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The Italian is one of the favorites for the trophy

Vanni played one clay court match in Budesila on clay court following a good result at Wimbledon. He should not have problems adapting here, which is why he seems to be headed into the second round. Silva is simply not the player for this level yet

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Luca Vanni has been having an interesting season so far. After being only an average challenger player for year, he suddenly got much better at ATP level this season despite recently turning 30. He reached Chennai main draw and Sao Paulo main draw, where he advanced all the way through to the final. Things simply fell into place for him, starting with the draw, momentum, form. But Vanni failed to record similar results later in the season. 

He went on to crash out of the next four tournaments in the first round but finally found form again when he won all of the Madrid qualifying matches and then beat Tomic in the first round. Tomic had has his vengeance at Roland Garros. It all seemed pretty good again but clay court season finished and grass court was up next. Vanni had absolutely no experience on grass before that. 

His first matches in those conditions made it very clear that he lacks experience but somehow Vanni managed to record good results again. He managed to get in Wimbledon main draw as the lucky loser when Ferrer pulled out but Ward beat him in the very first round. 

Wimbledon was, regardless of that, definitely a positive experience for Luca. He managed to play one match on clay court ahead of this tournament, which will definitely be very helpful.

He is No.7 seed here and is definitely capable of good result. But first rounds and often the trickiest ones. The first round here paired him against Silva, a young Portuguese who has much less success and therefore experience. He's a 20-year-old who still mostly focuses on futures tournaments. He has over 20 wins this season but only 4 at challenger level in his carrier. He got in Estoril main draw through a wild card a few months ago but he couldn't get more than a set against Muller.

Interestingly, Silva went on to play hard court tournaments and win one such title and reached to other semifinals, which clearly gave him some confidence. he didn't struggle with the chance of surface here, sailing through the qualifying matches, which was rather expected as he never met a player in the top 350.

It seems like there's a huge difference in quality here. The only advantage for the Portuguese could be adaptation since he played qualifying matches. Vanni played one clay court match after Wimbledon, though and seems to be having a very good chance of opening this with a win.