ATP French Open – Alejandro Tabilo vs Alexei Popyrin
🧠 Form & Context
Alejandro Tabilo
🧩 Complex season: Once inside the top 20, but 2025 has been turbulent—form dips, off-court distractions, and ranking slips.
🎯 Hard-earned win: Outlasted Arthur Cazaux in five sets in R1, marking his first-ever win at Roland-Garros.
🧱 Clay pedigree: Naturally suited to the surface—lefty spin, heavy topspin, and grinding baseline game all work well in Paris.
💡 Underrated danger: Despite a poor season, Tabilo remains a genuine threat on clay, especially in best-of-five formats.
Alexei Popyrin
🎁 Free pass: Benefitted from Yoshihito Nishioka’s physical limitations in R1, advancing after the Japanese player retired in the third set.
🎢 Slam struggles: Since his 2019 RG debut, Popyrin has failed to pass R2 in Paris.
📉 Limited clay résumé: The Aussie’s power-oriented style is better suited to quicker surfaces—he’s 3–6 on clay this year (excluding the R1 retirement win).
🧠 Confidence question: Recent inconsistency and some off-court distractions make it hard to gauge his current mindset.
🔍 Match Breakdown
This second-round clash is a classic stylistic battle: clay-court tactician vs. raw power hitter. Tabilo will look to disrupt Popyrin’s rhythm with topspin-heavy lefty forehands and deep returns, especially targeting the Aussie’s backhand on slow red clay.
Popyrin has weapons and can dominate service games when he’s dialed in—but Paris clay is unforgiving for those without the patience or footwork to construct points. Unless the Aussie serves at an elite level and shortens rallies early, Tabilo's baseline resilience should shine through.
🔮 Prediction
If Tabilo recovers well from his R1 marathon and avoids passive stretches, his clay instincts and lefty patterns should outlast Popyrin’s flatter game.
Prediction: Tabilo in 4 sets – expect longer rallies, more breaks, and a crafty lefty edge.
