🎾 Alejandro Tabilo vs. Arthur Cazaux – French Open R1

ATP French Open

🎾 Alejandro Tabilo vs. Arthur Cazaux – French Open R1 Preview

🧠 Form & Context

Alejandro Tabilo
🧱 Clay slump & off-court turmoil: Tabilo enters Roland Garros on a four-match losing streak, with no matches played since Monte Carlo in early April. His poor form is compounded by public family drama, which appears to have impacted his mental focus.
📉 Steep ranking drop: He’s nowhere near the level he showed in early 2024, where he climbed near the top 40. A lack of match rhythm and confidence has left him exposed.
🇫🇷 Paris struggles: Lost in R1 on his Roland Garros debut in 2024 to Zizou Bergs and has never won a match here.
🛑 Underprepared: No clay momentum, no match play, and off-court distractions make for a tough setup.
Arthur Cazaux
🩹 Fitness caveat: Capable of playing top-50 level tennis, but repeated injuries have restricted his calendar and effectiveness. He’s played only 13 matches in 2025.
🇦🇺 Flashes of brilliance: Reached the R4 at the Australian Open in January when healthy, showing that he can hang with the big names when his body allows.
🏟️ Home Slam wildcard: Strong crowd support is guaranteed here in Paris, and this wildcard is a big opportunity to reset his year.
😬 Limited recent success: Just 5 wins this year, and only 1 since mid-March. Still, his situation may be better than Tabilo’s right now.

🔍 Match Breakdown

This is less about who’s better on clay and more about who’s less off the rails at the moment. Tabilo, under normal conditions, has the tools to dispatch Cazaux—especially on clay, with his smooth topspin game and court coverage. But he’s underprepared, underconfident, and possibly distracted. Cazaux, while not fully fit and lacking rhythm himself, at least has some baseline form, home crowd support, and the upside of a deep Slam run earlier this year. If his body holds up, he has the grit and power to wear down Tabilo in a four- or five-set scrap.

🔮 Prediction

This one’s tight, but Cazaux’s mental freshness and crowd energy give him the slight edge over a disconnected and out-of-form Tabilo. 🧩 Prediction: Cazaux in 4 sets, as Tabilo fades physically and mentally.