While watching the Guillermo Canas-Tommy Robredo match, I got to thinking about how Canas’s remarkable performance in Miami has played out to this point.

He hasn’t been overpowering players with unreturnable shots, but then again, it’s not like he’s simply hitting moonballs and keeping rallies alive, waiting for his opponent to make a mistake. After watching four of his matches this week, I’m having a hard time characterising his very effective game – it doesn’t look unique at first glance, but once you watch it more frequently, you realise that not many other players are competing the way he is.

There are a number of players who play more daring shots, and are often rewarded for their efforts. But Richard Gasquet and Robredo, two players who fit this description beautifully, had complete meltdowns in the second set during their matches with Canas. Even though their strokes produced a number of winners early on, in the end the errors they racked up did them in.

Roger Federer and Juan Ferrero, two other players who Canas has disposed of, might be better pure ball strikers than Gasquet or Robredo, but they were thrown of their games because they couldn’t strike the ball as cleanly or as consistently as Canas. One constant present in all of these examples is that Canas is making the other player work harder than he is. Most impressively, Canas is doing it in different ways against different types of opponents, but the result has been the same each time.

In my mind, this begs a question: who works harder in a match – the winner, or the loser? You’d be inclined to say the winner exerts more effort throughout the contest, but when you think about it, this is a bit of a riddle as well. In Canas’ matches, he’s making a living out of making the loser work the most. I’m not at all saying Canas isn’t working hard, because he clearly is, but his ability to rattle his opponents by working them into defeat is one of the great strengths of his art.

In my opinion, only fatigue will stop Canas from winning in Miami. He should get by Ivan Ljubicic, whom I think will be unnerved the same way Canas’ last few opponents have been. As for the Andy Murray/Novak Djokovic winner, it will undoubtedly be a tough contest should Canas get that opportunity – but the Argentine has shown determination and focus the likes of which I haven’t seen in a long time from any other on the ATP Tour not named Federer or Nadal. Qualifying matches and a first-round match certainly have put the miles on Canas this week. But as long as the engine can hold up, the next stop Canas could be making is to claim his winner’s cheque and Waterford crystal on Sunday.