johnnylad wrote:

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How do you think Olek will make the transition to grass?

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Tough to say. Grass is not the forte of the Ukrainians. They have a mixture of clay courts and indoor hard courts out there, so their players are split as specialists - many, Olek included, seem to heavily favour the clay and do very well on the Challenger Tour at clay court tourneys (and make considerable efforts to enrol themselves in clay court events whenever possible) - however those Ukrainians aiming to push on in the rankings make real efforts to play as much hard courts as possible and switch their focus to that surface (such as Sergiy Stakhovsky, Illya Marchenko, and Sergei Bubka Jr). By breaking out onto the World Series tour during the clay court season, Olek has given himself the best possible chance of doing well here.

On grass? Last year, the Ukrainians' record on grass was not great, tbh, and outside of the grass court season (i.e. Queens and Wimbledon with an exo in between possibly) I've never seen them willingly choose to play grass court tournaments. However, many of them are very keen to push on and progress, which presumably includes improving on grass. Marchenko has stated one of his current aims as getting into the Slams and putting together good runs, and he and the others will be very keen to do well at Wimbledon. Olek, in comparison to his performances on clay, might do worse on grass - if you want me to guess, I say he'll go one round less than he does here in Roland Garros.

But he's young, and up and coming... I get the sense of Olek, in the long run, that he has a very adaptable and versatile game, and that in future he can definitely master grass. Just maybe not this year! He's not where he needs to be right now to make a big run on the green stuff - his experience and strength is still with mainly clay courts, he hasn't learnt yet to make the transition to grass. Wait till next year though and he could put something decent together at Wimbledon.