On the road to RG

In the phase of gaining physical strength to reach the max at Roland, Gaël has 2 tournaments left to gain even more confidence. Perfect first test in Madrid against the winner of Córdoba, the Italian Luciano Darderi!

The first thing to notice here is the injury to Darderi who, following his first round loss easily against his friend Navone, withdrew from his doubles due to discomfort in his right wrist. So he doesn't arrive as a winner of Cordoba with maximum confidence, but rather like an injured guy who has just taken a beating in the first round against a friend of his. For those who don't know him, Luciano Darderi is a landlubber, but not a rower. He serves well and surely made the choice to play in Houston because of his game (he beat Cerundolo and Giron there). He can therefore be dangerous in Madrid. Monfils, for his part, will be playing his 13th in Madrid. He has never had excellent results there apart from 2 quarters in 2008 and 2010 but the draw played quite a role since he successively faced Nadal, Federer and Djokovic during his last 3 participations. I think the conditions will please Gaël. He complained a little about the slow clay of Monte-Carlo on which he had to play all the points to the fullest compared to his matches on hard. And above all, I like when Svitolina is there and plays the same tournament as him at the same time...