The Brain and the Muscles: Arribagé and Guinard Find an Instant Connection

Théo Arribagé had asked Manuel Guinard to play doubles with him before.

Not once. Not twice. According to Arribagé, the invitations had come so frequently that he had lost count.

“So, yeah, I asked Manu so many times to play with me—like five, six, seven or eight times,” Arribagé said. “He said no, like, every time to me. So I am happy it’s the first time he said yes to me.”

Guinard’s eventual acceptance may have come out of slight necessity, after both players’ regular partners returned home, but their first match together at the Winston-Salem Open hardly looked like an improvised arrangement. The pair’s debut has seen instant success at the ATP 250 event.

The French pair played with ease, humor and an obvious trust in one another, surviving a tight opening set before pulling away decisively in the second. By the end, Arribagé and Guinard had not only earned a win. They had also begun to establish the identity of a partnership that had taken several invitations to finally form.

“And, yeah, I think today we did a great match, with a great attitude,” Arribagé said. “I think we played pretty well, and we enjoyed it a lot, so I’m happy with this win.”

Guinard offered a more practical account of how the pairing came together.

“Yeah, like, last week our partners were supposed to come back home, so we decided to play together,” he said. “And, yeah, we enjoyed this match a lot today. It was really fun, with a really good level. So, looking forward to the next step.”

The Brain and the Muscles

There is already a natural contrast between them.

Arribagé is animated and quick to joke. Guinard is more understated, but equally willing to play along. When asked how they had developed their chemistry so quickly, Guinard reduced their partnership to a simple division of labor.

“We’ve got different qualities, different games,” Guinard said. “He’s more like, I would say, a tactical man.”

Arribagé immediately interrupted.

“I have the brain.”

Guinard continued without resistance.

“He has all the tactics, and I just follow,” he said. “I just, yeah, do what he is telling me, and we’re trying to mix it up like this. But he’s more, let’s say, the brain, and I’m the muscles.”

“Exactly, yeah,” Arribagé said.

The joke works because there is some truth beneath it.

Guinard’s strength from the baseline gives the team stability and weight of shot. Arribagé is more comfortable moving forward, reading the point and imposing himself at the net. Their games do not mirror one another. They fill different spaces.

“He’s, like, so good on the baseline,” Arribagé said. “Me, I think my quality is more, like, when I’m at the net. And so, yeah, I think we have a good game together to play well. So I hope we win this tournament.”

A First Set Decided by Inches

That ambition did not look unreasonable after their opening performance.

The first set was decided by margins so thin that either team could have taken control. Arribagé and Guinard were forced to stay patient through long stretches of tension, with momentum shifting from one side of the net to the other.

“I think we used the momentum,” Arribagé said. “We did, like, a big, big first set. It was so close. We were close to winning, close to losing the first set.”

Taking Control After the Break

Once they secured it, however, the match changed rapidly.

“And we started the second set so well,” Arribagé continued. “And after, yeah, we continued to push, and we managed everything. It was good for us.”

Guinard saw the same shift as the product of a few points falling their way at the right time.

“Yeah, yeah. I mean, the first set was more or less, like, one or two points here and there that we managed to take,” he said. “And then, in the second set, right after the break, we managed to take the break and the lead in the second set.”

That early advantage altered the pressure in the match. Arribagé and Guinard became freer, while their opponents struggled to recover from the disappointment of losing the opening set.

“And, yeah, after that, I think they were kind of a little bit under the water, and we tried to keep going, and that’s what we did,” Guinard said. “But, yeah, it was a really good match.”

The result was a second set that appeared far more straightforward than the first. Yet the difference was not necessarily a dramatic tactical adjustment. Arribagé and Guinard simply recognized the moment, took control of it and refused to let the energy return to the other side.

Winston-Salem’s Crowd Becomes a Factor

That energy was not limited to the four players on court.

The crowd became part of the match, particularly during its closest stages. For doubles players, who can often find themselves competing in front of smaller audiences than their singles counterparts, the atmosphere carried additional significance.

Guinard said the court was full at the beginning of the match, with spectators responding to the quality and tension of the tennis.

“Yeah, especially today. At the beginning, it was completely full, and they were really enjoying the game,” he said. “And it was, again, a really good match, really tight.”

Both players are comfortable acknowledging the crowd and allowing themselves to be lifted by it. Rather than shutting out the noise, they use it.

“And I think we are also the kind of guys who take the energy from the crowd,” Guinard said. “So we know how to play with it. We know how to fire it up when we need it, and I think people enjoyed it.”

That connection mattered most when the match tightened.

“And, yeah, at the end, it helped us a lot, especially in the big moments,” he said.

Arribagé shared the sentiment, though in his characteristically playful way. When discussing the response at the end of the first set, he exaggerated the size of the support before returning to what it meant to the team.

“No, it was so good for us to have a crowd like this,” he said. “At the end of the first set, they clapped like there were, what, three people?”

“Yes,” Guinard replied.

“So we enjoyed it a lot,” Arribagé continued. “We enjoy it a lot when we have a lot of people supporting us. And, yeah, we hope in the next match we can have the same because, for us, it’s something unbelievable.”

A Case for Doubles, Made Without Trying

That desire for a louder doubles atmosphere has become part of a wider conversation within professional tennis. Doubles often offers the things spectators say they want: fast points, constant movement, tactical variety and visible interaction between partners. Yet matches are not always given the same platform or attendance as singles.

Arribagé and Guinard made a compelling case for the format without needing to argue for it directly.

Their opening match contained tension, momentum swings and sharp tactical contrasts. It also contained something less measurable but just as valuable: personality.

Arribagé teased Guinard about repeatedly rejecting him. Guinard designated his partner as the brain and himself as the muscles. Both engaged with the crowd, with one another and with the match in a way that made the partnership easy to follow.

The humor did not distract from the tennis. It clarified why the tennis worked.

Their chemistry is built on friendship, but also on complementary skills and clearly understood roles. Guinard can anchor the team from the baseline. Arribagé can look for opportunities to close at the net. One can devise the plan; the other is more than happy to execute it.

For a partnership formed only after other plans fell apart, the arrangement already feels surprisingly coherent.

Arribagé may have needed five, six, seven or eight attempts to get the answer he wanted.

After matches together in Winston-Salem, it appears the wait may have been worthwhile.