Struggling, but with a smile?

Which player can start their hardcourt swing the right way?

Yes, it has been quite ugly for both players. Tabilo had a really poor grass season and did not look that good in Båstad, despite making it to the semifinals, rather luckily. Well, he followed that up with a 6-4, 6-4 loss as a 1.10 favorite against Torres, a local player in Estoril. We see this quite often from Tabilo; he tends to have quite lengthy bad streaks when his game is not clicking. It is not for a lack of effort; you can see him trying to fire himself up. I saw it in Båstad recently! Now, getting to play on hardcourt instead might not be such a bad thing. He can definitely play on clay as well, but he actually has better stats on outdoor hardcourts. However, most of his good results have actually been in different parts of the hardcourt season... the Asian hardcourts or Indian Wells/Miami (Sunshine Double). Also, coming from two recent clay tournaments in Europe means that he will have less time to adjust and prepare.

Well, Griekspoor's recent matches are not exactly fantastic either, are they? His clay season was really quite poor... but that is something we can expect at least a bit. However, he was completely unable to do anything meaningful in the grass swing, which makes it a lot more alarming. He has spoken about it quite a lot recently: that he struggles to really win matches, even if he feels like he is practicing well and playing decently. He played two Bundesliga matches post-Wimbledon and then went on to play the UTS in Rio, getting some hardcourt prep in! Now, he lost against Fonseca and Norrie... but I see a lot of pictures of him smiling! We have seen Griekspoor and his mate, Botic, go on these big losing streaks while just looking absolutely depressed... haven't we? So at least it reassures me a bit that Griekspoor seems to be working his way back with a better mindset than he has had in the past? As for the matchup, there is not a lot that stands out to me. Both players serve well and struggle on return; the conditions are rather fast, and it might come down to small margins!