A miracle for Royer?

Outside of Challengers, Valentin isn’t the same man. Can Roland’s conditions make up for it?

It's true that Val is struggling a bit. The guy who used to say that confidence doesn’t build up in matches but in training is now clearly better when he can play several matches in a row. Yet when he’s not playing Challengers, the Frenchman loses in the first round 3 times out of 4. What’s up with that? Still the same problem of maintaining his best level over an entire match.

So yes, he fights like a dog, the attitude is good. But against a clay-courter who’s starving, on fire, and coming out of qualies, I’m pretty pessimistic.

Hugo Dellien got through the qualies almost without any problems and is coming in well-tuned, unlike Valentin. I still think he’ll leave a bit of room for Val, because his game isn’t very explosive, but also because, let’s be honest, he’s been playing a lot and you really have to grind through those three-setters in the blazing heat.