New closed-door meeting?

The matches keep coming and looking the same in Gstaad, with very few opportunities for the returners.

We're seeing a bunch of matches ending in tie-breaks or tight ends of sets, with servers almost always being rewarded by the conditions. Collignon sums up well what's happening in Gstaad by saying that it's still hard to control the ball, especially on the return, and that it's hard to break. He says this after playing against Sonnego, who is indeed a good server, and he's about to play against Vacherot, who serves even better, but is maybe a touch less dominant behind his first ball, if I can put it that way.

On the other hand, Vacherot knows how to capitalize on his serve and remains a huge threat in these conditions. I said before his match against Hanfmann that the fact he was coming back from injury was pretty much the only thing that bothered me, because in itself, I think he's capable of going far. And indeed, he proved it by beating a specialist of high-altitude clay. His first set was really good, and clutch on top of that. We saw a very inspired Vacherot again, and with a small rest day, I don't think he'll be short of energy to finish this second match.

It's also good stuff from Collignon so far. The Belgian especially tightened things up in the second round after a rather messy first round. I still feel he's struggling to unfold his best game in these conditions, since he can’t quite control the ball very well. On the other hand, he has a strong serve and plays well off both wings, able to hit hard. Conditions matter, but luckily, tomorrow it’s going to be a bit heavier, with a lot of rain that fell at the end of the day, and that should slow things down considerably compared to what we had in the early rounds. For that reason, I think Collignon will have a real shot tomorrow on slower clay, which makes the match much more winnable for him.