So, happy?

I think they can each be satisfied with the draw, even if in my opinion Mannarino couldn’t care less.

It’s no surprise, but Mannarino on clay is awful, his game is absolutely not built to be effective on it and mentally he’s now conditioned to lose. It’s really a shame because he’s been pushing good guys recently, but every time he falls behind it’s game over, lights out. I don’t see disastrous performances, but it’s just impossible to trust him as a result, he can play a good match and then blow up at any moment. He hasn’t won a match here since 2019 and he’s coming in with a bunch of losses on the board.

Humbert isn’t the best clay courter either, but at least you can’t blame him for not trying, he does what he can and goes into matches with a good mindset. And it just paid off in Hamburg with a good tournament! A win over Engel, then over Khachanov before a cruel loss to Buse, it was good for Ugo and I found him physically less in trouble than usual even though the matches were long. I don’t really like the match-up against Mannarino in general, but on clay it’s better for Ugo, who can attack Manna’s balls more easily. His only win against him was here, by the way, with a really one-sided victory, and in my opinion it’s going to go that way again.

Too hard to believe in Mannarino, his line is really high and he might grab his set but I don’t see more than that…