FAA is back

Last year he didn’t follow up after Montpellier, same story again?

FAA in demo mode in Montpellier, it was the mega good version of the Canadian. Solid, fast, athletic, powerful, everything that makes him a player close to the top 5. He had health problems in Australia and he said that his season was really starting now and that he was keen to build momentum.

Last year he retired because of a toe problem, a minor issue in my opinion and no reason to believe he can’t string matches together. He’ll be playing on Wednesday, he’s had a “easy” week, he’s already won the title here so I don’t see any particular reason to worry about him.

He’s going to face Popyrin, a player totally lacking confidence and who hasn’t put one foot in front of the other for several months. Since his US Open win against a retiring Ruusuvuori, he hasn’t won a match and it’s now 9 losses in a row. He hasn’t had many easy matches but still, that’s a lot, and having watched him play, you can really feel this lack of self-confidence. The decision-making isn’t good and with a high-risk game like his, that immediately leads to a lot of errors and a much lower level.

Beating FAA looks like a mountain given his current form and I really don’t see him managing it on Wednesday. We could see a less sharp version of FAA than in Montpellier for his opening match, but that doesn’t seem enough for me to expect an upset here.