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The Dutch player is on form in his indoor matches

After the quarter-finals in Bangkok, Sijsling decided to drop down a level and use it to work on his confidence. This seems to be working for him since he's had two convincing wins so far, and he shouldn't experience any problems against Gombos, who's not on his level

Before the start of indoor tournaments, Sijsling had a losing streak of six matches and things started to look a bit worrisome. The fact he withdrew from Davis Cup shows he got worried too, explaining he wasn't good enough. He devoted his time to prepare for the last part of the season, his favourite.

The tournament in Metz showed that the decision paid off for him, despite the defeat in the first round. He played excellent tennis in Bangkok last week and nearly knocked Simon out in the quarter-finals. Interestingly enough, he didn't continue his Asian tour (although he was able to), but continued to play at a lower level and switched to indoor tournaments.

The win against Martin with only two games dropped showed that he wasn't troubled by the long trip and he only continued with great tennis in the next round. He defeated Darcis, a local representative who wasn't an easy opponent for the second round of such a tournament. We saw a match in which the latter was expectedly better at longer points, but the first serve difference was simply too much. Sijsling had 80 % success in this segment, while Darcis remained very weak at 47%. In addition to this, his realisations played an important role, so we should mention the Dutchman's excellent 6/10 break chances, while the Belgian lagged behind with 2/9.

Sijsling will look to qualify for the semifinals against Gombos, a Czech player whose form at this tournament has been surprising so far. Although this is a player who's shown significant improvement at this level this season, virtually all his victories were achieved in slower conditions rnand it would be interesting to know how well his tennis can deal with the indoor conditions.

He had to play in the qualifiers for the main draw and he already looked well adjusted then (he beat Serra). The first round put him opposite a little-known local representative Gigounon (here on an invitation) and the match passed without any major problems, but Bemalmans then posed the first real challenge.

He successfully beat him in a very even match which was decided on nuances, namely their break points. The Czech wasn't too brilliant ( 2/6 ), but Bemelmans was utterly atrocious (0/ 9) and couldn't expect to win playing like that. Some of this was definitely down to Gombos' confidence, which has certainly grown following his successful year.

Although Gombos deserved to win, it's clear that Bemelmans  was at a fault. Today Gombos has to play against an even more difficult opponent who's managed to get back after a crisis, unlike the Belgian. Sisjling is also a much better player than Gombos and it would be a real surprise if he didn't make it to the semifinals.

With the indoors coming along much has changed for Sijsling. He ended his bad run and quickly demonstrated that this are the optimal conditions for him. He was very close to get into an ATP semifinal in Bangkok last week, while he is in an even better rhythm here. He is coming from a decisive victory over Martin, and has eliminated the home favorite Darcis. This was a more difficult test, as expected, but the Dutch passed with flying colors, taking the opponent's serve on six occasions. Gombos made it big by even entering the quarterfinal, and it must be noted he got there with some help. A good draw in the first round (Gigounon) was not unwelcome and Bemelmans missing all nine of his break points in the second round certainly helped a lot. Sijsliing will not make that mistake, and is also a much more dangerous player than the above mentioned two. I believe it would not be a surprise to see him in the semifinal. I expect a clean win by him, and I would also suggest a total handicap on him (-3.5).