What if this were his tournament?

Landaluce has already ripped through draws and seems to love these conditions in this part of the world.

End of a losing streak for Landaluce, who takes out Draper, a big name on the tour, even if the Brit delivered a worrying performance looking ahead. I can’t say I liked Landaluce’s match, because he was close to losing the second set 6–2, and the overall quality of his match wasn’t good, but it’s true that he pointed out in the interview that this is his game: he likes to take risks, he likes to go for it, and if he has to lose playing this way, then he’s fine with it. I get the idea; it’s also what allowed him to be excellent at the start of the year and pull off a few upsets. In itself, I find his attitude rather clear-headed and fair, but he’s going to have to raise his level of play, because he’s really average at the moment.

It’s not great on Arnaldi’s side either, who’s playing with a foot pain and seemed satisfied in his interview with his loss to Griekspoor. It’s true that he played a very good first set, but after that, I still found him a bit lost out there, with a level of play that was nothing special.

First meeting between the two, and I quite like the match-up for Arnaldi, who can play on the return and counter the way he likes. He’s good in that area and should be able to cause enough problems for Landaluce. If I had seen a dominant and potentially dangerous Spaniard like at the start of the year in terms of level, I would have said yes, he can overcome the match-up and win with better tennis. But I really didn’t see that version. As I said, his first-round match was still pretty average. And he’s facing a player who is even more mobile than the one he met in the first round and who has a better attitude than Draper at the moment. That could also make the difference.