ATP Belgrade – Friday Preview

Lopez Feliciano vs. Montanes Albert

Feliciano Lopez of Spain earned a straight sets victory over Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in two sets and reached the quarterfinal of the 2011 Serbia Open. Gonzalez played well, but only in patches while the Spaniard brought his best game when matter, he had 32 winners and 6 aces. He’ll meet his compatriot Montanes who advanced after he won against Berrer.

Montanes had a sloppy start to the game and gifted the opener, but after that he found his rhythm and played much better while the German lost his steam. H2h is 3-1 for Lopez, 2-1 on clay with the most recent meeting back in 2005. Overall all meetings were close. Lopez has the edge on serve but the surface will be slower today as will be a high humidity and some scattered rains are expected.

Montanes had his slow start but after that his serve started to clinch and was tougher from the baseline, he needs to direct a lot of balls on opponents backhand which isn’t the most reliable weapon especially if he will be forced to hit way behind the baseline. Montanes is coming after a match against a left handed who also played some aggressive tennis.

Volandri Filippo vs. Granollers Marcel

Another tricky match. Granollers surprised Viktor Troicki on his home soil but the Serb made a poor match and still the Spaniard struggled too much to keep his own serve. Volandri played too much recently and some letdowns showed in his match against Marchenko where he struggled but he bounced back and finished strongly. Both players struggled on court, both saved a lot of break chances but Granollers looks overall in slight better form playing also in doubles. He has overall the better serve and likes to play against grinders, he plays an aggressive tennis and can surprise the Italian who isn’t the most reliable player in these late rounds. But when Volandri gathers some wins under his belt is hard to go against him. 

Devvarman Somdev vs. Tipsarevic Janko

Somdev Devvarman managed to surprise Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on the background of a poor display of the Spaniard. The match lasted more then 3 hours with Garcia-Lopez struggling with his serve in the occasional drizzle. It was a hard battle from the back of the court with the Spaniard playing some aggressive tennis sometimes but the Indian looked impressive with his solid defense.

He will meet now Tipsarevic who let only two games to Zverev. The Serb will have an extra motivation in this match as Devvarman managed to surprise Tipsarevic this year in Davis Cup indoors in three contested sets. Tipsarevic was solid on court and his serve worked well, he will start once more aggressive. 

Djokovic Novak vs. Kavcic Blaz

Novak Djokovic extended his perfect run this season to 25 matches as he brushed aside Romanian qualifier Adrian Ungur in front of his home fans at the Serbia Open in Belgrade. The Serbian looked good in his first match on clay of the season and wasn’t in trouble during the match.

He will meet for the first time Kavcic who beat Mello to advance in quarter-finals. Wasn’t an easy match as it could go either way easily but overall Kavcic kept his errors low in key moments and managed to advance further.

The Serb is favorite to advance further, hard to see Kavcic who still didn’t impress lately to oppose too much resistance but still the Slovenian can play some aggressive tennis and is reliable player against top players.

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