Head in the clouds?

With Roland-Garros starting in a week, it’s only natural to wonder whether each player isn’t already mentally in Paris...

For Atmane I think it’ll be a bit like that, but there’s nothing better than a good tournament to prepare properly for Roland! The problem for the Frenchman is that he’s still not strong enough physically to play on all fronts; you can already see within his matches that he loses a huge amount of intensity after one set. Against Cobolli in Rome he played a great first set and after that he just wasn’t there anymore and stopped making an impact. I also saw him in Bordeaux against Droguet where he took the first set and then collapsed afterwards; he doesn’t have enough stamina to keep working and really hurt his opponent. It was a bit like what happened in his match against Etcheverry in Monte Carlo, where he started strong before losing in three sets.

That’s Etcheverry’s ideal scenario as well; the Argentine shines over the long haul and loves making opponents play until they implode. He’s kind of forced to stay focused this week because he’s defending a semi-final, and in any case he’s got an impeccable mentality, we know he’s going to fight. A bit disappointed by his match in Rome against Bellucci, but he ran into an Italian on fire who’s horrible to play in that kind of match. He’s got enough power to make the difference and, thanks to the crowd, he held up over time with a high level of play. Etcheverry now faces a left-handed player who can do damage but can’t last as long and won’t really be helped by the conditions either; Hamburg is slow.