Lingering doubts!

A small ATP 250 after Paris, with the Davis Cup coming soon—the context of this tournament raises questions

After Shanghai, everyone was eagerly waiting for Rinderknech in Paris, his first tournament. We got two matches: the first he won against Marozsan, not without trouble but showing some nice mental resilience. Then against Vacherot it was tense—too tense, really. I don’t think either played well (especially Val), and I felt Rinderknech was exhausted; the end of the season is starting to take its toll. That’s one concern. The second is his opponent! Altmaier finally put together some good matches in Paris, and even if his opponents weren’t at their best, he regained confidence, so I’m expecting him to look much better in this last tournament. Against FAA he took an MTO for an adductor issue, but to me that looked more like fatigue and a bit of bluffing; I’d love confirmation in the comments if anyone has thoughts on that. Otherwise, I think he has the right game to give Rinderknech a hard time—he’s got a good record against big servers/aggressive players, and he seems in a better spot to finish the year. I’m not forgetting that he tends to play well at big events and then drop a level at smaller tournaments. Add the fairly slow conditions and Altmaier’s playing style, and I can see a really tricky match for Arthur. He still has the advantage of playing at home and having a level that’s fluctuated less than his opponent’s this year; he’s the logical favorite, but let’s not make him too short either—this has trap-match vibes. Two things to keep in mind for this match: the Frenchman’s fatigue, which could show up as a lower serve percentage or being overly eager to rush the net; and Altmaier’s attitude—you can tell pretty easily when he doesn’t give a damn!