ATP Madrid – Tuesday Preview
Viktor Troicki vs. Florian Mayer
Viktor Troicki will face a tricky match against Florian Mayer in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open.
In a rematch of this year’s ATP Sydney Open semi-final, Viktor Troicki will meet Florian Mayer in round one of the Mutua Madrid Open. Troicki has been in good form this season, but hasn’t quite managed to clinch an ATP World Tour title. The Serb won’t be a major favourite to win this competition, but might be able to put together a decent run.
Mayer is also playing well this year, and fell just one win short of claiming last week’s BMW Open title. He is currently ranked thirtieth in the world, and is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career at the moment. This is a career-high ranking for the German, and he should be feeling confident ahead of this week.
Troicki and Mayer have a 1-1 head to head record prior to this match. Mayer beat Troicki in last year’s Australian Open, and Troicki avenged the defeat in Sydney in January. Both matches were reasonably close, and Tuesday’s match could be an intriguing one.
Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Mikhail Youzhny
Juan Martin Del Potro will begin his Mutua Madrid Open campaign with a tough first round match against Mikhail Youzhny.
Del Potro’s return to the ATP World Tour this season has certainly been impressive, and he’ll enter this week’s Mutua Madrid Open as a contender for the title. The young Argentine has already won 2 ATP World Tour titles this season, and has a 26-6 record for 2011 heading into this competition. Despite all of this, he’s been handed a troublesome first round tie against world No. 13, Mikhail Youzhny.
Del Potro and Youzhny’s only previous matchup took place in 2007 at the Miami Masters. Del Potro won the match 7-6(2), 6-4. This match was some time ago, and took place on a hard court. Tuesday’s match, naturally, could be a very different contest.
Milos Raonic vs. Feliciano Lopez
Milos Raonic is set to return to court on Tuesday in the first round of this year’s Mutua Madrid Open. The talented youngster has so far looked surprisingly comfortable on clay, and made the semi-finals in Estoril last week before retiring with a back problem. Hopefully this problem doesn’t keep him from playing his tournament opener against Feliciano Lopez.
Lopez has far more experience at this level, and is known to be a dangerous clay court opponent. The Spaniard is currently the world No. 39, and should have a decent opportunity here. There’s a chance that Raonic won’t be at full strength, and this might take away some of the impact of his huge serve. Even so, Raonic’s training camp is in Spain, and it looks like the world No. 25 has developed a competent all-round clay court game.
This match should provide an interesting clash of styles, and it will be the first ever ATP World Tour matchup between Raonic and Lopez. A fully fit Raonic would be worth tipping for victory on current form, though even then a close match would seem likely. This should be an exciting match if it goes ahead.
Kevin Anderson vs. Oliver Rochus
Beaten in qualifications by Flavio Cipolla, the Belgian Olivier Rochus entered in the main draw as a lucky loser replacing Ernests Gulbis.
He will face Kevin Anderson in first round who made recently quarter-finals in Estoril. But even that the South African is 3/3 on clay this year he still didn’t convinced on this surface, he beat Cuevas who was without practice in Barcelona, De Bakker who just returned to circuit and Hanescu who was in hurry for Madrid qualifications. He improved a lot on clay, especially his movement but the main assets remain his serve.
Also the Belgian looks in good form qualifying for Monte Carlo and overall hasn’t problems with powerful servers, he beat Petzschner, Darcis, Paire, Soderling, Ramos only last year on clay, he has good retrieving skills and he should use more the slice here, which is good and stay low, forcing Anderson to hit below his knee. Also the drop shot is a good weapon against a deep standing player, Rochus has a lot of tricks and can mix better on court.
Ivan Ljubicic vs. Gilles Simon
Ivan Ljubicic is kind of enigma for bettors, his coming from nowhere and pull some upsets, just like he did in Monte Carlo where he beat Tsonga and Berdych before losing easily to Nadal. Also is dangerous as he has his serve on his side but the match will be played on the Court 5 which hasn’t roof and the pace will be slower.
Simon is coming after Estoril where he struggled against Raonic on serve in a match full of breaks, when the Frenchman served with the second serve he was easily broke. H2h is 3-1 for the Croat, 2-0 on clay and the last meeting on clay was back in 2009 also in Madrid. The Croat has the serve on his side and Simon struggled against another powerful server recently, Raonic, and overall Ljubicic is a smarter player on court and with more experience on clay then the Canadian, Simon needs to improve his serve but is hard to see any improvements in couple of days.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Pere Riba
Tsonga come back strongly from the second round defeat from the Pablo Cuevas in Estoril Open and surprised Almagro in first round in Madrid. The Frenchman looked once more solid on court behind a powerful serve display wining 87% points behind first delivery. The match is played on Stadium 3 which has roof and conditions are faster on this court which will favor Tsonga.
Riba continued his solid form showed in qualifications and won against Nishikori in straight sets. The Japanese wasn’t in his best form but even so he managed to break three times Riba who’s second serve was very attackable.
