Jose Acasuso vs Nicolas Lapentti

Head 2 Head: Acasuso 1-2 Lapentti

Jose Acasuso (rank 49) is one of the most talented clay courters in the world and he has won 34 of his last 50 matches played on clay. He is 11-8 on the surface this season. He has a powerful serve and his return is also pretty good. He skipped the whole grass season in order to prepare the summer season of European clay tournaments. He uses to go very well on this part of the season and I expect him to play his best tomorrow.

Nicolas Lapentti (rank 58) is 3-3 on clay this season. Another year that the talented Ecaudrian struggles with injuries. He had poor results this season and the best player he was able to defeat this season on clay was Nicolas Devilder, the number 97 of the world. He is playing far from his best and his baseline game is less accurate than before and his fitness levels are far from good right now.

Acasuso should have too much power for a struggling Lapentti. The Argentinian is a great clay courter, always ready to give anybody a good fight on this surface. He prepared for this part of season very well and he shouldn't have a lot of troubles to beat a past his prime Lapentti.


Nicolas Almagro vs Jonas Bjorkman

Head 2 Head: Almagro 1-1 Bjorkman

Nicolas Almagro (rank 37) is one of the best clay courters in the world. He has a powerful serve and his forehand is also very strong and ready to give him a lot of winners. His return is also very good and he can easily break his opponent's serve on clay. He plays his best tennis on optional ATP tournaments played on clay, just like this one. He has already won one ATP tournament on clay this season (Valencia). He beated in the first round Filip Prpic by 6:1 3:6 6:1.

Jonas Bjorkman (rank 55) clearly struggles on clay, especially playing on this tournament. He lost 4 times in the first round in here in the last 6 times he participated in this tournament. His movement is weak and it gets extremely exposed in such slow clay like this one. He had a lot of troubles to beat a player out of Top 200 in the first round in here and that shows how much he struggles in here. His return is pretty good, but Almagro's serve won't give him a lot of chances today to break.

Almagro is clearly the best clay courter of the two and he is close to play his best tennis right now. Bjorkman may be extremely experienced, but he has no weapons to hurt the Spanish today. Almagro should really win this match.


Filippo Volandri vs Yuri Schukin

Head 2 Head: Volandri 0-1 Schukin

Filippo Volandri (rank 27) is one of the finest clay courters in the world. And he proved that by spanking Roger Federer in Rome this season. His serve may not be very strong, but his world class backhand and his great movement easily compensate that on clay. He is one of the best returners in the world and he is having one of the best moments of his career right now. He struggled against Federico Luzzi in the first round, but he was able to comeback and that should give him some confidence for today's match.

Yuri Schukin (rank 169) may have a good game for clay, but not for this level. He passed qualifying, even though Paukku gave him a 6:0 in the last round and in the first round he beated a struggling Mariano Zabaleta 7:5 in the third set. He is in good shape but he has basically no weapons to hurt Volandri on clay. He should have no chances today, because Volandri rarely loses to players out of Top 100 on clay. The last time it happened was in August 2006 against Martin Vassallo Arguello.

Volandri is a world class clay courter and now he faces Schukin that even though is in good shape, doesn't have the quality to actually beat the Italian on his favourite surface. Expect Volandri to easily win this match.

Head 2 Head: Horna 0-0 Berlocq

Luis Horna (rank 82) made a good impression of himself by beating the first seed Tommy Robredo in the first round by 6:1 1:6 6:1. His forehand was working really well and he seemed very confident and fit. He is one of the best clay courters of the world and he has already won one ATP tournament on clay this season (Vina del Mar). He also have reached semi finals in Portschach and quarter finals in Acapulco. His serve is pretty good and when he is in good shape, he is pretty dominant on the baseline. He struggled with injuries in the middle of the season, but now he seems confident to recuperate his normal position in the rankings, which is clearly in Top 50.

Carlos Berlocq (rank 72) had no problems in beating a Swedish wild carder that is almost out of Top 1000 in the first round, but now things will be way harder for him. He continues to dominate most of the clay challengers he is involved with, but he continues to struggle on ATP tournaments. He is 5-5 on main draw ATP matches played on clay this season and all those wins were against struggling players (Gaudio and Benneteau) and players way out of Top 50. His serve is weak and Horna will be able to break him at least once per set. He can return well, but if Horna continues to serve well, the Argentinian won't have a lot of chances to break today.

Horna showed a glimpse of his shape last Monday against Robredo and reports coming from Bastad said that he was really impressive on his first round match. Berlocq is a reasonable player on clay, but if Horna plays well tomorrow, he should win without much trouble.

