Arthur's entrance

First “big” tournament since the comeback for Fils, are we allowed to have big ambitions?

What a comeback! We wanted to be cautious and give Fils time to get back to his best, both tennis-wise and physically, but he's ahead of schedule! What he's been doing since his return is fantastic, and I also applaud the decision to skip Dubai. No injury, it was simply a matter of scheduling, as he confirmed. Now he's fresh and ready to follow up with a few good days of rest and plenty of training here. His preparation is going well, and now he needs to make a strong start. It will be against Prizmic. The Croatian is starting to "break through" on the main tour this year after numerous Challenge Cup wins last year. I put "break through" in quotes because he hasn't had a great performance this season; all his wins were as a heavy favorite, and there have been some lackluster matches, like his first-round match yesterday. He's very popular with the market and maintains a high hype level despite his lackluster matchups; I haven't personally seen him play a monster game this year. Pretty cool for Arthur then! And the matchup?

Prizmic is strong from the baseline, he's mobile and low to the ground, but he's not very powerful and is quite twitchy. He's not expected to have many options against Fils, but he could wear him down or benefit from an off day at the court, which we sometimes see. That's the number one thing to watch tomorrow. But even when Fils isn't playing well, he's been winning since his return, which is a good thing. Arthur seems better on serve, even more mobile, and much stronger mentally too!