Analysis for Blake-Gulbis (ATP French Open)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Blake will face Gulbis in a battle for the third round spot at Roland Garros. None of them can be rated as a claycourter as both players are offensive baseliners who feel better on hard courts. American started the clay court season at the River Oaks in Houston. He defeated Nishikori in the first round, 15-year-old Ryan Harrison in the second round, Agustin Calleri in the quarters, and Oscar Hernandez of Spain in the semifinals. In his second ATP final of the year and his first career clay-court final, Blake fell to Spaniard Marcel Granollers Pujol. But American green clay is slightly different surface from the one in Paris. Blake then received a wild card to play in the clay tournament in Barcelona. However, he lost in the first round to German Denis Gremelmayr in straight sets. He then played 2 Masters Series tournaments in Rome and Hamburg and participated in World Team Championship in Dusseldorf having the overall YTD clay court record in Europe 3-5. Blake adopts an offensive baseline strategy which he achieves through his aggressive powerful forehands that are deep and flat. He undoubtedly possesses one of the strongest forehands on the tour. He is also an excellent returner of serve, he makes use of compact swings to aggressively return. His forehands, due to being flat and deep, offer little room for error when compared to high margin shots which employ topspin. Although, Blake can incorporate an all-court playing style by aiming his shots down the lines, or moving an opponent from side to side and proceeding to finish the point at the net by smash or volley. Blake is also noted for his exceptional court coverage, speed, and athleticism. He is noted for having incredible foot speed but lacking in footwork. As we said, his style of play is best suited for hard courts as his flat shots tend to stay low and move quickly across the court. This approach is relatively ineffective on clay courts. Gulbis has almost the same style of play. His results are, of course, incomparable to Blake´s but his first round performance here against Greul was impressive. Blake went through by defeating poor claycourter Schuettler in straight sets but we think that Gulbis will be much harder nut to crack. Odds above 3 are definitely worth trying here.