Head 2 Head: Bogdanovic 1-0 Udomchoke

Alex Bogdanovic (rank 110) is the English number two and he goes fairly well on grass, just like every English player. He was born on the surface and his results really justify that. He had a great tournament in Queen's, beating Hyung-Taik Lee (Top 50 player) and Jamie Baker and then he was two points away of beating Andy Roddick, one of the best players in the world on grass. He has a fairly good serve and his forehand is good enough to make him earn some opportunities to break his opponent's serve. He reached quarter finals in here last season.

Danai Udomchoke (rank 104) likes fast surfaces, but he still struggles with the strange ball bounce on grass. He is 5-7 on grass in the last two seasons and he is still very inconsistent to be able to perform well at ATP tournaments. His serve is instable and he gives some chances to his opponents with a couple of unforced errors on the worst moments. His return is actually good on faster surfaces, but Bogdanovic's serve won't give him a lot of chances today. Udomchoke lost in the first round in here last season.

Bogdanovic plays his best on grass and he is having a regular season, with some good wins over Top 100 players. Udomchoke likes fast surfaces, but he is yet to show his best tennis on grass. Bogdanovic has the most suitable game for grass of the two and he is also the most experienced player. The English should be the winner of this match.

Jose Acasuso vs Nicolas Lapentti

Head 2 Head: Acasuso 1-2 Lapentti

Jose Acasuso (rank 49) is one of the most talented clay courters in the world and he has won 34 of his last 50 matches played on clay. He is 11-8 on the surface this season. He has a powerful serve and his return is also pretty good. He skipped the whole grass season in order to prepare the summer season of European clay tournaments. He uses to go very well on this part of the season and I expect him to play his best tomorrow.

Nicolas Lapentti (rank 58) is 3-3 on clay this season. Another year that the talented Ecaudrian struggles with injuries. He had poor results this season and the best player he was able to defeat this season on clay was Nicolas Devilder, the number 97 of the world. He is playing far from his best and his baseline game is less accurate than before and his fitness levels are far from good right now.

Acasuso should have too much power for a struggling Lapentti. The Argentinian is a great clay courter, always ready to give anybody a good fight on this surface. He prepared for this part of season very well and he shouldn't have a lot of troubles to beat a past his prime Lapentti.

Juan Monaco vs Ernests Gulbis

Head 2 Head: Monaco 0-0 Gulbis

Juan Monaco (rank 31) is having a career season, having won two ATP tournaments on clay this year (Buenos Aires and Portschach). He is 24-6 on clay this season, which shows how good is the Argentinian right now on clay. Amazing baseline game, a decent serve and a lot of confidence that gives an extra boost to Monaco's game.

Ernests Gulbis (rank 79) is a young Latvian player that feels more confident on faster surfaces. He is 8-9 on clay this season, which proves that the young talented player is still struggling with the surface. He has a good serve, but Monaco returns too well to not break Gulbis's serve at least once per set. The Argentinian is also way better on the baseline than Gulbis.

Monaco is one of the best clay courters in the world right now and he is facing a talented player, but who still struggles on clay. Monaco has too many ability and experience to not win this match.

Oscar Hernandez vs Thomas Johansson

Head 2 Head: Hernandez 0-0 Johansson

Oscar Hernandez (rank 51) is also having a career season. He plays almost exclusively on clay and he has wins on this surface this season over Lleyton Hewitt, Florian Mayer, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Benjamin Becker and Jarkko Nieminen, all Top 50 players. He has a pretty good baseline game, which makes him break his opponent's serve rather easily. He must be confident for living his best moments of his career right now.

Thomas Johansson (rank 73) is a past his prime player that never went well on clay. He has a booming serve that suits the fast surfaces perfectly, but on clay he always seemed vulnerable. Now that the end of his career is approaching, he seems even more vulnerable on clay. He is 3-4 on the surface this season and anytime he faced a consistent baseliner (Jan Hajek and Nicolas Massu) this season on clay, he lost.

Hernandez is having a great year and he has a perfect game for clay. His baseline game should be too much for the big Swedish player that should enter the court with little confidence. The Spanish player should prevail in here.

Head 2 Head: Spadea 2-1 Gimelstob

Vince Spadea (rank 66) is one of the most experienced players in the circuit and just like almost all American players in the circuit, he gets his best results on his home country. He has a nice serve and his baseline game is good enough to break his opponent's serve a couple of times in a match. He is 0-2 this season on grass, but those losses were against Richard Gasquet and Ivan Ljubicic, two Top 12 players. He uses to go well in here, having reached the final in 2005.

Justin Gimelstob (rank 178) is really struggling on his comeback after his back injury. He is yet to win a match on a draw of a tournament (ATP or challenger) since he came back on March. That means he is 0-6 at ATP matches this season. Not even on grass (his favourite surface) he was able to win a match, having lost the three matches he played on the surface this season. His serve is really instable (because of his back?) and his return was never spectacular. His net game is still great, but he needs to be careful with those dives after having a back surgery. He reached the final in here last season.

