A German who's hard to follow.

Engel is really talented, but he just can't break through. On the other hand, every time he's in a home tournament, he plays his best tennis.

Disappointing season for Engel, who isn’t winning many matches and isn’t living up to expectations. He’s a very young player who will fill out and improve. He has natural talent and real power in his shots, which should allow him to become a very strong player in the years to come. But it has to be said that for the moment, it’s not really happening. He plays very high-risk tennis and can rack up unforced errors when nothing is going in. We’ve already seen him catch fire, here even last year, when he beat Struff before playing a great match against Rublev, in particular. More recently this year in Munich, he managed to take a set off Kopriva in a high-level match. He’s a young player capable of anything, whose average level isn’t very high for now, but whose performance peak can skyrocket.

Against Humbert, I’m quite sceptical for two reasons. First, there’s the match-up, because Humbert is one of the fastest-playing guys on tour and can rush anyone, which Engel won’t like. Second, Humbert’s real weakness lies in his physical condition. If you can make the match long and tough, then he can crack on that front, which doesn’t really seem likely tomorrow given how the match is shaping up. These are the two reasons that make me think our Frenchman should come out on top.