Article

  • Marseille final preview

    2/17/08 2:33 AM | David Cox
    - Britain's Andy Murray goes for his 5th ATP title tomorrow against a resurgent Mario Ancic in what should prove to be a thrilling climax to the Open 13 indoors.

    They've played once before, at the start of 2006 in Auckland when Ancic dispatched the teenager (who'd not yet spent a full year at the highest level) 6-3, 7-6

    Ancic has been the story of the week, dispatching a series of top quality opponents in his first tournament since October's Paris masters. He's taken out Tsonga, Soderling and Baghdatis en route to the final, the semi-final drubbing of Baghdatis being the big highlight. Baghdatis looked extremely impressive against Youzhny in Friday's quarters but simply had no answer to the Croat's awesome serving, going down 6-4, 6-2.

    The 23 year old from Split (a fomer world no 7 back in 2006) is now down at 135 in the rankings after missing most of last season with glandular fever. He made a brief comeback in the summer, managing just 3 events before going down with yet another injury, this time to the shoulder and then returning for the end of the indoor events with mixed results. He beat Blake 6-3, 6-4 en route to the Madrid quarters but lost early in St Petersbury and Paris.

    He announced his arrival to the big time back in 2004 when he reached the Wimbledon semi-finals. He remains the last player to beat Roger Federer at SW19, way back in 2002 ! Marseille has been a good tournament for him over the years, this will be his 2nd final appearance (he lost to Clement in 2006). Surprisingly given how high he's been, Ancic has won just 3 ATP titles so far, all on fast surfaces - he's a two time champion at the grass event in Hertogenbosch and took the St Petersburg title on the carpet in 2006.

    Murray has 1 indoor title to his name - he's the reigning St Petersbury champion, the rest of his wins have come on medium paced hard courts. After an uncertain start to the week, he's really brought his game up a couple of notches in the last two rounds, destroying Paul-Henri Mathieu on Saturday afternoon. Looking ahead to the final he said “It will be a tough match. He's played well this week, has had a lot of illnesses and injuries and it's good that he's back on the tour.”

    Expect a closely fought match with at least one tiebreak, with both players turning up the heat in the past two rounds it's more than likely to come down to 1 or 2 points. Murray is the better returner and mover of the two but Ancic more than compensates for that with his enormous serve and skill around the net.

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