Shapo the erratic

First round (2025 for example against Navone), or semi-final (2021)?

Finally the season on clay is over, I’m going to be able to live again." Those were the Canadian’s words, repeated several times over the years. And yet... he gives us another little fiasco against Čilić in ’s‑Hertogenbosch with a nice little family-sized choke. Then he just squeaks through with a scraped‑out win against Pinnington, but takes a thrashing against De Minaur, a bad match‑up for him. Beyond the match‑up, I didn’t really like his level of tennis. He obviously has to play the card of being even more aggressive against De Minaur, but the execution was poor, and he even gave up at the end of the match. So we’ve got a Shapo with a decent level of tennis, but who’s never far from a mental collapse. If he were to play well again in this tournament, he’d need at least one win to rebuild some confidence and start playing the dream tennis he’s capable of again.

On the other side, PCB is coming straight from Roland Garros, without a warm‑up tournament on grass. Before that, he played extraordinary tennis at Roland, and very solid before that. He chose to retire during a Challenger just before Roland, and in his last match against Jodar, “his shoulder told him to stop.” So it’s hard to know how competitive he really is. A first round at Wimbledon is still €100,000. Then again, he’s also entered in doubles...

It’s also worth noting that PCB at Wim is 7 losses in 7 appearances. Yes, yes. But! It’s also a match‑up very much in his favor with 6 wins in 8 matches.

Tricky...