A bit of a shame, this draw.

Our two Frenchmen are in good form at the moment and could have beaten some good players in the first round. Unfortunately, they’re playing each other, but the upside is that at least one of them is guaranteed to be in the second round.

I’m mainly going to talk about their recent meeting in Umag because it’s quite representative of these two players. First we had a red‑hot Droguet who didn’t make a single error and was simply playing better than Van Assche. Then the match completely flipped, with Lucas suddenly not missing anymore and taking advantage of a big physical drop from Droguet, who was completely gassed as he often is as soon as the match gets a bit physical. The win should have gone to Van Assche, but he got tight and started doing a bit of anything and everything before handing over the final break to a Droguet who was in full smash‑and‑grab mode, and who didn’t really deserve his victory. That’s what happened a few weeks ago.

Since then, Van Assche has picked up his first title in Estoril with an impressive level of play all week. He hasn’t played since. He’ll have to manage the surface transition, but it’s easier when you’re confident and feeling good about your game. Droguet is the perfect example of that. The Frenchman hadn’t played on hard courts for months, and yet he delivered a great match against Svircina. He still has a big edge over that type of opponent, mainly thanks to his serve quality, but the rest of his game was pretty solid too. However, once again, towards the end he seemed a bit physically affected. It’s really dramatic how much he lacks fitness, and he has to play again as soon as tomorrow against a player who can force him into long rallies.

Let’s say that once again, Droguet is naturally more likely to perform well on this surface compared to Lucas. But confidence and physical freshness are on Van Assche’s side.