Analysis for Stakhovsky-Peya (ATP Doha)

Head-to-head record 1:0

Alexander Peya of Austria will play Ukrainian talent Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round at Doha. Alexander Peya reached a career high singles ranking of 92 in the world on April 30, 2007. He has spent most of his career on challenger circuit and hasn´t gained much experience from the big ATP matches. On the other hand, he is relatively consistent player with solid mental skills and he never gives up before the end of the match. In September 2008 Peya helped Austria to a Davis Cup play-off win against Great Britain. Peya beat Alex Bogdanovic in four sets in the deciding rubber of the tie. His latest singles results weren´t impressive and there is probably nothing that would be worth mentioning. But he played some solid tennis in qualifiers here beating Chernov, Bubka and Kubot all in straight sets. One of his career best moments came in the first round where Peya surprisingly defeated experienced Russian Tursunov. This match has surely boosted his confidence and he should be well prepared for the next match. He will play Ukrainian Stakhovsky who began 2008 by failing to qualify into several ATP and Challenger tournaments, before qualifying and reaching the quarterfinals of a major Challenger in Poland in February, losing to Simone Bolelli. He then entered the qualifications of the Zagreb tournament, losing in the final round to Slovenian Blaz Kavcic, but due to Michael Llodra's withdrawal, he entered the main draw as a lucky loser. He went on to win the tournament, defeating top players along the way, including Ivo Karlovic in the first round, Janko Tipsarevic in the quarterfinals, Simone Bolelli in the semifinals, and Ivan Ljubicic in the final. He won his first career title on 1 March 2008, as a lucky loser ranked #209, defeating #1 seed Ivan Ljubicic in the final, thus becoming the first lucky loser to win a title since 1991. This result catapulted him up among the top 100 but he hasn’t managed to follow up with similar results since then. We still think that his Zagreb performance was more or less a coincidence that is not likely to repeat any time soon. We don’t consider Ukrainian to be a better player than his opponent and thinks that Peya should be a favourite in this one.