Not an easy choice

We have an opening round with two players who are not exactly at the top of the form-chart...

So, what's going on with Gaston? His only win lately was against a Bellucci who retired. It looked like he was turning the match around against RCB, but he managed to lose the deciding set there as well. After Cincinnati, he goes to Cancun CH and loses to Galarneau 3 and 4 in the first round... hmm. These kinds of bad streaks are quite common with Gaston; he is not the kind of player who stays at a consistently good average level throughout the year. Actually, he had a similar poor streak (6 straight losses) on the US and Asian hardcourt swing last year, before reaching the semifinals in Antwerp on indoor hardcourt. I'm not sure if it's only bad form or there's some part of the injury that he had that is still lingering. Apart from a good grass season, Fucsovics is not exactly lighting the world on fire either. His last match in Kitzbuhel against Shevchenko was not the best, and for some reason, he has not played in any tournament ever since. There's no info about any withdrawals, so perhaps he just took some time off and recharged his batteries? He is getting older now (33), and perhaps he wasn't interested in exhausting himself in all the hot and humid North American hard-court tournaments.

Gaston's counterpunching game could spell trouble for Fucsovics, especially if he is able to extend rallies and exploit his movement, both his forward movement to the net with drop shots and his lateral movement, which is not his strongest asset. However, he has not been able to execute his game properly lately, leaking too many errors, especially at key moments. Fucsovic's game is not too flashy, but it's usually quite solid, which makes him quite good at beating the players he should beat. However, we saw in his match against Schwaerzler in Kitzbühel that he remains vulnerable in his first matches when he has not played in a while. Both players have a poor record here, with Fucsovics having at least slightly better results. Gaston tends to peak in the European indoor hardcourt season instead. Can he break this pattern here?