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4/6/09 5:59 AM | Ricky Dimon
The 2009 clay-court season begins on Monday at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco. Ivan Ljubicic and Arnaud Clement will be featured on Court Central during the afternoon of Day 1.
Ivan Ljubicic and Arnaud Clement will square off for the ninth time in their careers when the two veterans do battle in the opening round of the Grand Prix Hassan II. Ljubicic leads the head-to-head series 6-2 and has won six in-a-row after Clement took their first two encounters. They most recently met at the 2007 French Open, where Ljubicic prevailed in straight sets to reach the second round. Clement and Ljubicic have met three times on clay in total, with Ljubicic holding a 2-1 edge.
It's hard to say which man will have the edge on Monday, as neither one is in particularly stellar form at the moment. Ljubicic dealt with injuries throught 2008 and saw his ranking plummet as a result. The 30-year-old Croat was unsuccessful in turning his game around at the beginning of this season, winning just two of his first seven matches. Ljubicic exploded almost out of nowhere, however, to reach the quarterfinals of the Master Series Indian Wells last month.
Clement owns a pedestrian 4-7 match record so far in 2009, but he has lost in the first round of just two ATP level events (including his last tournament at the Masters Series Miami). But the Frenchman is still capable of producing impressive tennis, as he showed last summer with a shock appearance in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. Clement also won a hard-court Challenger event last month, but his best win on the ATP Tour is just a first-round victory over Marat Safin in Marseille.
Clay should not be Ljubicic's best surface--and it isn't--but he has enjoyed some surprising success on the slow stuff over his career. His big serve and groundstrokes fail to do the same kind of damage that they do on faster surfaces, whereas the counter-puncher Clement can go all day on clay just keeping balls in play. Nonetheless, this is Ljubicic's match to win, and given the head-to-head history, he should be able to oust his eighth-seeded opponent. Ljubicic in three is the pick--but he will have to serve well and dictate play from the baseline in order to get the job done.
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