First I was scared...

What a huge pleasure to see a 19-year-old Frenchman dismantle a member of the top 5 with style. We were waiting for his set, but to put him 2-0 with a bubble, I'm flabbergasted. He reached the 47th place in the world thanks to his semi-final in his first ATP 500. Just magic. What lessons should we bettors learn from this?

Already, this time of year, post-Wimbledon, change of surface, "small" tournaments, it's summer... is apparently conducive to head cutting. Only Fritz, Zverev and Sonego resisted to reach the semi-finals, that's 3 big seeds out of 12 possible. And notice that Fritz and Zverev come out with bad results during the grass season...

Second lesson, Arthur Fils is starting to get really serious. The big wins are starting to pile up but I mostly like the way. How not to collapse after the disappointment of the match point against Nakashima in Lyon, how to beat Cerundolo for his first final, how to stay in his match after a 6-0 against the 4ᵉ world for his 1ᵉʳ quarter in M500.. This guy is hungry, and aiming high. With Ivan Ljubicic now in the clan of the FFT to restore French tennis "it's not normal that no Frenchman is in the top 40" he declared, we feel that the ambitions are very high, and we like that . It simply means that Arthur is developing his career with the goal of winning a grand slam. He is conditioned for it. So he won't be too afraid of a semi-final in Hamburg...

The "Z" meanwhile made his match against Lucas. Too powerful for the Frenchman. It's a bit tricky to guess the level he will be able to play in this half because he hasn't really been tested yet. What is certain is that it is not at its best level and that it is crumbly. Arthur must engage in physical combat and make him doubt. There is room...