Analysis for Simon-Tsonga (ATP Rome)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Tsonga recently rose to fame by virtue of his performance in the 2008 Australian Open when, as an unseeded player, he reached the final, having defeated four seeded players along the way, including earning a straight sets win over Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Tsonga eventually lost to world number 3 Novak Djokovic in the final in 4 sets, after winning the first set. But he was kind of struggling since his stellar Aussie performance and we are curious how he manages to come back after injury especially to the surface he doesn’t like. He is an offensive and aggressive baseliner who sometimes uses the serve and volley tactic as well. He prefers grass and fast hard courts and hasn’t played a single match on clay for last 3 years! He can overpower and overwhelm most opposition. However, when going for winners, he can also produce many errors. On the other hand, his fellow countryman Gilles Simon is a defensive baseliner who plays his best on dirt. He should benefit from playing on a slow court here and even if his latest results were far from being impressive, he should be more than competitive against the opponent who hasn´t tasted this surface for almost 3 years. Simon is a favourite in our eyes and we think that anything above 1.8 is worth taking here.