It’s been a while.

I feel like Grenier has kind of disappeared, whereas before he would show up from time to time in small tournaments or in Grand Slam qualifiers.

Catastrophic season for the Frenchman, who has only racked up 9 small wins since the start of the year, which is far below anything he’s done before. When I look at his previous seasons, he’d rack up at least 30 wins for more than 10 years. He’s a player who had a fairly stable level and who was often tough to play in the past, despite his ranking. Maybe his solidity has taken a hit and mentally he’s struggling to keep progressing beyond the 100th spot in the world. This year, there’s nothing that makes you want to trust him. Even if he seems to have won two or three matches recently, it was against very low-ranked opponents, like him. He’s just taken another heavy loss in qualifying. We find him again as a lucky loser against a Safiullin who, on the other hand, is putting together a good season and stringing together wins. Logically, this shouldn’t even be a contest.

The Russian made his return last week at the Challenger in Cancun after a small hip injury that occurred at Wimbledon. I watched his first-round match, which was pretty solid, even if it wasn’t great tennis. He then beat Wawrinka before losing to Hurkacz after having lots of chances. For a comeback tournament, that’s pretty good. And knowing his maximum potential level and the confidence he seems to be regaining this year, there’s a clear class gap in this match. A good Safiullin should be able to roll over Grenier.