Vallejo is emerging

The young player from Paraguay has been grinding through the clay challengers for two seasons now and finally wants to prove that he deserves his top-100 spot on the main tour!

Already 25 wins for Vallejo this season, the guy doesn’t hang around, he plays whenever he can and on top of that he wins a lot! He’s a proper clay-courter like we love them, serve is so-so but with an interesting kick, super solid from the baseline and able to really annoy a lot of players who aren’t comfortable on this surface, like Svajda for example! The American was lost on clay and got eaten up by the clay specialist in front of him, who’s actually not that experienced at this level of competition. It’s only temporary, because Vallejo is really playing well and has the level to be top 100 on clay. A mountain is waiting for him though, he’s up against Paul and even if the American isn’t a clay reference, he’s still a very solid top-25 player who’s just had a huge tournament in Miami. Maybe a bit of pressure for Vallejo.

Let me also remind you that Paul on clay is really not bad at all, he won the junior Roland-Garros and is coming off a quarterfinal at Roland last year. We’re not talking about some random American discovering clay. That’s why we’re less worried about Paul than we would be for another seeded player. But I have to admit Paul is hard to read: he’s capable of playing like a top-10 guy for a whole tournament, then in the next one he’ll drop a set against an average player—and that next tournament is Houston! Basically, Vallejo shows up with massive confidence and Paul is just starting his clay season. He’s still a bit rough around the edges and might take some time to get going, especially since his record here isn’t exactly outstanding...