A tournament that signals a comeback

Whether it's for Ruud or for Bergs, this tournament could mark their return to form.

Bergs is motivated and happy on a tennis court again — he had lost that recently and he seems to be back mentally and tennis-wise. We were already seeing him a bit better in recent matches but that needed to be confirmed, and that's done with this win over Korda in the first round. A slight drop from his usual level but other than that everything was good; I saw some of the old good Zizou ready to hit heavy again. Enough to cause problems for Ruud, but the Norwegian also impressed me strongly last week with an excellent tournament in Tokyo and finally a solid run of matches. I'm a bit torn on this match: my desire to back Bergs is strong, just as I keep telling myself that Ruud won't be easy to beat even on hard. I like Bergs' game against the Norwegian though — he can really hurt him from the baseline and come to the net or simply hang on when needed. Even if in the end I see Ruud prevailing, I'm not sure the values are on his side.