Analysis for Fish-Robredo (ATP Cincinnati)

Head-to-head record 3:2

Probably not a surprising pick – we have already advised to bet on Fish against Robredo earlier this year and American demolished experienced Spaniard at Aussie Open 2008 in straight sets. As we said, Robredo's current season has not been as successful as the previous two. He did not put together more than two back-to-back victories until the start of the European clay season in April, and his multiple losses to lower ranked players include his earliest loss at the French Open since 2002. However, he has managed to make the finals of the Warsaw Open, the semifinals of the Valencia event, and the quarterfinals at Barcelona. His best result in Master Series tournaments this season is a quarterfinal appearance at the Rome Masters. Robredo won his first title of the year at the Swedish Open in Bastad, beating Tomáš Berdych in the final. This was his second Bastad title. However, all these results were reached on clay and he isn´t that dangerous on faster surfaces. Last week, he was kicked out by Cilic who actually has the similar style of play to Fish. Robredo doesn´t like to play offensive hitters and we wouldn´t be surprised if Fish won in straight sets. Mardy 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. On US hard courts, Fish 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. However, things should change significantly in his favour during the hard court season. Last week, he lost to Toronto finalists Kiefer in a tight match and even if he is currently on a losing streak, we think that he has a good chance to succeed here. Odds above 1.8 are worth taking for us.