Sluggish start

Only one win for O'Connell at the beginning of this season, none for Agut.

O'Connell is worrying, first because he’s played 5 matches but almost all of them were in Australia, at home! Normally you’re supposed to be fired up there, play your best tennis and win matches you might have lost elsewhere, but no… I’ve pretty much watched all of his losses and honestly it was really bad, on top of him having a poor attitude. I didn’t see him in Manama last week but losing 6-3 6-1 to Jacquet is rough, even if the Frenchman went deep in the tournament. All that to say we’re seeing O’Connell completely lost, and the switch to indoor isn’t supposed to change anything.

With Agut you can put his losses into perspective, I think. He only has two defeats and he’s also coming back from injury, so it’s pretty logical that it takes time for him to get back to his best tennis. Plus he lost to Mpetshi and Shang, those weren’t good draws. He’s supposed to get better as he plays more matches and, in his case, he likes indoor: he’s already won titles on this surface and he generally does well in Montpellier, he’s already been a finalist there. With his flat shots and his experience on the surface, he’s better than O’Connell indoors, and his form seems slightly better to me despite not having a win yet in this 2026 season. This is finally a good draw for him and I can see him taking advantage of it!