He made the quarters of the French in 2016 and the Monte Carlo final in 2017. along with 4 250 titles on clay.... one as recently as 2022. Definitely a very tough draw!
A couple of bad backhand misses in the final game, a daft dropshot, a wild forehand
There was tons of good stuff too - but the set was in his hands and he tightened up, without Ramos really doing anything - apart from SEEING that Billy was tightening up
Pity for Billy. It certainly wasn't the easiest of draws for the #1 seed but yes maybe arguable how tough and he got himself into a winning position.
Re the ongoing top 100 thingy he would have probably needed to reach the final here to have had a chance this week ( theoretical chance with a SF ). As the Miami fortnight and challengers shook out he was in retrospect very close to being top 100 in the current rankings. He is WR 103 on 580 points, WR 100 is on 592 points. If Billy had won his 3 set MD R1 match vs Spizziri he would have had 20 more points taking him to 600 points. So, all else being equal ...
He is now live ranked 104 and if he moves further this week, it can now clearly only be one way. He still though has a window before the grass season. But he needs to push that possibly tighening window open.