Analysis for Garcia Lopez-Hanescu (ATP Kitzbuhel)

Head-to-head record 1:0

Last week king Victor Hanescu started to follow up his stellar performance from Gstaad. He has been struggling all the year long but then took all the luck of the wolrd within the last week defeating Patience, Karlovic, Chardy, Wawrinka and Andreev and winning his first career title. Even if he showed some solid improvement last week, we don´t think he is a player who can repeat that performance. He played Andujar in the first round here in Kitzbuhl and his opponent was better player during that match. Hanescu´s lucky streak continues but it should be over soon. He has never been a world beater attaining his career high ranking of 35 on December, 2005. Six weeks later, in a Davis Cup match against the United States, he suffered a severe rib injury, and a subsequent injury sidelined him further in 2006. By January, 2007, his ranking had plummeted to world no.759, before he finally began making progress on a comeback. However, he has never got even close to his previous level. His opponent will be Spanish clay courter Guillermo Garcia Lopez. Lopez still remains far behind expectations this year however, he made some solid results lately. He is one of the most unpredictable players in the modern game, as he is capable of spectacular shotmaking especially with his outstanding single hand backhand and clever dropshots. He likes the long baseline rallies and should feel better on slow surface. Lopez defeated Calleri in the first round and his confidence should be high enough. We think odds above 1.7 are worth taking here.