Is Coco heating up the Court of Princes?

Interesting programming for our Frenchman who could benefit from some help from the crowd

With Rinderknech/Fonseca and then Cobolli/Blockx on this Court des Princes, there should be a crazy atmosphere all day long, and Moutet can really set it on fire. The Frenchman just played a very serious and focused first round against Muller, Elie told me he didn’t flinch the whole match and that he was locked in just the way we like, and at the same time he knew it was a great opportunity. I’d even say that getting Ruud is a good draw, or at least it could’ve been worse! The match-up is less ideal though: if Ruud manages to get volume and height on Coco’s backhand, it’s going to be very hard to contain the Norwegian, but we can count on Moutet to impose a different rhythm.

Ruud got his revenge on Popyrin today in a good-quality match; it took him a bit of time to find his range, but in the end it was quite a straightforward win, and in this case I think Popyrin has more tools in his game to bother Ruud than Moutet does. The serve, the power, the playing style—this was a tricky first round for Ruud, and I thought he looked in good shape. Effective backhand down the line, nicely loopy forehand, perfect attitude, he’s got what it takes to make a deep run in this tournament. When I look at his losses this year, they’re only against very aggressive/powerful players; generally, when he faces players he can dominate in the rallies, he gets through...