Hanfmann + altitude = outperformance?

Maybe not this season, anyway. Apart from his nice final in Santiago, the German has seemed a bit fragile, I think, in the three clay-court tournaments at altitude, that is Marrakech, Munich and now Madrid. I feel like he’s not in rhythm, that he’s struggling a bit. That was kind of the case, I think, at the end of his first-round match here in Madrid. It’s mainly for that reason, I think—a lack of rhythm. I believe he pulled out of his quarterfinal in Marrakech because he caught the virus that quite a few players got. I wonder if that maybe didn’t knock him back a bit physically. In any case, the level of his matches isn’t what you’d expect from a player who’s normally much better on clay at altitude. Maybe this first round will do him some good, but I’m more inclined to think he’s a guy who’s a bit out of breath and needs to rebuild a proper physical base to get back to his best level on clay at altitude. The positive point is that he held his serve well in his match here, and that’s still something that shouldn’t be overlooked.