Juan Manuel Cerundolo as a scarecrow.

The Argentine is starting to build himself a nice little reputation in this kind of tournament. He could be one of the surprises outside the top seeds.

A semifinal in Gstaad after having led comfortably against Collignon. It's a real shame for Cerundolo, but it was a bit of a backlash given that all week he made small comebacks without being hugely impressive for once, in my opinion. As I said, I actually found him almost more annoying to play last year at altitude. I don’t know if it’s because he was a bit short on energy over the week or because he also had some very good opponents in front of him, which is possible, but let’s just say I’m waiting to be convinced again.

He’ll have the chance to prove me wrong this week. But watch out for this first round, which could be a little trap, because Trungelliti likes to bother people this year, and it’s also an all-Argentine clash. Even if they’ve never played each other officially, they must know each other, and it’s still a match apart.

Trungelliti did not disgrace himself in his loss to Fokina in Umag last week. The Argentine took a hammering at the start of the match, but then he got into it and delivered a good performance. It’s in line with what he’s been doing this season. He’s awfully hard to beat. Sometimes he gets good chances but doesn’t take them. Let’s say the trend is that you see him really fight hard, but he doesn’t know how to finish or capitalize. I don’t think the match-up is terrible for him. He has a good backhand, he’s intelligent. And he also knows how to dictate play. I want to see how it goes, but it doesn’t seem terrible to me either. I’m expecting a good match from him and I don’t see an easy win for Cerundolo.