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  • Sony Ericsson First Round Preview: First Quarter of the Draw

    3/26/08 7:18 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Gael Monfils vs. John Isner is the clearly the feature match in this section, but there are plenty of other dangerous unseeded players in the first quarter of the Miami draw who could wreak havoc on the seeds early and often over the next few days.

    Gael Monfils. John Isner. Robin Soderling. Stefan Koubek. Hyung-Taik Lee. Michael Llodra. All of these guys—and more—are unseeded in the first quarter of the draw, so if the seeded players aren't careful, they could easily be out of the Pacific Life Open after just one match. But first, the unseeded guys have to take care of business in the opening round.

    Robin Soderling vs. Stefan Koubek
    Soderling and Koubek have split their two previous matches, and this is the first time they will be competing on a hard court (Koubek won on clay in 2004 and Soderling won on grass in 2007). The Swede kept up a blistering pace during this season's indoor hard-court swing, but his first outdoor tournament ended with a 6-3, 6-2 blowout loss to Richard Gasquet in the second round of the Pacific Life Open. Koubek brings a disappointing 4-5 match record into Miami, and he is coming off a Challenger event in which he dropped the first set of his opening match 6-1 to Rainer Schuettler before retiring. All of those signs seem to favor Soderling in this contest.

    Hyung-Taik Lee vs. Dudi Sela
    Lee struggled towards the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008, but he put on a good show last week in Indian Wells. The 32-year-old Korean took out Michael Llodra, Jarkko Nieminen, and David Ferrer in succession before bowing out to Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 in the third set. Sela is just 3-7 in ATP matches this season, so you have to like Lee's chances of advancing.

    Jurgen Melzer vs. Michael Llodra
    Melzer holds a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head series, although it's all tied up 1-1 on hard courts. The Austrian has been struggling recently, although he did reach the semifinals of the Challenger event in Sunrise, Florida last week. Llodra is on a two-match losing streak of his own, but the brief slump was preceded by two surprising titles earlier this season (in Adelaide and Rotterdam). Given the Frenchman's tendency to catch fire at any moment, the slight edge has to go to Llodra in Thursday's matchup.

    Rainer Schuettler vs. Julien Benneteau
    Both of their previous two head-to-head meetings came last season, and it's a bit surprising that Benneteau took the one on clay while Schuettler took the one on hard courts. The Frenchman should, however, have a great chance of getting revenge for last year's loss in Mumbai. He has a quarterfinal (Las Vegas) and semifinal (Auckland) appearance already this season and has been playing consistently solid singles to go along with his well-known doubles prowess. The German, meanwhile, has a grim 2-5 match record in 2008.

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