Analysis for Kiefer-Fish (ATP Toronto)

Head-to-head record 1:0

Experienced German veteran Nicolas Kiefer will face American Mardy Fish in the first round of Toronto Masters. Fish is hardly predictable player but if he has his day, he is able to keep the match close with almost everyone on the circuit. He always felt best on North-American hard courts and we expect him to perform well here. He started off 2008 quite well at the Hopman Cup and partnering Serena Williams, Fish, won the title. Fish fell to Jarkko Nieminen in the third round of the Australian Open after a code violation caused him to lose his composure. Fish then went on to make a quarterfinal showing at the 2008 Delray Beach International Tennis Championships before losing to long time friend and wild-card entry Robby Ginepri. At the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, he defeated Florian Mayer in the first round, Igor Andreev in the second, Nikolay Davydenko in the third round, former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round and David Nalbandian in the quarterfinals. Fish then defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer in the semifinals 6–3, 6–2 in what Fish claimed was his best win ever after failing to beat the Swiss player in five previous matches. However, Fish lost in the final to Djokovic. Fish then lost his next match at the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne to Clement. According to the expectations, the European clay season didn´t turn out well for Mardy Fish. At the French Open, Fish lost in the second round to Hewitt with Fish committing 58 unforced errors. At Wimbledon, Fish lost in the first round to eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet of France. All together, his season is not bad at all and bearing in mind he is now approaching his favourite surface, we don´t see the reason why Kiefer should be such a big favourite against US hard courter. We expect a tight match and even if Kiefer has been playing in a good shape lately, we don´t think that Fish´s odds should be above 2.1.