ATP Queen’s – Men’s Wednesday Preview

Kevin Anderson vs. Donald Young

In a match of big servers, the South African Kevin Anderson emerged victorious. He fired 11 aces coping 18 from Karlovic’s racquet and was overall a match dictate by serve with few exchanges.

Young started the grass season with a win over Haider Maurer in a match intense match, he lost his serve twice while he managed to make five breaks. They have some history together, head-to-head is 4-3 for Anderson with the South African wining the last four encounter with the most recent one in Indian Wells.

Anderson will rely on serve while Young is more handier on court but with his powerful ground strokes Young will need to play more defensive on this surface and any short ball will be point for Anderson, the match stays on Anderson racket as he served strongly against Karlovic.

Janko Tipsarevic vs. Michael Russell

The Serbian started with a win the grass season against Kavcic but he failed to impress playing as much as he needs to win losing his serve once. He showed some great touch during the match but he needs to keep that longer. He will meet Russell who struggled to beat Gremelmayr in a match with a lot of long rallies. They have 2 meetings and both were won by the Serbian, Tipsarevic has the bigger serve and generates the power to hit through American’s defense, Russell isn’t on his best surface and made a lot of errors in first round, if Tipsarevic will play at the same level as in first round he should close out the match in easy 2 sets.      

Marin Cilic vs. Arnaud Clement        

Marin Cilic starts the grass season against Frenchman Arnaud Clement, the Croatin is coming here after a disappointing first round in French Open where his poor confidence in his game made him to lose in opening round.

Looking ahead to this match the Croat should have the edge on serve and power but the main problem is his head. Clement’s best years appear to be behind him, he beat Cilic on grass in Wimbledon back in 2008 and overall the Frenchman is a qualifier here.

Clement looked better in first round then in qualifications and he will enter with some morale as he knows that the Croat isn’t on his best stated of mind, the surface isn’t that demanding and we don’t see Clement tired, Cilic has the edge on serve and with his deep ground strokes he should push Clement way behind while he has good hands at the net.

Marsel Ilhan vs. Thomaz Bellucci      

Thomaz Bellucci started with a win in Queens, in almost two hours he beat Dimitrov. He started well and was solid on court but in key moments failed and headed the set to Dimitrov, while in the second set he was pushed to a tie-breaker where he saved two match points. In the third and deciding set, Bellucci opened 4 / 0 and conducted the score in favor to seal the victory and advance to the second round making few errors on court.

Ilhan beat Kajek in first round with a solid serving display firing 12 aces and wining 73% points behind the serve. Not an easy match as the Turkish player uses well the lines and a lot will depend by his serve. Ilhan played well in French Open where only luck of experience kept him away not to advance further, he knows what to expect here as they have a meeting with Bellucci wining in a decisive tie-break, not an easy match with Ilhan having his chances, he needs to be more decisive on court and not enter into some long exchanges, his serve worked well in first round.

Ilija Bozoljac vs. David Nalbandian

Tricky match! Bozoljac fired 10 aces against Kukushkin in first round and reached to 70 in four matches here, when his serve is working in this way anything is easier for him on court. He isn’t without chances here, after a powerful serve he advances a lot to the net but also he can remain solid in some exchanges as well but still his main asset is the serve.

Nalbandian won at his debut on grass but failed to impress, especially on returning, Marchenko landed only 48% of first serve in, he is the better player on court but Bozoljac is kind of player who doesn’t give too much rhythm and he has the game to force a tie-break where anything can happen.

The problem for the Serbian is that he doesn’t keep too much a high level of tennis and we see Nalbandian with the first option here.        

Radek Stepanek vs. Ivan Ljubicic

Interesting match. Ivan started with a win against Sweeting but he failed to impress even that he fired 11 aces, he lost his serve when he was serving to close out the first set and was pushed to tie-break. His serve remain his main asset but only the first one. Stepanek had a routine match against Soeda and was a good preparation and a match to adapt well to the surface.

The Czech served well during the match and also he has a solid serve of his own to win free points. Stepanek has the game to take this one as he also plays serve and volley and has good retrieving skills to force Ljubicic to be more cautious on serve, he has a good backhand slice and if the Croat will fail to finish the points in the first 2 exchanges then the Czech has the upper hand. A match dictates by serve with the outcome made by a point here and there.

Rafael Nadal vs. Matthew Ebden

Rafael Nadal started the grass season with a win, he played in doubles with Marc Lopez and beat Bellucci and Sa. He will meet qualifier Ebden in first round in singles, the Aussie advancing after a competitive match against Devvarman, he saved 10 break points losing his serve once. He was solid on court serving well during the match, if wasn’t the serve then the outcome was different. He has a solid serve but is hard to see him wining the long rallies and resisting to the powerful shots of the Spaniard from the back of the court, it will be the first match of the Spaniard on grass and after a couple of game of accommodation.

Adrian Mannarino vs. Gilles Simon

Adrian Mannarino won in straight sets against Gulbis in first round in Queens Club for a meeting with his compatriot Gilles Simon. Solid match for Mannarino who handled well the Latvian serve while Gulbis looked without rhythm on court and serve making a lot of errors. It is the first win for Mannarino in ATP level on grass, managing to do better in Challenger level.

Simon is a good grass court player due to his good retrieving and solid defense, both players likes a much defensive approach with little action at the net and the more consistent player will have the upper hand. Simon is on his first match on grass and he will need some time to adapt to the surface and Mannarino is the player who starts aggressive and can steal the first set.

Juan Martin Del Potro vs. Igor Kunitsyn

Juan Martin del Potro was a straight-sets winner in his first grass court match in nearly two years at Queen's Club. The Argentine beat Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin in two sets in the first round of the AEGON Championships, his first outing on grass since Wimbledon in 2009. But he failed to impress, he saved with his serve and forehand but also Istomin made a lot of errors on court failing to land a decent serve and making too much errors. Istomin when he painted the lines he always troubled the Argentine, Del Potro slipping a couple of times and was forced to call for trainer but Istomin failed to that more after the medical time out.

The last meeting between them is on grass, back in 2007 at Nottingham and the Argentine imposed in two sets. Kunitsyn almost won against Bogomolov, the American withdrawing in the second set tie-break, he has a solid serve and stays in long rallies until he blast a winner but he has poor retrieving skills even that on court can have the upper hand, even that Del Potro failed to impress.

Xavier Malisse vs. Andy Murray

There are some tricks regarding this match. They met in doubles and Malisse managed to beat Murray’s brothers and also the ankle of the Britt as on this surface easily can slip and hurt even more, a lot of players had problems with that until now. But overall Andy Murray has said that he feels in good form, despite concerns over his ankle, as he prepares to begin his Wimbledon countdown.

"We had a good match in Rome a couple weeks back. I went for shots in that match and I'll definitely have to play aggressive tomorrow", said Malisse about this encounter.

Murray feels that he needs to adapt to the surface as time is short to prepare for Wimbledon but he will not ear too many free points against a player who knows his game well.