Valentin..

You honestly can't hold much against Royer..

His attitude on court is perfect, he doesn’t give the impression that he’s struggling and yet he is. Only two wins this year, including one last week against Agut in Cap Cana, a great match even if at the end you could really feel he was desperately lacking confidence. I think the match-up was really cool vs Agut because Royer plays aggressive/forward-moving tennis and that kept the Spaniard out of his comfort zone. Not really the same type of match against Tirante, the Argentine is also an offensive player and I’d completely forgotten that last year it was here that he had a great tournament.

He came through qualifying and then beat Cobolli before only losing in the deciding tie-break against Shapovalov, that was excellent! He lost yesterday in qualifying this time but the match was high level against Landaluce, he led by a set and a break before seriously dropping in intensity; physically, as soon as he dips a bit it costs him dearly, but his forehand is just so strong! This is a second chance opening up for him and with a day of rest I expect him to be particularly on fire now that he’s a LL and will be able to play more relaxed. Serve on point, solid from the baseline, monstrous forehand, he’s strong and it’s going to take a good Royer otherwise it won’t be enough.

Despite Royer’s decent matches I always come back to the same thing: he almost never wins. I think he’ll play well and do his match but in the end...