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  • French Open Fourth Round: Fernando Gonzalez vs. Robby Ginepri

    6/2/08 6:16 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Two of the streakiest players in the sport will square off when Fernando Gonzalez meets Robby Ginepri in the fourth round of the French Open on Monday. At stake is a quarterfinal berth and the right to most likely take on Roger Federer.

    Fernando Gonzalez and Robby Ginepri will do battle for the fourth time in their careers in the fourth round of the French Open late Monday morning. Gonzalez holds a 3-0 head-to-head edge over Ginepri, but this will be their first encounter on clay.

    As of just a few weeks ago, you would think clay would heavily favor the Chilean. Ginepri has always made a living on the U.S. hard courts and has always struggled mightily on the red stuff. Early in 2008 the trend appeared to be continuing, as the American reached three straight semifinals in San Jose, Delray Beach, and Las Vegas. He then injured his elbow in Indian Wells and proceeded to lose three dismal clay matches upon his return. As Ginepri tends to do, however, he caught fire out of nowhere and made it to the Poertschach quarterfinals one week before the French Open. So far he has turned that momentum into three improbable wins in Roland Garros, a place where had never won a single match in five previous visits. Included in last week's run was a second-round surprise of No. 27 seed and clay-court guru Igor Andreev.

    Ginepri will have to pull off another upset if he has visions of the French Open quarterfinals. Gonzalez is not as consistent as Andreev, but he has a bigger game and is far more dangerous. The No. 24 seed, like Marat Safin and to a lesser extent Ginepri, is one of the most up-and-down players in tennis, but when he is clicking he is almost impossible to beat. His run to the 2007 Australian Open final proved that, and his ever-present monstrous forehand offers a continuous reminder of his potential. It's a potential that has yielded two clay-court titles this season, first in Vina Del Mar and again last month in Munich. His most impressive win of the entire season, however, came on Saturday in the third round against 9th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka, one of the stars of the first half of 2008. Down two sets and a break, Gonzalez stormed back from the dead to shock the Swiss in five sets.

    If Gonzalez plays like he did in those final three sets, Ginepri probably will not have much say in the outcome of this match. That said, Ginepri has no glaring weakness in his game that his opponent can exploit, whereas he needs to spend all day long pounding away at the backhand corner of the court. That will either force Gonzalez to hit unimposing backhands or run a long way around his backhand to crush a forehand, but leaving the rest of the court wide open in the process. This is simply going to be a war of attrition for the baseline, but the clay court and Gonzalez's devastating forehand could give him the slight advantage in what has the makings of a five-set instant classic.

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