Quimper Challenger 2021: Lucas Pouille vs Filip Horansky preview, head-to-head & prediction

Match details

Fixture: Lucas Pouille vs Filip Horansky

Date: 25 January 2021

Tournament: Open Quimper Bretagne 2021

Round: First round (Round of 32)

Venue: Quimper, France

Category: ATP Challenger

Surface: Indoor hardcourt

Prize money: €88,520

Lucas Pouille vs Filip Horansky preview

Former World No. 10 Lucas Pouille will finally return to competitive tennis this week at the Quimper Bretagne Open, where he is the top seed. The 27-year-old will take on World No. 184 Filip Horansky in the first round on Monday.

Pouille has been out of action for almost a year now, having last taken to court at the Indian Wells Challenger in March last year. An elbow injury and subsequent surgery on the joint forced the Frenchman to miss all events in the rest of the season.

In order to ease his way back onto the tour, Pouille also decided to skip the upcoming Australian Open. Instead, the former Wimbledon quarterfinalist will try to win the Challenger event in Quimper, which boasts a fair few exciting names.

Ernests Gulbis, Sebastian Korda, Brandon Nakashima, Hugo Gaston and Marc-Andrea Huesler are some of the other names in the mix.

Lucas Pouille last won a tennis match in October 2019, when he beat Zhe Li at the Shanghai Masters. Since then the Frenchman has played just twice, and has lost on both occasions - to John Isner and Noah Rubin.

Filip Horansky in 2011

Pouille will look to avoid adding Filip Horansky to the list when the two lock horns on Monday. Horansky is on a four-match losing streak, having recently exited the Australian Open qualifiers in the opening round.

The Slovak is predominantly a claycourter, as evidenced by his 20 Challenger final appearances on that surface. So in theory, the indoor hardcourt surface of Quimper should be a tough challenge for Horansky.

Lucas Pouille vs Filip Horansky head-to-head

The head-to-head between Lucas Pouille and Filip Horansky is 0-0 as they have never faced each other on tour before.

Lucas Pouille vs Filip Horansky prediction

It is difficult to predict how Lucas Pouille will fare after such a long hiatus from the sport. But it is natural to assume the 27-year-old will want to take it slow and easy to avoid putting pressure on his elbow ahead of a potentially long season.

Lucas Pouille

A solid shot-maker off both wings, Pouille will hope that he hasn’t lost any of the natural power in his upper torso. If his strong forehand still has its bite of old, the Frenchman can make things very difficult for Horansky on Monday.

Pouille is likely to find things tough on his serve though; that is a shot with which he was already quite inconsistent before his surgery. Armed with a decent return, Horanksy will look to make Pouille pay for any stumbles in the serve department.

That said, if the Frenchman finds his rhythm in time, he should make it to the second round.

Prediction: Lucas Pouille to win in three sets.