Spadea is having a regular year and he is the number two seed in here. He has a nice game for grass and such personality will have some fans in Newport for sure. Gimelstob is struggling with injuries and I don't think he has enough game right now to beat someone experienced like Spadea.

Head 2 Head: Gabashvili 0-2 Karanusic

Teimuraz Gabashvili (rank 86) is a good clay courter that can also play on faster surfaces. He is 1-3 on grass this season, but his three losses were at the hands of Roger Federer, Arnaud Clement and Benjamin Becker, all Top 50 players. When he faced Joshua Goodall, a player with a worse ranking than him, he easily beated the English player in straight sets. His serve is passable and his return is pretty good. He is 15-3 against players out of Top 100 this year, which shows how good he is in dominating players weaker than him.

Roko Karanusic (rank 175) is a player that prefers faster surfaces, but he is yet to show consistent results at ATP level. He is yet to win a match this season at the main draw of a ATP tournament in three attempts. The Croatian player has a good record of 11-6 on grass, but only one of these wins were against a Top 100 player, a struggling and past his prime Rainer Schuettler. He comes from being spanked in Turin last week at the hands of Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo by 6:2 6:0, so his confidence shouldn't be that high today.

Gabashvili may not be the best grass courter out there, but he isn't that bad on the surface. He has no problems in beating players out of Top 100 and now he faces Karanusic, who isn't having an amazing year and comes from a hard beating. In normal circumstances, Gabashvili should win today.

Andreas Seppi vs Bartolome Salva-Vidal

Head 2 Head: Seppi 0-0 Salva-Vidal

Andreas Seppi (rank 111) is a reasonable clay courter at this level, having some wins on clay this season over Kristof Vliegen, Ivo Karlovic and Vince Spadea. He is a good mover, with a nice return and with a serve that even though isn't great, it's passable. The Italian has great experience at this level and he plays on the ATP circuit almost every week. He is 7-7 on clay at ATP tournaments this season.

Bartolome Salva Vidal (rank 340) has basically no experience at this level and he portrays a career record of 3-14 in ATP tournaments. Actually two of these three wins happens this weekend against the doubles specialist Yves Allegro and the inconsistent Italian Fabio Fognini. It's easy to find the Spanish player at the qualifying of some challengers, which shows how low is the level that he uses to play. He doesn't have any significant results this season.

Seppi is a good clay courter that plays almost every week on ATP tournaments. He is pretty experienced at this level, especially against a player that spends most of his career playing matches at challengers, without showing nothing on the big league. Seppi is way better than Salva-Vidal and he should win without a lot of problems.


Jarkko Nieminen vs Olivier Rochus

Head 2 Head: Nieminen 3-4 Rochus (Nieminen won the only match played on clay)

Jarkko Nieminen (rank 23) is a very experienced clay courter, known for his consistency in making good results during the whole season. His game is adapted to all surfaces, but clay is his natural surface and Bastad the closest tournament to his home country. He uses to go very well in here, having reach semi finals last season. He has a positive record on clay this season and he will have the crowd support for this match for sure.

Olivier Rochus (rank 62) is on a big slump this season and he can barely win a match. He is 11-17 this season on all surfaces and 2-10 on clay this season. The last match he won was on May, 7th was Michael Llodra and he is currently on a nine match losing streak. Confidence is at the lowest ever for him and he simply can't play his game anymore. He used to be very calm on court and he looks more aggressive, which weakens his patient game big time.

This should be a baseline battle where Nieminen is like a fish on water. Rochus at his best would be a great opponent, but at his current level, he will end up committing too many unforced errors to have a chance to win today.

Head 2 Head: Berdych 3-2 Nadal

Tomas Berdych is in great shape. He simply destroyed one of the best grass courters in the world (Bjorkman) today, giving him two bagels! The Czech has a great grass record and he has just lost to Federer on grass in the past two years. His serve is huge and nearly unbreakable and his return is pretty good, with his ground strokes being able to make anybody struggle. He is confident and he is mentally strong. For exemple he is yet to lose a match on a fifth set.

Rafael Nadal is being extremely lucky in this tournament. First Soderling missed a lot of chances to beat him and then Youzhny got injured while leading 2-0 in sets. The Spanish struggle against big hitters on grass and Berdych is the type of player that brings Nadal a lot of problems on fast surfaces. Berdych is 3-0 against Nadal outside clay and in all these three matches, the Czech was clearly superior to the Spanish.

