Painful memories.

I'm still having nightmares because of that first-round match at Roland-Garros this season..

I’d bet on Lehecka, I can’t remember if it was the ML or a slightly riskier bet, but in any case the odds were pretty low, and above all it was a bad bet. The Czech was awful. And Carreno played an ultra-clean match, with a serving quality he rarely reaches. He was totally comfortable on 100% of his service games and won 3–0 against a completely off-the-mark Lehecka. After that, the Spaniard backed it up with some high-level matches, but since then, it’s been the complete opposite. He’s clearly losing steam, we’ve been seeing it in his matches for several weeks now, and on top of that he just retired in Winston-Salem because of a lower back injury. I watched the match, and I didn’t even find him that injured, I’m not sure it’s anything very serious, but I don’t see why he retired, since he was going to lose fairly quickly anyway. The score was 6–4, 3–0, double break. He’s quite a peculiar guy, and before that he also took a solid loss in the second set against Rublev. I get the feeling he’s carrying something, or that he’s not at 100% and just keeps playing as long as he can, before maybe taking a break and stopping for a while, because things really aren’t going well.

It’s a bit better on Lehecka’s side, even if he still can’t manage to beat top players. He’s holding his rank and playing good-level matches, but that’s clearly his ceiling. When I look at the level gap there was recently against Jodar or against Fils, I’m not all that convinced, but it should be enough. This is a tournament that could suit him well. The bounce is low, it’s not super fast, but it will give him time to attack. And he’s still relatively confident. The preparation is decent, so to speak. He’s defending a quarterfinal and will be one to watch if he starts to gain momentum.