Analysis for Volandri-Cruciat (ATP Bucharest)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Adrian Cruciat of Romania will face Italian Filippo Volandri in the first round. Volandri is a right-handed player, who reached a career-high ranking of 25 on July, 2007. But the current season is a nightmare for experienced Italian. He was a successful clay court player in past who achieved the final here in Bucharest. In September 2006, he lost the final of the Bucharest ATP tournament against Jürgen Melzer. His career best performance comes from Rome without any doubts. At the Rome Masters in 2007 Volandri, having entered as a wild card, recorded the biggest win of his career by dispatching world number one Roger Federer in straight sets, 6–2 6–4. Hopes that this might be the start of Italy's re-emergence among the top nations of professional men's tennis were heightened when Volandri went on to beat highly-tipped world number 12 Tomas Berdych, in the quarter final. The win meant Volandri would be the first Italian to contest the event's semi-finals since 1978. His run stopped in the semifinals, however, as he lost to Fernando Gonzalez. But as we said, his YTD record is really poor and even if he got some self-confidence back on challenger circuit over the last weeks, he is still not at his best and advanced to the main even only as a lucky looser. Well, his opponent Adrian Cruciat is far from being as successful as Italian but we saw him playing several times and think that he has his chance today. Odds above 3.2 can be tried for the lowest stake.