A much less frightening champion.

Diallo won Hertogenbosh last year and now has to defend his title.

It was a bit of a surprise to see Diallo win this title, but not that much in the end, given the quality of his tennis and the confidence he showed last season. He was coming off some very good hard-court tournaments, had a good clay-court run, especially in Madrid, and also a great first-round win at Roland-Garros against Francisco Cerundolo. He was able to roll in Hertogenbosch on grass with a game and a level of tennis more than good enough to really express himself on the surface.

This year, he’s arriving in a very different state of mind. He simply doesn’t have any real results this season, with only six wins since the start of the year, and above all a physical condition that’s bothering him a lot. We saw him retire again at Roland-Garros, for what seemed to be yet another back injury. That’s already something that usually troubles him, but looking at his statements after that retirement, he seems to say it was mainly due to the heat and the lack of preparation for this tournament, since he couldn’t play at 100% or train the way he wanted. That’s still plausible, but when I think back to his match against Duckworth, I found him diminished even in terms of his back. It’s a strange situation.

Do we have more confidence on Mannarino’s side? I’d say yes, despite his new catastrophic record on clay, but is that really surprising? We know his game isn’t built to be effective on clay, and mentally, he doesn’t seem keen to push himself that hard anymore, especially at his age. I even think there are positives in his clay-court season. He’s played some great matches and deserved to take sets, maybe even the win at times. But each time, he ended up cracking and completely letting go of the match. The final result isn’t good, but in terms of the level of play, I felt we saw a pretty good Mannarino each time, which is still reassuring and almost encouraging for the grass season, which is his favorite part of the year.

This will be the first meeting between these two players. Mannarino is a nightmare to play against, and even more so on grass. His understanding of the surface is a cut above the rest.

Even if Diallo is the defending champion, we shouldn’t forget Mannarino’s XXL track record on this surface, especially here, where he already won the tournament a few years ago.