Great match up in Madrid. Spaniard Lopez is in fine form on the clay so far in 2011. After a second round loss to David Ferrer in Monte Carlo, Lopez went on to reach the quarter finals in Barcelona losing to Ivan Dodig, before reaching the final in Belgrade at the weekend, giving Novak Djokovic a good run for his money, before losing the match. Lopez possesses a great first serve which is often unreturnable. he can mix up his play offering a good volleying technique and can be a real menace to his opponent. Hos weakness is the lack of variety on his second serve. If he struggles with his serve then he can struggle in matches.
Milos Raonic is the revelation of 2011 on the ATP Tour. The Canadian has come from nowhere to move inside the worlds top 25 players, (he was outside the top 150 at the start of the year!) Raonic's success so far has come on hardcourts with a 4th round appearance in the Aussie Open, a finalist spot in Memphis and his first ATP Tour win in San Jose. On the clay Raonic played well in Monte Carlo defeating Michael Llodra and Ernest Gulbis, losing to David Ferrer and also reached the 3rd round in Barcelona a week later. last week he reached the semi-finals in Estoril defeating Gilles Simon in the quarter-finals, before retiring against Verdasco in the semis. Raonic is full of confidence. His game is based around his serve and like Lopez, Milos is reliant on his first serve working well.
Expect a close match here. Both players should dominate on serve and I doubt many break points will be available. It may well come down to a point here or there, maybe a couple of tie-breaks. I fancy with a Spanish crowd behind him Feliciano Lopez may just take the win here.
Match Prediction:
Feliciano Lopez to defeat Milos Raonic
No comments:
Post a Comment