We have to get past this hurdle!!

Royer excels at Challenger level but he can’t manage to reproduce that on the main tour.

10 wins for Royer this season, including 9 in Challengers, that’s pretty telling about his problem. As soon as he drops back down to Challengers he does well and beats good players, but once he’s back on the main tour it feels like he’s missing that little something to take the next step. What he does in terms of tennis is good and even his attitude is great, but he simply doesn’t win enough. Clay is a good surface for his game, his record on it is pretty incredible, a high win rate and I get it, he likes having that extra time to dictate the rallies, he moves well on it, etc. Maybe it’s on this surface that he can manage to make the transition.

Not the best draw unfortunately, he gets a Medjedovic who is completely fresh and confident, the Serb hasn’t played since his big week in Barcelona and that’s a very good choice! He’ll be fresh and fired up this week, and he also has a good record on clay, and we saw in Barcelona what he’s capable of. He definitely plays better than Royer, but on clay he also has big physical slumps in his matches, that’s his number one enemy. On the other hand, the fairly cool conditions at the start of this tournament work in his favor, he hates the heat and should be able to get through his matches fairly comfortably.

In terms of match-up he seems to be too strong for Royer in every area; maybe mentally the Frenchman can manage to turn the match around, but everything else seems far too much in the Serb’s favor to me.