Article

  • Epic in store as Llodra meets Stepanek

    10/2/08 5:06 AM | David Cox
    - French fans will be hoping Michael Llodra recovers well from Wednesday night's epic win over Feliciano Lopez as he takes on Radek Stepanek for a place in the last 8.

    Stepanek will certainly be the fresher of the two players having enjoyed a routine 6-3, 6-3 workout against Julien Benneteau while Llodra's 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 thriller with Lopez included two epics within an epic. The first set was almost a match in itself, going to 13-11 in the breaker and neither man let his focus slip in the second, taken 8-6 in the tiebreak by Lopez.

    It could be more of the same on Thursday afternoon as although Stepanek leads the head-to-head series 3-1, Llodra edged him in a lengthy battle in the Bejing heat at the Olympics 4-6, 7-6, 11-9.

    Llodra always performs well on home turf and when he gets on a roll indoors he can be hard to stop. He gave Andy Murray a small scare during their second round US Open clash last month but two weeks ago he somehow managed to lose to a player ranked in the 200s in a small Challenger event.

    Stepanek has worked his way back into the top 30 after some stellar performances on the clay, but he had a bit of a lean spell until the US Open, where he made the third round losing to Federer.

    Prediction: Llodra in 3

Tell a friend »

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password: