Yet another Dutchman!

There have never been so many Dutch people in this painting; he's the fifth one, and he's not the most famous.

Den Ouden is neither a big prospect since he’s already 23, nor an established player since he hasn’t yet made it past the Challenger level. The wildcard may seem surprising, but I think he got it because he was in India for the Davis Cup and wouldn’t have been able to play the qualifiers, a fair reward in the end.

I don’t know him very well, but he plays the vast majority of his season on clay, he’s reached several Challenger finals, he’s a player who seems to have the potential to get closer to the top 100 but who, as of now, has absolutely no indoor credentials. He played and lost the decisive match against India this weekend, a big disappointment for him and therefore not an easy follow-up.

On the other side, I quite liked Fucsovics’s start to the season; he didn’t have easy draws but I felt he was already pretty solid in his game. He didn’t play in the Davis Cup, he wasn’t in the team at all, Piros played in his place, but I couldn’t find any information about it. That could be a small warning sign.

Marton really likes this tournament, the conditions suit him perfectly; he notably reached the final here in 2021 after coming through the qualifiers.