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  • Preview Marseille: Marcos Baghdatis - Arnaud Clement

    2/12/08 6:29 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Tuesday’s night session at the Open 13 in Marseille, France features two hometown favorites will have their hands full. Arnaud Clement takes on sixth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis before Sebastien Grosjean meets Stanislas Wawrinka in the nightcap.

    (6) Marcos Baghdatis vs. Arnaud Clement
    This is the third meeting between Baghdatis and Clement and the head-to-head series is split one match apiece. While the Open 13 is held on hard courts, both of the previous contests came on carpet and both went the full three sets. The Frenchman prevailed in Lyon, France back in 2006 and the Cypriot got revenge last season in Zagreb, Croatia in a third-set tiebreaker.

    Clement has been struggling in singles recently—he’s lost in the first round of his last four events, including to Rainer Schuettler at the Australian Open—but he and Michael Llodra have been getting it done as a doubles duo. They were runner-ups at the Australian Open last month, so perhaps that success can translate over to singles for the 30-year-old.

    Baghdatis is currently ranked 17th in the world, a good 50 spots ahead of Clement. He has not done anything spectacular in 2008, however, losing in the first round of Chennai and the third round in Australia. To his credit, Baghdatis scored a nice win over Marat Safin in the second round Down Under before losing an epic encounter with Hewitt that ended after 4:30 in the morning.

    The 22-year-old is the clear favorite in this match and should prevail in straight sets, but it could be tricky at times. Clement can get a lot of balls back and he will make Baghdatis work for it, but ultimately the Cypriot will overwhelm his opponent with too much power, especially off the backhand side.

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