Fancy meeting you here!

They faced each other in a Challenger tournament a year ago in Nottingham. And now here they are in an ATP 500 event after a year of significant progress.

Quite a lot has changed for these two players. They’ve both had their breakthrough and are trying to build on it, while looking for some consistency to confirm their level. Atmane is gaining stability, but he still has a few real dips. He’s currently going through a rough patch with 5 losses in his last 5 matches.

The switch to grass won’t necessarily help him. He’s not a player who, in my opinion, has obvious qualities to perform well on it. His kick serve loses effectiveness, and so does the spin on his forehand. But maybe he can surprise us. In any case, last week in ’s‑Hertogenbosch, he was thoroughly outplayed by Borges, who managed to keep the ball low, counter well, and control the rallies.

On Landaluce’s side, he’s been grinding since last week in Stuttgart, with a win over Herbert and an extremely tight loss to Fritz in a deciding tie-break. And now, he’s just come through qualifying after giving himself a big scare against Huesler, notably saving three match points. That already gives him four matches on the surface, and the impression he left last year is being confirmed. He apparently can be very good on it.

I don’t know if we can already say he has an advantage on this surface, but to me it’s clear that he can play better on it and that he’s already playing better on grass than Atmane. He also has the advantage of having two matches in his legs this week, and all these little things put together mean he should come out on top.