In search of their best level

Vacherot and Majchrzak are not in great form but have just won easily 3–0 against "good opponents" in the first round.

I put “good opponents” in quotation marks because it obviously needs to be put back into context. Especially for Mejdedovic, who is a good player but right now is just a shadow of himself and hates this format. He put in a really poor performance in the first round, Majchrzak won easily. It’s a good win to restore a bit of confidence for the Pole, who really didn’t prepare well for this tournament, with a pretty obvious lack of motivation and huge frustration. He seems quite excited by the conditions this week; he says he likes it when it’s fast and he can play his game. I don’t find it excessively fast, but if that’s how it feels to him and he likes it, then he should play well on it.

Vacherot hasn’t really been lacking motivation recently; it was more a level issue, with a comeback from his injury that didn’t go well. Sure, he faced tricky opponents, but the level wasn’t good and he showed a lot of frustration. His first-round win against Kovacevic shows a new momentum. I felt he was particularly focused right from the start, with his game back, flawless serving, ultra-solid baseline play, and that’s already very good. However, I felt, just like with Majchrzak, that at any moment, with the slightest lost set, things could unravel a bit mentally, because these are two players who are really not confident at the moment.

Majchrzak has a decent record against big servers, but in terms of how the matches play out, it’s really not what I prefer for him, because he needs time and to feel like he’s in a battle. If Vacherot maintains the same serving quality as in the first round, it could be very tight. But he doesn’t put on extra aggression from the baseline once the rally becomes neutral. I’d even say he’s a rather patient and sometimes passive player, which should suit Majchrzak. In other words, on neutral points, I’d give the edge to Majchrzak. On the other hand, in the short patterns, and in terms of having many more free points, which could be important in such a long format, I lean towards Vacherot.