Michelsen's Nightmare

Moutet is not the player that Michelsen wanted in the first round...

Moutet is having a great season so far and managed to win his first round against McDonald in straight sets. Mackie does have a good BH return, but once it got into the rallies, he would struggle to hit through him and get worn down by Moutet's trickery. Michelsen is coming from a QF run in Toronto, where he lost in straight sets in a decent match against finalist Khachanov!

For the matchup, we have a very recent meeting between the two. They faced each other in the SF in Mallorca, and despite a scoreline of 7-6, 6-4 in favor of Moutet, I would say that it was not as close as the scoreline might indicate. Michelsen absolutely hates this matchup... Counter Punchers test his patience, and it usually leads to bad decisions on his part when he is unable to hit through them. He does have his serve and net game to generate some free points, but one of Moutet's strengths is dealing with players who come to the net; he is great at either putting the ball low at their feet, lobbing, or passing. Michelsen went to the net a lot in their meeting in Mallorca, 36 times in two sets (winning 22 points). If Michelsen is not aggressive enough, Moutet will be able to make him run around the court and test his movement, which is not horrible, but not at an elite level; it's not his strength. This happened in Mallorca, and Michelsen looked absolutely exhausted in the heat, even though the match was not that long. Michelsen was on a podcast shortly after the Mallorca match and admitted that he did not know what to do against Moutet... What adjustments can Michelsen make here? Will he try to be a bit more patient while maintaining aggression from the baseline to avoid being pushed around the court, and then try to choose his moments a bit better? Perhaps he will focus a lot on rushing Moutet off his serve...? We will see, but Michelsen is the one who has to find the answers here!