Article

  • Preview Brasil Open Almagro vs Fognini

    2/16/08 6:26 PM | Cheryl Murray
    - Number two seed Nicolas Almagro will take on the red hot Fabio Fognini for a place in the finals.

    Nicolas Almagro will have his hands full with the Italian Fabio Fognini on Saturday. Fognini is having his best season ever, reaching the quarterfinals in Vina del Mar and still alive in the semis at the Brasil Open. I would even go so far as to say that his form is better than Almagro's right now. He's already taken out the number 8 seed Albert Montanes in two suprisingly easy sets here and after a tight first set in his quarterfinal match against Ivo Minar, he was very solid.

    Almagro did not look as strong in his quarterfinal match. He owes the win more to Filippo Volandri falling apart than to any spectacular play on his own part. Hitting to the center of the court and waiting for Fognini to make errors (which is what he did in the third set against Volandri) is not going to be effective, because Fognini has not been making errors hand over fist.

    The two men have met once before in the first round of the clay tournament in Barcelona last year. Almagro won that match easily 6-3,6-2. But Fognini is a different player now than he was then and I don't think Almagro will find him such an easy opponent this time around. I'm going to call the upset: Fognini in three sets.

Tell a friend »

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password: