What luck!

Instead of Fils for your last Roland, you’re taking De Jong. Stan the Man is blessed by the gods!

Well, our favorite is still an outsider all the same. And for good reason: playing 3, 4 or 5 sets in 30-degree heat, it’s going to be rough!

Scheduled second on Simonne-Mathieu, he’ll be just a tiny bit sheltered from the sun. But still, it’ll be a good 32 degrees, and say what you want, last Roland or not, the guy isn’t exactly young anymore. There were cooler guys who already cracked on this first day, I don’t want to get carried away by my feelings.

On the other side, the lucky loser De Jong had, excuse my language, a pretty crappy qualifying run. Clearly not at his level, I’m wondering what’s wrong. In any case, that should leave plenty of room for our buddy Stan. Well…

I’m just wondering if there isn’t some matchup issue. The Dutchman played resilient profiles in the qualies, and I think he’s much better as a counter-puncher. His match against Jodar in Madrid was really good. He knows how to take the ball early on the return and neutralize power in rallies.

So I’m missing one crucial piece of info: why De Jong wasn’t feeling it in qualifying. If it’s an overall dip in form, then Stan has value; if it was just a series of uncomfortable matchups that kept him from expressing his game, that’s a different story.

Any thoughts?