Arthur is gaining momentum!

You could feel the Frenchman come back to life in Montreal. As we know, his average level rises in proportion to his motivation. And when he’s on American soil, on that hard court that shaped him through four years of college, it’s kind of like being at home for him too. In Cincy in particular, the conditions suit him well. Fast, low bounce for waist‑high hitting. He beat Borges and Ruud last year, then went to a tie-break against Félix before retiring. Not bad, I think.

On the other side, here’s our famous JM again. Our Argentine grinder has turned into a Czech aggressor! Well, let’s not get carried away. He’s still a grinder, just with a serve/forehand that do some damage now. That said, he still doesn’t have any big results on this surface. Here he beats Medjedovic and Lajal. Guys who are too inconsistent, which is perfect for him. You could say it’s the same against Rinder, but the Frenchman is still above those two players at the moment. I’m also wondering about JM’s lefty game into Arthur’s backhand, but Arthur held up well against Manna on that side. He accepted it and made very few errors from that wing.

So I’d say a lot depends on the level of play Arthur shows up with today. This isn’t a particularly exciting match for him, quite the opposite. Court 6, risk of storms and rain (and therefore interruptions), a guy with no charisma on the other side, his first round, humidity against a grinder...