Analysis for Montanes-Karlovic (ATP Barcelona)

Head-to-head record 0:1

It is not a surprising pick, is it? Our opinion on both Karlovic and Montanes are already well known and we can just repeat what we have already said. Karlovic is the tallest player on the circuit and is known as one of the best servers on the tour. Taking advantage of his height, he is heavily reliant on his serve. With a more acute angle from his racquet to the service line, his first serves have a higher chance of coming in, thereby rendering many of them unhittable, let alone returnable. With bad returns from his opponents, he normally just has to put the ball away for a winner without the need of a proper volley. We think he will not make his mark being a serve-only player and even when he already defeated many top players, he can easily loose to big underdogs as just a few points usually decide his matches. It is not surprising that he hates clay as he needs as fast surface as possible for his killing game. We saw couple of his latest matches on dirt and he was really helpless during the rallies. Especially his backhand shots are awful and we think that the killing serve shouldn’t be enough against home claycourter. On the other hand, Montanes style of play is perfectly suited to clay court matches. He is a defensive baseliner returning every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit winners. His game has more to do with physical determination to retrieve un-retrievable balls and immense fitness. He tends to make relatively few errors because he doesn’t attempt the complicated and ambitious shots. He has speed and agility to cover the court. He should dominate in long rallies today and should be a big favourite in our eyes. Anything above 1.6 is worth trying for us.