Analysis for Gil-Mahut (ATP Estoril)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Nicolas Mahut of France will play Portugese claycourter Frederico Gil. There is no doubt that Mahut is a better player but he doesn´t like clay at all. He had a stellar season last year - he was a finalist of The Queen's Club Championships but lost in 3 sets to Andy Roddick despite having a championship point. En route to getting to the final, he defeated second-ranked Rafael Nadal. Mahut then beat Clément in four sets and got to second round of Wimbledon losing in straight sets to Richard Gasquet. He then made the finals in Newport reaching his 2nd career ATP-level final, but lost to Fabrice Santoro. All the best results he reached were reached on ultra-fast surfaces, mainly grass. He has a great serve, plays offensive tennis and sometimes uses the serve-and-volley tactics. His biggest weakness is probably his movement and baseline rallies. That is why he has never achieved any remarkable success on clay. His opponent will be a pure clay courter Frederico Gil. He is a lower ranked player but he grew up on clay and should feel well in front of his home crowd. We believe that he will take the advantage of slow clay in Portugal and will manage to defeat French hard-courter. Odds around 1.8 are worth trying for us.