And a third lefty for Shelton.

The American is stringing them together and still struggling just as much, but the overall impression is rather good, it has to be admitted.

After a super average first round against Damm, I saw prime Shelton last night against Humbert. It was just monstrous from the American, who really reminded me of his pre-injury version from around this time last year. He defended like tempered steel against a Humbert who was still very good today. He went to get some crazy shots and, as usual, the crowd was behind him. I’m the first one to criticize him, but when he’s good, that has to be said too. On top of having the level, he’s kept his clutch factor. I don’t know what else to say other than it was monstrous, and he didn’t seem physically sluggish either. On the contrary, he loves that kind of battle and you can feel he’s possessed, a bit like in Slams or huge tournaments he enjoys. In other words, this is top-tier Shelton and it’ll take something serious to knock him out this week.

That works out nicely because we seem to have the prime version of Tabilo as well. The Chilean is possessed, even transcendent, with a perfect attitude. He’s got two or three ultra-Chileans behind him who were already there in the first round and have followed him to support him. His win today against Atmane was also perfect. He finished the match without getting broken once, with a sense of solidity we used to see in his best tournaments in the past. Between his extremely damaging serve, his flat backhand that penetrates and gives away very few points, and the rest of his game, this is truly a great version of Tabilo. The kind of dangerous player you really don’t want to lay, quite the opposite.

What could concretely change tomorrow compared to their previous match? For Shelton, I’m tempted to say absolutely nothing, because he’ll be playing on the same court and in the night session. That’s exactly what we want for him. It’s a bit different for Tabilo, who has only played on the second court since the start of the tournament. A court that suits him very well because there’s not much space behind the baseline and, as I said, he had some very fired-up supporters. Now we move to the center court and a crowd totally behind Shelton. Let’s just say Tabilo is going to have to motivate himself. I don’t think that’s a problem, but it’ll have less impact than on that smaller court.