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  • Monte Carlo preview: Roger Federer vs. David Nalbandian

    4/25/08 1:32 PM | David Cox
    - Federer has won 7 straight matches on clay going into this. For a man who once reigned undefeated for 6 months, it’s strange that this stat seems almost surprising.

    However, the Federer aura is fast fading, since the turn of the year he’s yet to even beat a top 10 player and suddenly he’s dropping sets against qualifiers not even in the world’s top 100. Even Andy Roddick broke his losing streak against him.

    Federer needs to reassert his authority, now most players are going into a match against him with belief, something that would have been unthinkable a year ago even on clay. In a way, this match with Nalbandian (the closest he’s had to a nemesis after Nadal) is highly significant for Federer. If he can win, it shows he’s still capable of finding that extra level against his main rivals. If he loses, then that win in Estoril is rendered almost irrelevant and picking himself up to actually wrest the French Open crown from Nadal becomes even more unlikely. Even players as great as Federer rely a lot on confidence and at times he just looks lacking in that at the moment.

    Nalbandian enjoys an impressive 8-8 head-to-head against the world no 1, something very few can boast of. Federer leads 2-1 in the clay court matches, both wins coming in 2006 - an epic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) victory in the Rome semis and a slightly fortunate one in the French Open semis, when Nalbandian had to retire in the 3rd. He can claim the psychological edge having won their last two matches, in the Madrid and Paris autumn masters series.

    Matches like these are extremely hard to predict, it generally comes down to who takes their chances on the day. Federer will have to serve better than he’s done so far this week but when it absolutely counts he delivers so much of the time that if pushed I’d have to go for him in 3.

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Comments

My preddiction is; the usual suspects will play for the trophy-Federer & Nadal but the king of the clay-Nadal must improve his game to have a chance. will see

nikyk , 4/26/08 12:26 PM



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