A favorite qualifier?

Given Dzumhur's current form, does he deserve to be the favorite?

Dzumhur is really struggling after an excellent 2025 season. I think he’s feeling the effects and paying the price. Anyway, his matches over the last few weeks have all been bad, he has one win this season but it was against Draxl who cramped. He hasn’t played any Challengers, which I think is a good choice, he’s taking a break and getting ready to be good during this Golden Swing? On clay he’s a really tough guy to beat, he’s definitely going to play better but watch out, because this R1 is a big test to see exactly where he’s at.

He’s facing a qualifier, Dellien. The Bolivian is a regular on the South American Challenger circuit and the Golden Swing, his average level of play isn’t that high but a few times a season he finds his game and puts together a few decent results. He’s coming from qualies and I liked his match against Monteiro, he’s settled in and already has quite a few clay matches in his legs this season, this will already be his 9th match. Advantage in terms of form/momentum.

As for the rest, we’ll have to see, it’s their first meeting and it mostly depends on Dzumhur’s level. I’d say the tendency is to lay him and we’ve got a good candidate to do it, so why not take advantage? If I like the odds I’m going to jump on it.