Analysis for Moya-Korolev (ATP Australian Open)

Head-to-head record 0:1

This is a battle of two tennis generations. Russian youngster Evgeny Korolev will fight one of the tennis heroes of the last decade, Spanish veteran Carlos Moya. Spaniard plays with well-angled topspin heavy strokes, a strong two-handed backhand, fast mobility on the court, and a preference to play from the deep court. Known for his excellent defense, Moya hits well on the run and creates many winners from seemingly defensive positions. Because of his extreme athleticism, Moya tends to go after every shot, even apparent winners from his opponents. Historically, Moya's playing style has worked best on clay courts but he has always been competitive on fast surfaces as well. He is an experienced player but his self confidence at the moment is probably very low. His latest record is really poor and some of his losses last year were really shocking. His first-round opponent Korolev is more suited to fast courts and he seems to play in a pretty good shape. He is a very promising and talented player and we think there is a bright future ahead of him. He came through the qualifiers here beating Nielsen, Sidorenko and Udomchoke and furthermore, he defeated Moya in their only meeting last year. We don’t think he should be an underdog in this match and anything above 2.1 is worth considering here.