A first round worthy of Nur-Sultan, not Astana!

We really don't have the same picture as last season...

A trap match, right? On the one hand the very inconstant Van de Zandschulp, capable of coming out of big tournaments at times but of stringing together big, crappy matches for several weeks afterwards. 2 wins 1 loss in the Davis Cup, just like him. A defeat over Virtanen then a great victory against Paul, he then ends up pissing off Ajdukovic. Very difficult player to pin down, not sure that the slow conditions are great for him, in any case you have to see his first round to know a little more about his level this week. On the other side is another equally inconsistent player, Shevchenko. The Russian has just gotten engaged and will perhaps be keen to celebrate with a victory! He remains on a challenge retirement 10 days ago but nothing serious, he was just burnt out after 3 laps of 3 hours. When he is focused and involved he can be very clutch and come out of big matches, let's see if that will be the case tomorrow..