ATP - Belgrade Thursday Preview

Viktor Troicki vs. Marcel Granollers

Viktor Troicki will play against Marcel Granollers in the second round of the 2011 Serbia Open. Troicki has risen to sixteen in the world after an impressive start to 2011. The Serb reached a final in Sydney at the start of the year and has maintained that form ever since. It took Novak Djokovic to knock him out of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami and he battled his way to the Monte Carlo quarters a couple of weeks ago before falling to David Ferrer.

However Troicki has never enjoyed a particularly good run in his home town event in Belgrade, losing in the quarter-finals for the past couple of years. The 2011 event is slightly weaker than usual and Troicki's good form means he finds himself seeded second with local crowds desperate for an all-Serbian final.

Strangely for a Spaniard, Granollers actually enjoys his best results on hard courts. He had a good run at the Miami Masters, reaching the fourth round with a win over Stan Wawrinka but he's had a tough initiation to the clay-court swing, losing to Nicolas Almagro and Jurgen Melzer in his two events so far.

Troicki has won all three of his previous matches against Granollers including a 6-3, 6-4 win at this very stage of the Serbian Open two years ago.

Janko Tipsarevic vs. Mischa Zverev

Janko Tipsarevic looks to make the Serbia Open quarter-finals for the first time when he takes on the nuggety German Mischa Zverev on Thursday.

Tipsarevic sailed dangerously close to the wind in Monday's opening round, giving his fans a big scare as he hit back from a set down to defeat Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-2, 7-6. Tipsarevic crashed out early the last time he competed in the Serbia Open and for a while it looked like he was on course for another early exit.

Tipsarevic has never been at his best on clay but he has a decent chance to make the quarters here before a potential showdown with third seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

First of all he has to get past Zverev who edged a lengthy first round clash with Israel's Dudi Sela 7-6, 3-6, 6-3. Sela had more than enough opportunities to win the match comfortably but converted just 5 of 19 break points. Zverev will know he cannot afford to give Tipsarevic as many chances, the seventh seed will not be as forgiving as Sela.

Tipsarevic has won both his matches with Zverev on the main tour, beating the left-hander in straight sets at this year's Australian Open.

Marchenko Illya vs. Volandri Filippo 

 It could be a tricky match. Marcenko came after a boost win over Gulbis, who even that failed to be decisive on serve still remain the solid match made by the Ukrainian, crashing performance for Gulbis on court. Volandri beat local player Lajovic but he is qualification for Madrid and came after a busy schedule and the Ukrainian might benefit by another crushing performance on court. 

Volandri is the better player on the surface, but he struggled in the second set against Lojovic. The match stays in Volandri’s racquet.

Garcia-Lopez Guillermo vs. Devvarman Somdev

They met on clay this year on a much faster grounds in Houston and the Spaniard easily advanced in two sets. Devvarman managed to start with a win his European clay season but was more Kukushkin who failed to finish the match, and who serve started to go from worst to worst.  

Garcia-Lopez didn’t impress too much recently but still is more a clay court player then the Indian. Overall the Spaniard has the better serve, powerful and well placed, good retrieving skills and he will hit with power and deep near the lines pushing Devvarman back on the baseline but the Indian showed great defensive skills and as long he will keep the ball into play he will have the upper hand, still the main problem for the Indian is his attackable serve on this slow track.