Originally Posted by
Snowball
On the other side.
1) Pouille is a qualifier who mainly plays at the Challenger level in scrub tournaments. He's young, not 21 yet,
has talent but is not established as an ATP level player, ranking 176.
2) Fognini ranks 20 and has 7 years more experience.
3) Pouille recent victories can be easily dismissed, aside from showing good form. Johnson ? whatever. Nieminen ?
he's been playing a lot and is old. Karlovic ? bone tired from Basel, his serve was not there yesterday.
4) Fognini has had rest coming off dissapointment in Spain.. lost to Murray (no shame in that). lost to Kukushkin
and Gulbis (both who were very hot at the time). Stiffer level of competition. Fognini is used to playing vs the elite,
Pouille is used to playing marginal players.
5) Early round, indoor, don't expect a huge crowd for this match. It's not one of the premier matches.
6) Time off for Fognini gives him an opportunity to rebound. His girlfriend Pennetta is in Bulgaria so we know
he won't have weak legs.
7) discounted odds