The attacker attacked

We’re all wondering how long Toby Samuel will be able to keep putting pressure on Zizou!

And yes, because Zizou just does it better. We often use the phrase “he does everything a little bit better than him”, but here, that’s really how it is for me. Toby has built his game with the intention of hurting his opponent whenever he can, notably with an excellent quality of serve (only broken 4 times in the tournament), and a big forehand. On the other hand, when he misses, the ball can fly 3 meters out. Another small factor is that he’s playing at home, so he can play both relaxed and also tight at the end of sets, as he admitted in an interview.

So we’ll have a territorial battle on the slightly slower grass of Eastbourne. And as I said, Zizou has the superior aggressive game to rein in Toby Samuel’s ambitions, and Toby will be the one who has to adapt the most, especially by coming to the net. If he keeps serving very well, he’ll then need guts to close out the sets. Because Zizou is in good form and just played very aggressively as well against Choinski. I don’t think there will be many pre‑match opportunities here...