The little French guys

An average height of 1m75 in this match, which is really short for modern tennis!

Given the profile of both players, we’re probably going to see quite a few breaks and momentum shifts; neither of them has a big advantage on serve, which should make the match quite open. It’s the kind of match that’s interesting to analyze tactically because they can cancel each other out from the baseline. Van Assche is looking sharper at the start of this year after a 2025 season where he had to rebuild from pretty far back; you could say he’s in good form now and needs to back up his strong Challenger results on the main tour. Clay is a good surface for him; he can play well indoors with his flat shots, but he understands clay very well and moves well on it too.

With Gaston, strangely, I find him better indoors as time goes by, whereas at the start he was supposed to be excellent on clay. He can quickly get impatient, and I get the feeling he likes to put himself through the wringer/get dirty, that he’s less willing to really scrap for it. His start to the season is a bit better, but he hasn’t had any big performances yet, and he’s been playing indoors since January; the switch isn’t easy, even for him. I had a good feeling about him in Marrakech in my mind, but in the end he’s only won 2 matches in 3 appearances there, and both were in three sets, which really isn’t great.

I wouldn’t really know how to explain it, but I’m team Van Assche. I feel he’s in a better place this year and ready to make Gaston crack from the baseline, with Gaston getting worked up on his own and overdoing it with his drop shots.