No certainty

Carreno injured in the back, Fucso in the shoulder..

Carreno reached the final of a Challenger, we thought he was on his way back but he pulled out of Bucharest to manage his body after a long week. In principle that’s good, but then in Barcelona he stopped because of a back problem. It was probably more than just load management, and I’m pretty worried. I also have to mention his record in Madrid, which is awful: only one win in 8 appearances! It’s not the kind of clay he likes, so here I’m quite pessimistic for him in this first round.

It’s almost the same for Fucsovics, the Hungarian seems to be carrying an injury. He pulled out of Bucharest, but he did play Monte Carlo (it wasn’t great) and has just withdrawn from Barcelona again because of a problem with his right shoulder. His record in Madrid isn’t very glorious either, 2 wins in five appearances, and I’m not very optimistic for him in this match either.

Only one H2H meeting, but in 2021 on hard, it’s really not the kind of match where you can expose yourself with a big stake in any case, you have to speculate from all angles...