Analysis for Gonzalez-Youzhny (Paris)

Head-to-head record 3:0

Mikhail Youzhny of Russia will play Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in the second round of Paris Masters. Russian plays in a good shape and showed some stellar performance at the home tournament in St Petersburg last week (defeated Gimelstob, Ancic, Kohlschreiber and lost to Murray in semis after the tight battle). He often plays a single-handed backhand, which is considered to be his best shot. From both sides, Youzhny hits the ball on the rise to achieve a flatter flight trajectory and to get the ball to the opponent's side quicker. His style of play is aggressive and fast indoor surface is ideal venue for him. His service is arguably the weakest component of his game as it lacks power and stability. He has a good court sense and often makes use of dropshots to mix up the rallies. Youzhny is often able to draw his energy from the engaged crowd to produce a series of risky winners, especially when he is defending matchpoints. His head-to-head record against Gonzalez is pretty one-sided but all of these matches were really close. We believe he is able to defeat him finally, especially when Gonzo fights for Masters Cup and will play under the big pressure. His recent results aren´t convincing and he is definitely not in the form he was in at the beginning of the season. Gonzalez is an aggressive baseliner. His groundstrokes, especially on the forehand side, are extremely powerful. His speed and agility allow him to hit winners from practically anywhere in the court. But he usually makes a huge number of unforced errors, especially when he plays under pressure. This makes him inconsistent and vulnerable. We expect a tight match again and think that odds should be equal on both sides. Russian´s odds above 2.00 can be taken here.