The Q on fire

O'Connell comes into this first round without having lost his serve during qualifying

It’s a nice comeback for O'Connell, who really messed up at the start of the year during the Australian swing. I felt a sort of revenge in him during the following tournaments and as if by magic he then put together a great run in Rotterdam. He’s clearly gaining momentum, that’s pretty obvious, and his loss to Halys in the meantime seems logical to me given the Frenchman’s level this season. What I especially notice is that O'Connell has just comfortably handled his two opponents in qualifying: Harris and Basilashvili. It’s nothing exceptional, but the scorelines are quite one-sided and he was perfect on serve. He’s a player capable of doing great things when he’s confident, and right now he’s in a good spell.

He’ll be up against Fucsovics. The Hungarian hasn’t had a great start to the year; he has a few wins but nothing outstanding, and on the other hand he already has several losses to weaker players, so he’s not yet at the top of his form. He has already beaten O'Connell once, but that was on clay last year in Bucharest, at a tournament he loves. On hard court and with this poor momentum at the start of the season, I’m not sure he should be considered the favorite in this match. In terms of the match‑up, the main thing is to sense whether we’re getting the good version of Fucsovics on the forehand side: when he’s feeling the ball well there, he dictates play and comes forward to the net instead of being stuck on the back foot.