The return of La Vachette!

Vacherot is making his return to the tour after pulling out of Roland, what should we expect?

Well, not much I’d say, in the sense that it’s hard to assume he’ll be immediately performing well when we have no idea where he’s at. His stress fracture in the foot is supposedly healed and he’s chosen to make his comeback here, so we’ll see how it goes! I think clay at altitude is still pretty damn cool for his serve but also for his overall game, he’s smart in defense and can follow up at the net too. A Vacherot in good form is extremely hard to beat in this kind of tournament.

Same as Hanfmann! The German is a benchmark in altitude tournaments, he has obvious qualities to perform well there and he very often shows up. He’s also in good rhythm after his first‑round win despite a somewhat scrappy first set (but nothing worrying). On his side, we know what to expect and we also know he’s less interesting as a solid favorite, and that’s clearly the case here. He’s around 1.53, which to me is completely ‘because of’ Vacherot’s return — without that, it would be a different story.

In other words, we’ve got a very low price on Hanfmann and I don’t really feel like trusting him; I was already a bit scared against Martinez, so against Vacherot…