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  • Rome R1: Mardy Fish vs. Michael Llodra

    5/5/08 1:33 AM | Jonathan Morgan
    - A pair of players here who are much more comfortable on hard courts than clay will do battle in Rome's first round.

    They have played twice before, in 2001 and 2002, both on grass, both in Newport, both won by Llodra, and both in 3 sets.

    However, those two matches are completely meaningless when analyzing this match. Rome has a reputation as being the “fastest” of the clay courts in Europe, and most “hardcourt like.” Of course clay will never be hard court, but it is not unusual to see hard courters beating clay courters here, but both players have had dreadful results in Rome in the past, a combined record of 1-4.

    As for the match itself, both men will play it as if it was a hard court. Llodra will use his big serve and solid volleys to take cotrol of the points and try to finish quickly. Fish will be more content to stay on the baseline battling away and aiming for passing shots past the volleying armor of Llodra. Fish will look to use his fine serve to set up points and solid groundstrokes (specifically the backhand) to pass Llodra.

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