one was (also not much of a surprise as he knows even flat footed, he will get back 90-95%). He could have pushed it back like he did in the first point of the tiebreak. Then Sup stepped in and hit a solid BH up the middle, very un 3.5 like. Just listen to the vid and you can hear how many of Sup’s shots are not struck cleanly. He also mistimed his split step as Wilson hit that short ball, almost not landing until Wilson’s ball lands. He also really struggled with the balls that land nearer the baseline as he just isn't used to that good of depth (not that every shot of Wilson's is that deep), which also isn't surprising and is expected based disparate level of these two players.
Wilson is obviously playing very easy, more like 30-50% effort. He is really hitting his serves easy, not even full second serves and sup is struggling to those kickers up, especially to his BH. He has pretty good strokes and lets face it, cruising he still only lost a couple points. One a go for broke winner and the other a better than average serve out wide he put in the net. The one really short ball, he nonchalantly moves in and slaps the ball away for an easy winner. No need to come racing in as he would against a peer, who would have probably guessed one way or the other and moved in that direction instead of just standing there in the middle.
Sup is a great 3.5-4.0. I would believe that Wilson is a 5.0 give or take. Pretty good illustration but in the play of just a tiebreak, the differences are not as obvious as they would be in a full match (to the untrained eye). Even considering Sup, is closer to 4.0 than 3.5, I doubt he would get more than a game if he was lucky and most likely a bagel. If Sup were more like an average 3.5 (which again, he clearly is not), it would have been much, much worse even in the tiebreak. A nice video but there is ample evidence of the vast disparity of levels to anyone with a relatively fine eye. I imagine most advanced players noticed many of the same things.
Just my opinion. Not meant as derogatory as Sup is strong, especially at his rated level. Sup is certainly on the way up though.
Good tennis
TM
