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  • Round 3 Preview - Fourth Quarter of the Draw

    1/18/08 2:07 AM | David Cox
    - Here is a summary of the matches in the bottom quarter. Nadal will win his match easily but can Mardy Fish win again against left-handed Nieminen?

    Rafael Nadal takes on Gilles Simon today and given the form the Spaniard showed against Serra on Wednesday, you can’t see Simon having a chance. It was close when they last met, nearly 2 years ago, Nadal winning 7-5, 6-4 indoors in Marseille. However Nadal was only just back from a career threatening injury and the courts in Melbourne are a lot slower and more condusive to the huge amounts of topspin, Nadal whips up on the ball. Not only that, the match is 2nd on Rod Laver, in the heat of the day when temperatures can rise to over 40 degrees and in terms of physical condition, Nadal leads the rest of the tour by a country mile.

    Mardy Fish will be hoping for a repeat performance of his demolition of Robredo against Jarkko Nieminen. The Finn is among a bunch of players ranked around 15 - 30, too good to slip lower but not consistent enough to trouble the top 10 on a regular basis. Nieminen has been a surprise finalist twice in the last few months, coming through a high quality field in Basel before meeting Federer and repeating the feat in Adelaide two weeks ago. However, he was strangely sluggish against Canadian serve-volleyer Frank Dancevic in rd1, losing a 2 set lead before regaining composure to stroll through the 5th. If Fish can reproduce his excellent serving performance he could take it, Nieminen isn’t as big a hitter but unsettles a lot of players with his swinging serve and leftie game.

    Stefan Koubek provided a big upset on day 1, taking out Carlos Moya who had played so well in Chennai, however the Austrian veteran’s achievement was somewhat overshadowed by Andy Murray’s shock loss. One of the sport’s colourful characters, Koubek’s career highlight came in 2002 when he made the quarters here and caused an equally big stir with his “tennis grunge” style Roland McDonald outfits. He’s played Mathieu 3 times in the past but being on clay the matches have little relevance. Paul-Henri Mathieu made 3 finals in 2007 on his way back into the top 25, he is a superb tactician but has a reputation for “choking” when the going gets tough.

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