Good draw for Royer!

The Frenchman gets a qualifier and must not disappoint us. Careful!

It’s kind of always the same story with Royer: we see him looking pretty solid in main tour matches, but in the end he gets very few wins. Then he drops back down to Challengers and gets good results. He’s just won one recently, and even if it wasn’t a big Challenger, it’s still good for confidence. He also had a week off, the scheduling is ideal, and he’s arriving in great shape. His recent matches on the main tour have been pretty good, he’s pushing players who are a bit above his level and stays competitive most of the time. He’s facing a player he’s never managed to beat, but he’s also in better form than usual.

Svrcina came through a topsy-turvy match against McDonald, and I didn’t understand why he kept insisting on trying to hit big first serves when his serve is a secondary part of his game. He increased his first-serve percentage by taking some pace off and just getting the ball in. He also mentioned that he’s had a shoulder issue for a few tournaments now. He’d already spoken about it and said he can feel his shoulder, but once it’s warmed up and with the adrenaline of the match, it bothers him a bit less. Still, it’s not perfect and that worries me a bit. He’s a player competing with an injury who wants to keep playing because the upcoming events are important. But he might pay a heavy price for it, and if it ever gets worse, it could be painful.

The match dynamics are pretty clear: Royer will very often be in an attacking role, while Svrcina will try to return as much as possible and play smart. He’s a very clever player and hard to handle. However, there will be opportunities on his service games because he really serves poorly and wins few free points. Sure, he leads 2–0 against Royer, but the matches were tight and were played on clay. On hard courts it’s a bit harder for him to implement his game, and even though he’ll fight bravely, I think Royer has a great opportunity here.