Analysis for Robredo-Roddick (ATP Rome)

Head-to-head record 0:7

Another Spaniard´s attempt beat his American Nemesis is here. This time we think he is close enough to do it finally. The slow red clay in Rome should be a bottom line in this clash. Roddick is known for his powerful serves and forehands. His style of play is that of an offensive baseliner. His most dangerous weapon is his powerful and accurate first serve, which he uses to earn free points with aces and unreturnable serves or put himself into position to hit a forehand winner. He is sometimes criticized for his lack of variety. He also occasionally uses the serve and volley tactic on both first and second services but this approach is totally ineffective on clay. Despite of being on of the best players nowadays, his clay court record is really poor and he has never made a good result on European clay (Houston´s green clay is obviously not counted as it is much faster and more suitable for Andy). He lost to the likes Chela, Monfils or Andreev last year on clay and we think Robredo is going to be a hard nut to crack for him this time. Their head-to-head record is one-sided but 6 out of 7 matches were played on fast courts. Spaniard is a typical baseliner with great movement and brilliant technique. He seems to be in a solid form at present having the clay court record of 9 wins – 3 losses this year. With regards to the surface in Rome, we don’t think that Robredo should be above 1.7 here.