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  • TMS Miami round 1: Ancic vs Simon

    3/27/08 12:06 AM | David Cox
    - It’s sure to be a crowd-pleasing opening encounter as the resurgent Mario Ancic takes on the gritty Gilles Simon, one of the best counter-punchers on tour at the moment

    Both men are somewhat unlucky to face each other so early on, Simon would have been seeded in a grand slam and not so long ago Ancic was in the top 10 before glandular fever and shoulder injuries struck

    Ancic will go into this one as the clear favourite after showing fine form in Indian Wells last week. He outserved Gonzalez 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in round 2 before falling to Ferrero in arguably the match of the tournament, the sheer quality of the tennis from both men deserved to grace a much grander stage than the last 32. Ancic produced some breathtaking volleys reminiscent of Sampras at his best, at one stage diving full length to volley a full blooded Ferrero smash for a winner. In the end he went out in the cruelest fashion, 9-7 in the final set tiebreak after 3 hours. Simon won easily against the Argentine clay-courter Carlos Berlocq before losing a close one to Youzhny 7-5, 6-4

    Ancic exploded back onto the tennis scene in February, making the Marseille final before falling to the sublime returning skills of Andy Murray. At the moment he’ll probably fancy a crack at the Scotsman in round 2 with Murray rarely finding his best form in the opening rounds of tournaments. Simon was quietly impressive on the indoor circuit, notably making the last 4 in Rotterdam and the Marseille quarters (beating a tanking Djokovic in round 2). He’s at his best hitting shots on the run particularly the cross-court forehand and so unsurprisingly tends to do well against players who like to attack the net, with straight sets wins over Feliciano Lopez and Mardy Fish this year.

    However Ancic has been serving bombs, with 25 aces in total last week and he should progress in too close-ish sets

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