However, it is a marathon not a sprint and it would be a big mistake to chase from the off.
Instead the plan is to rebuild slowly and that means putting strong weeks together as the Tours move into big tournaments in the Middle East before the two hard court Masters events played in North America.
That also means there will not be selections every day as I tighten the approach a little bit after a frustrating time at the Australian Open.
The first Grand Slam of 2024 was a good one as far as entertainment goes and the two Champions, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka, will both feel they can add to the big titles won.
They will know there are a number of contenders that will be keen to bounce back and it looks like a good season is in store for all of the fans around the world.
It is the hard court events that continue to be the main focus for the players, but the Golden Swing in South America is another strong part of the Tour schedule.
We have some big Ranking points on offer over the next month before both the ATP and WTA Tours combine to play at Indian Wells and Miami and the focus for these pages is getting the season moving in a positive direction.
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina - 1.5 games v Gregoire Barrere: An early exit in Montpellier has continued the poor start to the season made by Gregoire Barrere.
His two wins this season have been against the then World Number 256 and 214 and the confidence has to be a little dented after the defeats around those victories.
The home crowd will be behind him and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina is returning to the Tour for the first time since his surprising defeat in the Second Round at the Australian Open. The Spaniard is going to have to deal with the emotion of facing a home player, while the serve is not as strong as it should be on the faster surfaces.
However, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina did earn a good looking win over Hubert Hurkacz in the build up to the Australian Open and that is the best win either of these players have produced.
Gregoire Barrere has had some successes on the hard courts, while he did produce some solid indoor hard court tennis at this time of the season twelve months ago. He did not put together that kind of level in Montpellier last week, but in 2023 Gregoire Barrere had played well there, in Rotterdam and here in Marseille.
On his best day, Barrere has a decent enough serve, but his return game is not as effective as Alejandro Davidovich Fokina's. This could be the difference in this First Round match and the higher Ranked player can find a way to move past the home player.
Denis Shapovalov - 2.5 games v Hugo Gaston: Injury and a loss of form has contributed to Denis Shapovalov slipping out of the top 100 in the World Rankings, but he can frank his win over Hugo Gaston from last week by beating the same opponent again.
It has been a difficult opening month on the ATP Tour for Denis Shapovalov who has lost three of the four matches played.
The one exception was his win over Hugo Gaston when the lefty dropped just four games as he dominated the Frenchman in all aspects of the match.
Two wins in the Qualifying Rounds will have given Hugo Gaston a boost in confidence, although he will have noted the gap in level that will need to be bridged if he is going to turn the result around.
Hugo Gaston does not have the most productive serve and that does tend to put a lot of pressure on his return game. Over the last twelve months, Gaston has only held 73% of his service games played on the hard courts, and he was broken four times by Denis Shapovalov last week.
While Hugo Gaston has been able to return well enough to make up for the inefficient serve, it was very difficult for him to push Shapovalov last week. Having that experience will certainly help Gaston to prepare for this First Round match, but Denis Shapovalov showed enough in Montpellier to believe he may be approaching some of his best form and he can get the better of this opponent again.
Yannick Hanfmann - 2.5 games v Juan Pablo Varillas: The South American Golden Swing is seen as a very good chance for the clay court specialists to really get their 2024 season underway after the hard court tennis played over the last month.
Both Yannick Hanfmann and Juan Pablo Varillas are very comfortable on the surface and both will arrive in Cordoba hoping for a better run than 2023.
Early exits were the order of the day for Hanfmann and Varillas last year and this is the first clay court match of the season for either.
There is very little doubting the qualities of both of these players when it comes to the tennis on the red dirt, but it was Yannick Hanfmann who showed a bit more last season. Neither enjoyed much positive form in the opening month of the season, but the slightly superior return performances produced by Hanfmann on the clay courts over the last twelve months should help him come through.
He has also won all three previous matches against Varillas and all three wins have been on the clay courts.
Yannick Hanfmann's win last year in Madrid was the toughest of the three victories over this opponent, but he still holds the mental edge.
The German has been the stronger player in the return part of any match against Juan Pablo Varillas and Yannick Hanfmann can find a way to earn the breaks of serve to cover this mark.
MY PICKS: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina - 1.5 Games @ 1.75 Coral (2 Units)
Denis Shapovalov - 2.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Yannick Hanfmann - 2.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
No comments:
Post a Comment