The wetters

Collignon almost pulled off a monumental choke against Comesana, notably missing a volley. Fokina is a professional choker too; whoever’s ahead might well not be the one who wins!

I’m being a bit hard on Collignon, but in his first two rounds he cracked when it was time to close and it was anything but clean. Otherwise, he’s in form this week and leaning heavily on the crowd’s support. I like what he’s showing, but how can you not be impressed by Fokina’s match yesterday too? The Spaniard got broken fairly early in his match, but once he found his rhythm he was damn good for almost the entirety of the three sets. He’s not exactly calm at the ends of sets either, but the rest of the time he was very strong—he’s clearly motivated this week and feeling good physically. He’s one of those players who can pretty much decide the outcome of a match on his own; when he’s on, he does everything on the court. His ability to play fast off both wings while defending like steel and fighting for every ball is just monstrous when everything clicks, and I know I’m repeating myself, but this year, aside from one or two missed tournaments, I think he’s been good all the time. My concern was the indoor game, and even there he reassured me—especially since it was a good Giron—so it’s a genuinely strong performance from Fokina that he needs to back up, but generally when he starts his tournaments well it’s promising for what follows. In the matchup with Collignon he’ll again look to take the lead quickly, but I’m also counting on his movement speed to counter well and hold up. I like Collignon, but I like Fokina even more—in this form he’s a danger to 95% of the tour.