Berdych is one of the best grass courters in the world and he is in great shape. He destroyed Bjorkman, who is pretty good on grass, and now he faces Nadal, who if he doesn't have another lucky day, he will be sent packing by the strong Czech tomorrow.

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Head 2 Head: Youzhny 3-4 Nadal

Mikhail Youzhny is one of Nadal's biggest threats outside clay. He is 3-2 over Nadal outside clay and he really has the game to overpower the Spanish player from the baseline. Youzhny is a good grass courter and he has a good game for the surface. Very good serve, good movement and great backhand and forehand, ready to attack every ball Nadal hits from three meters behind the baseline. The Russian had no problems to beat Jarkko Nieminen in the third round, but in the second round he had troubles to beat the tricky Gilles Simon. But that seemed to be just a bad day from Youzhny that will have a good performance tomorrow, I'm pretty certain of that.

Rafael Nadal was pretty lucky to not be eliminated in third round against Robin Soderling. He won 7:5 in the fifth set and if the Swedish was more consistent, Nadal would be out of the tournament right now. The Spanish doesn't seem adapted to the surface and he commits a lot of unforced errors with his forehand, something that just doesn't happen on clay. His serve is pretty attackable and Youzhny should be able to create problems on Nadal's serve any time the Spanish player serves. Of course, Nadal is a good returner, but he usually struggles to break serve of the big servers that can serve in a consistent way for the whole match. His passive game is simply awful for the surface and a good baseliner like Youzhny easily outplays him on a good day.

Youzhny is a good player on grass and he uses the correct tactic to succeed in the surface. Consistent baseline play, good backhand and forehand, showing no fear of going to the net to finish a short ball. Nadal is a great player, but he is simply too passive and defensive to succeed on grass on a long term. The Russian is the best grass courter of the two and if he has a good day, he should have more than a chance to win this match.

Head 2 Head: Hewitt 1-0 Djokovic

Lleyton Hewitt has a great Wimbledon record of 26-6. He is a former winner in here (2002) and he has some semi finals and quarter finals in this tournament too. He is a great grass courter with a great return ready to break even the strongest serve in the world. His movement is perfect and his experience makes him an always dangerous opponent in the last stages of the biggest tournament in the world. He easily beated Richard Bloomfield and Simone Bolelli in straight sets in the first two rounds of the tournament and then in the third round, he beated Guillermo Canas in four sets, a player with good results in former editions of this tournament. His serve is pretty good and he uses to step it up his serve motion in the big matches like this one.

Novak Djokovic is well positioned in the Top 5, but he is yet to prove himself against the best players in the world on grass. He is 14-5 on grass and he uses to have no problems in beating the players out of Top 20. Well there are some exceptions like Arnaud Clement in Queen's and the Serbian uses to struggle against players that can return his serve, like Lleyton Hewitt. He struggled a little bit against Amer Delic and Nicolas Kiefer, winning both matches in four sets. He must be mentally tired after playing Kiefer for four days in a row and he isn't experienced enough to recover from that in one day. His serve is kinda inconsistent and a player like Hewitt can take advantage from that. His return is pretty good and he may break Hewitt's serve a couple of times, but when it will matter, Hewitt is going to hold serve, just like the champion he is.

Hewitt is probably the second best grass courter in the world. His movement is perfect and his return is just unbelievable. Djokovic is pretty young and he uses to struggle in matches like this one. He is yet to prove that he is one of the best grass courters in the world and he is facing the kind of player that makes him struggle the most. Hewitt easily beated Djokovic in the US Open last year (6:3 6:1 6:2) and even though this match won't be as easy as this one, I think the most experienced and proven player on grass will end up prevailing.

Justine Henin is probably playing the best tennis of her career. She won Roland Garros without dropping a set and she brought her good shape to grass, where after she won Eastoubrne, she is also dominating everybody in Wimbledon. She is now facing an injured Serena Williams, who will give her a good fight, but she won't have enough game to beat the talented Belgian.

In the semi finals, she will face the winner of Marion Bartoli vs Michaella Krajicek. Both players will be lucky to win more than half a dozen of games against her.

Then in the final, she will probably face Maria Sharapova. Players like Ana Ivanovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams have a chance to be her opponent too. Whoever the opponent in the final is, Henin will be the huge favourite to win. Sharapova isn't in great shape and Henin showed in Madrid last season that she can beat the best Sharapova on a fast surface. Venus looks past her prime and Ivanovic and Kuznetsova are known for being humiliated each time they face Henin.

Bottom line: Henin looks just too strong for anybody still in the tournament. If Serena was at 100%, she would have a chance to defeat Henin, but I would still considered the Belgian as the favourite to win. She looks too strong for anybody to handle in any surface. I think it will be this year that Henin finally wins the Grand Slam that she still doesn't have on her pocket.