The champion steps into the spotlight

Ruud begins his title defense this week, and he's coming back from injury at the same time..

Not the best preparation for Ruud, who pulled out of Monte Carlo because of a calf muscle issue. He says he’s 100% recovered now and ready to defend his title after a good recovery in Mallorca. The conditions are great for him, this high bounce and court speed are perfect for his forehand and the intensity he wants to bring on clay this season. He’ll just need to get back into rhythm after this short break without a tournament, but it wasn’t long so it should be fine. He leads 7–1 against Munar by the way, it’s one of the nice draws to get for an entry into the tournament given his dominance over the Spaniard and the fact that Munar is also coming back from injury.

It’s pretty clear in Munar’s head for now: he hasn’t yet found the level for this kind of match, he says he’s going to fight and try, but that he doesn’t feel ready yet against this type of opponent. I don’t really like that mentality to begin with; in my opinion he’s quite influenced by their previous meetings and he knows he doesn’t really have the basic solutions. His R1 against Shevy was good but the Kazakh threw in the towel after one set, too hard to rely on that I think.

To sum up, I’m not worried about Ruud in this first round, and if we really feel he’s messy/not having a great day, we can always adjust.