Ah!

Collignon isn’t doing well. Despite a somewhat cut-short final in Gstaad, I don’t know what’s going on with him, but he’s no longer that red-devil of a player, starving for victory, who defends like steel and finishes cleanly in transition. It’s been 12 days since he lost in Cincinnati, and he hasn’t played a single Challenger in the meantime. I really wonder what shape he’ll be in when he comes back here...

On the other side, we know. Rinky is playing well. With his own weapons, sure, but he’s confident. He absolutely has the level to pose serious problems for the Belgian. The two men have never officially faced each other, but I sense some great, long rallies, and therefore quite a mental and physical match. And all my questions are about the Belgian...

First of all, I’m surprised, both by his wins/losses ratio on outdoor hard courts and by his match volume on this surface. It’s true that his game is, in my opinion, a bit grinding by nature, and therefore has less impact on hard. And then, as I hinted above, Rinky’s court coverage is going to force him to be consistently clean in his attacking phases. And here, it might be a bit too early for me to trust him...