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  • TMS Monte Carlo: day 3 preview - top quarter

    4/23/08 2:29 AM | David Cox
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    Nalbandian vs Rochus

    Nalbandian has disappointed in the big tournaments of the year to date; the Aussie Open, Indian Wells and Miami have all passed by with barely a mention of the Argentine’s name. The spring clay court swing is usually Nalbandian’s best period of the year, he’s an all-courter but has won most of his titles on the dirt. He’s yet to have much success at Monte Carlo, only 1 quarter-final back in 2004. Rochus had an easy first round win over Tommy Haas and will undoubtedly give this but Nalbandian should have too much court craft and unless it’s a really off day, he’ll come through, probably in 3 sets


    Robredo vs Soderling

    Mental strength is one of the most important qualities for a good clay-court player and Soderling inadvertently gave himself that acid test on Monday, having to recover from missing no less than 5 match points over 3 successive games against Stepanek before eventually winning in 3. He’s got the weapons to upset Robredo here but will need to be much more frugal with his chances, the Spanish 12th seed doesn’t give away many cheap points. Soderling leads 2-0 on past encounters but both were in 2004. Soderling hits a much heavier ball than Robredo but the Spaniard is a formidable retriever and I reckon he will prolong the rallies enough to grind the Swede down and expose his suspect movement


    Monfils vs Karlovic

    Monfils got a big surprise when he made the main draw cut for this tournament after several withdrawals in the past week. The Frenchman had been preparing for qualifying and so had already put in extra days training on the courts after an early exit in Valencia. This stood him in good stead for round 1 and he edged out Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 7-5. Karlovic was rather fortunate when Seba Grosjean picked up a leg injury and retired at 4-6, 6-4, 4-1 down. Monfils and Karlovic have played once before, Monfils getting rather lucky when Karlovic retired at 6-7, 4-2 down in last year’s Sunrise super challenger. Both men have been lean on wins this year but Monfils to come through and make the 3rd round of a masters series for the first time on clay

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