Analysis for Guccione-Kendrick (ATP Memphis)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Two heavy-hitting hardcourters will fight in the first round at 2008 Morgan Keenan championships. Robert Kendrick has been called a "serve and volley" player by some. Kendrick's main strengths are his serve and his forehand. He is a typical US player who likes fast surfaces and enjoys offensive battles. He kicked off 2008 by playing in the Australian Open, where he lost in the first round to fellow American Amer Delic. Although Kendrick won 76% of points where he got his first serve in, he only won 36% of points where he did not. He was broken five times. He continued similar way even further and even when he hasn’t won a single ATP-level match this year, he is always dangerous on hard courts, especially when he manages to keep the high percentage of the first serve. His opponent will be 22-year-old Australian Chris Guccione. Guccione is noted for his good service too. He hit 50 aces in a qualifying match at Wimbledon in 2005. The good service has led fellow Australian player Mark Philippoussis to call him a "Wayne Arthurs clone". He was knocked out of the 2008 Australian Open by Hyung-Taik Lee in the opening round. Chris was up against a player who is higher ranked in the ATP Rankings. Both of these players have the same game strategy – rocket serve, pushing to the net and finishing the balls as quickly as possible. Their backcourt game is limited though and we expect the very close match that could be decided in tiebreakers. We see the equal chances on both sides and odds above 2.2 are surely of some value.