Article

  • Las Vegas Preview: Round 1, Day 1

    3/3/08 6:32 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - If tennis fans at the Tennis Channel Open thought they would be eased into the event with a meager offering of matches on Day 1, they were sorely mistaken. In addition to the Lleyton Hewitt-Marat Safin headliner during Monday’s night session, plenty of other marquee matchups grace the opening-day schedule.

    (4) Guillermo Canas vs. Thomas Johansson
    Canas took last spring’s U.S. hardcourt season by storm, beating Roger Federer twice and reaching the final of the Masters Series event in Miami. This time around, however, he is coming back from a wrist injury that sidelined him from the start of 2008 until last week in Acapulco. He looked OK there, taking out Carlos Berlocq in a grueling three-set match before falling to Jose Acasuso, also in three sets. Johansson’s ranking continues to fall (58 in the world) as his age continues to rise (33 later this month), but he still has some skills. The Swede beat Marat Safin in the first round at Memphis tournament last week. Canas holds a 2-0 record over Johansson (1-0 on hard courts) and will have the edge in this one, but only if he really is 100-percent healthy.

    Sam Querrey vs. Sebastien Grosjean
    This matchup pits two markedly different players. Querrey is an up-and-coming American with his best years ahead of him while Grosjean is a veteran Frenchman in the twilight of his career. The youngster, an ace-master and one of the biggest servers on tour, will try to power his opponent out of the tournament. Grosjean can still fly around the court and he will bank on making Querrey hit too many balls. He can also generate a surprising amount of power, especially off the forehand side. You know what you’re going to get from Grosjean every time out on the court (a rock-solid performance), while you have no idea what your going to get from Querrey (sometimes brilliance, but too often disappointment). For now, expect Grosjean to frustrate his younger adversary and prevail in a close contest.

    Robby Ginepri vs. Xavier Malisse
    The up-and-down Ginepri is the essence of a momentum player. In other words, when things are going well they are really going well, but when things are down they are way down. The American has not done anything too amazing recently, but compared with how it’s been for him the last couple of years, he is borderline on fire. Ginepri’s last two tournaments featured a quarterfinal appearance in Delray Beach and then a huge upset of James Blake in San Jose en route to a semifinal finish. The injury-plague Malisse, who played sparingly in 2007, is just 3-4 in matches this season. Count on Ginepri keeping up his recent hot streak by taking out the Belgian in two tough sets.

    In other matches, Evgeny Korolev will face Sergio Roitman and it will be an all-German affair when Nicolas Kiefer takes on Benjamin Becker. Kiefer has played just two matches in 2008 and Becker is looking to recover from a 6-1, 6-0 humiliation at the hands of eventual champion Steve Darcis last week in Memphis.

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: