My darling!

Here’s our international Loré back again after expanding the famiglia. How will he start the season?

Well, we had some family time with the birth of his second child, after an incredible end of the season under huge pressure so that he could finally take part in the Final 8 in Turin. Mentally and physically, he gave everything, with the pinnacle being that famous win against ADM in front of his home crowd. He logically skipped the Davis Cup afterwards to rest, because I’ll say it again, he really dug deep. So six weeks off, with a match at the Caen Open on December 16 where he lost 2 and 0 to Gaston (lol). He’s going to have to get back into it, my man, and fast! And even if the Italian managed to get much more consistent results in 2025, including on his weakest surface, fast hard courts, seeing him at 1.34 for his first real comeback match doesn’t exactly thrill me. Because yes, at least we know that Etche is in reasonably good shape. As Jérémy said so well, he’s been missing something for two seasons now, but personally I do see a bit of progress, or at least still that ability to hang in there with a very solid serve/forehand combo. He was above Valentin Royer in terms of level, even if the match-up suited him because the strategy was to be solid and make the Frenchman crack. Different scenario here, since we’ve seen the Argentinian twice completely out of ideas against Loré in 2025, and that was even in fast conditions (Madrid & Vienna). To put it simply, Etche ends up having to take more of the initiative and gets countered quite comfortably. And when Loré switches to attack mode, he’s more explosive. He also knows how to play the Argentinian, for example by insisting on his backhand to build the point. That weakness was glaring against Carabelli in Paris. So we could say this is the perfect match for Loré to come back in, right? Why not, yes, but with those odds, if there’s any value to be found here, it would more likely be on the number of games on the Argentinian’s side. He’s got a match under his belt, and he has nothing to lose. What can he change? His tennis has such a strong DNA that apart from optimizing his metrics, like for example his serve quality, I don’t really see how he could overturn the established order. He’ll have to stay aggressive from start to finish...