One of the advantages for Gray of winning a tourney and then playing the very next week in the same city is that he got a special exemption for the second week and earned a first round main draw bye. Last week was played at Markspark; this week at EllisPark, which, if you watched Invictus, is in the same complex in Joburg where they played the famous 1994 Rugby World Cup final, which got the South Africans back onto the world sports stage. And one of the advantages of playing down in the RSA for Alastair is that not that many pros venture there, so it's a relatively light field and, arguably, he's got a better chance of winning than, all the Frogs at Fayetteville, which has a strong field. Like Fayetteville, action is starting today in Joburg, but Gray will get a day off. As mentioned upthread, Alastair will be there this week and in Pretoria next week.
Going forward, Alastair will have some of the advantages that Norrie has/had. Being British, he'll get coaching and training and a home base in London from the U.K.'s strong national tennis program. And, he'll get wildcards and berths in the U.K. tourneys in June leading up to Wimbledon. As yet, though, he's got no Facundo Lugones; which I think really helped Cam. Rybo got some help from the USTA for a year or so, but, like Chappell and Stalder, he's largely been on his own because the U.S.-level support is not comparable to other countries. Lopez, who is on the Mexican Davis Cup team, probably gets more national support than do the Americans.