Oh no, not him.

I had Sweeny checked off on my list of qualified players to watch in the first round, but the draw doesn’t look very good at first glance. Although...

You may have already seen Sweeny earlier this year against Gael Monfils. The Australian really gave our Frenchman a hard time, and he’s back for another round at Wimbledon. I saw him in qualifying against Barrios, and I had a blast watching his match. He’s a short, ultra-mobile player who doesn’t hesitate to slide, dive, jump and throw himself around to get one more ball back in play. He really has a great mindset. He says he’s really changed the way he approaches tennis and matches, and that he’s in a really good headspace at the moment. I can only confirm that, given his impeccable attitude in his last qualifying match. Even in the fourth set, when he was down 5–0, he kept pumping himself up after every point he won. We’ve got a player who’s going to leave everything on the court and potentially try to turn the match around, even if he were to lose 6–0, 6–0 in the first sets.

So yes, Sweeny doesn’t have a great serve or explosive tennis, but he plays with his heart, and we all know how dangerous that kind of profile can be on grass. I’d be wary of him if I were Dimitrov, who is still in the process of playing himself into form. The Bulgarian still hasn’t convinced me with the content of his matches. I followed him all week in Mallorca and I think that if he got through two rounds, it’s only because he had easy draws. We saw straight away against a higher-calibre player, namely Fokina, that he still hadn’t rediscovered the level of intensity needed to hang in that kind of match. Personally, I really don’t have a good feeling about what I’m seeing from Dimitrov, but you have to admit that his track record at Wimbledon is pretty solid. He very rarely loses in the early rounds, but there’s a first time for everything. Obviously I’ll say that Dimitrov is the big favourite in this match, because of the surface but also his experience and level of play. Now, will it be an easy win?

I like Sweeny’s profile: he’s going to make him play again and again and try to capitalise as much as possible on the slightest opportunity. For the Australian, it’s a bonus match: he’s playing a big name and has nothing to lose, he’s already done his tournament by coming through qualifying. I put him in the category of dangerous qualifiers and I stand by that.