The Spaniard has a solid defense and in a long rallies has the upper hand but he tends to lose against powerful hitters, he lost to Cuevas, Granollers, Andujar, Ilhan, Ramos, Montanes just to name a few and Tsonga with his powerful ground strokes he will have the upper hand on a court which has roof.
Thomaz Bellucci vs. Pablo Andujar
Bellucci started the Mutua Madrilena with a win in doubles partnering with Dolgopolov. He will enter in singles competition against Spaniard Pablo Andujar who after his solid tennis displayed in Casablanca slowed down and retired with back injury in Estoril last week.
Bellucci still is in searching of his form and also didn’t impress in doubles too much, but he is a leftie with powerful serve and big ground strokes from the back of the court. Andujar isn’t without chances but he needs to play an aggressive tennis like he did in Casablanca but he slowed down and between two players which struggles these days we see the Brazilian more compact.
Sergiy Stakhovsky vs. John Isner
After almost 3 hours spend on court and without losing his serve, Mardy Fish lost to his fellow countryman Isner. Was a tight match which could go easily either way but was Isner who came with the best in key moments, which means tie-breaks.
Isner fired down 13 aces with only one double fault and even that he looked without rhythm on clay and was in searching to adjust his movement he impressed in key moments.
Stakhovsky managed to surprise Montanes but he was a little bit lucky as the Spaniard made a step behind in key moments and let the Ukrainian to dictate who felt comfortable on a court with roof. Isner has the serve on his side and he will enter with some morale after the win over Fish.
Yen-Hsun Lu vs. Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco reached the final in Estoril where he lost to Del Potro but the Spaniard failed to impress, he struggled against Anderson in first set and needed a day break to overcome the South African while Raonic withdrew after the Spaniard won the opening set.
Should be a boost of morale for the Spaniard who’ll start Madrid campaign against Lu who has only 2 wins on clay in his career, one back in 2001 in Davis Cup and one back in 2004.
The Spaniard should easily take this one in two easy sets and we are hopping that he will not have some downs in his game.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez vs. Thiemo De Bakker
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez upsets Stanislas Wawrinka in first round in Madrid. The Spaniard was the better player against Wawrinka who struggled on court and whose serve was attackable but also the Spaniard showed a good fight on court forcing the Swiss to come with his best shots, something that failed.
He will meet De Bakker who managed to bounce back against Ferrero. The Dutchman has already more then 6 and a half hours spend on court and even that he won some free points behind the serve the fatigue factor remains as he still is coming after a injury period.
Both players are solid servers and both hit hard from the back of the court, the Spaniard showed good consistency against Wawrinka in first round and despite that the Dutchman also put some a lot of figh.
Juan Monaco vs. Gael Monfils
Frenchman Gael Monfils started firm the campaign in Mutua Madrilena wining against Karlovic in straight sets, he didn’t faced a break point and won a lot of points behind the serve and also was good in retrieving.
Monaco needed a lot of patience against Golubev bouncing back after he lost the opening set. The conditions will be fast as the roof will be close and the Frenchman will enjoy the indoors conditions as his serve will have more sting. H2h is 2-2 overall but the most recent meeting is back in 2008. The Frenchman has the upper hand on serve, he has good retrieving and Monaco’s serve suffered recently. Also some long rallies are expected as both have a solid baseline display with Monfils being more offensive in key moments. The Frenchman started to grow from match to match and despite that Monaco can up his level when least expected.
Nikolay Davydenko vs. Marcel Granollers
It was just a matter of time before Nikolay Davydenko got back to winning ways. 2010 was a tough season for Davydenko whose confidence was shattered after a serious wrist injury hampered his progress.
At the time of the injury Davydenko was in top form and one of the most dangerous opponents on the tour and I see no reason why he can't get back to that level. Last week Davydenko won his 21st ATP Tour Title in Munich and it would of been perfect preparation for a deep run in the Masters Series event. Davydenko has won 7 of his last 8 tennis matches on clay and should have no problems beating Wild Card Marcel Granollers in Round 1.
Granollers was simply woeful last week in Belgrade putting in a timid display against Volandri losing 2-6 4-6. There were doubts over his fitness so that could be an issue in this match. Granollers hit unforced error after unforced error in that match and will need a vast improvement in Madrid. Against quality opponents Granollers has struggled losing 1-6 3-6 to Melzer, 3-6 3-6 to Almagro and 1-6 2-6 to David Ferrer.
David Ferrer David vs. Adrian Mannarin
Adrian Mannarino surprised Chela in first round and seems that the Frenchman found some rhythm in Madrid as he is a qualifier.
Is the first win of the Frenchman since Rome Challenger back in 2009 but he benefit by a poor performance of the Argentine who showed little interest on court.
Ferrer is in good form on clay and only Nadal stopped him until now, still some long rallies are expected as also Mannarino has a solid defense and catch a lot of balls, the match will be played indoors and the Frenchman plays well indoors.
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