Analysis for Starace-Hernandez (ATP Casablanca)

Head-to-head record 1:0

Two pure clay-courters will battle for the second round spot in Casablanca today. Spaniard Oscar Hernandez will play Italian Potito Starace. Both of them excel on clay courts but don’t perform to the same standard on hard courts, grass courts, or other surfaces. Both are known for employing long, winding groundstrokes that generate heavy topspin, strokes which are much less effective when the surface is faster and the balls don't bounce as high. We expect many slow and long rallies from the baseline and we think that anything can happen today. In our eyes, both players are currently at the same level and it should be a very tight match. Both of them have pretty bad season this year, however, Hernandez played solid tennis on hard court in Miami last week beating Ljubicic and taking one set off Safin which could be the sign of improved form. On the other hand, Starace noted a poor loss to Haider-Mauer at home challenger last week so he shouldn’t be at his best. On the 19th January 2009 Potito suffered one of the biggest humiliations in tennis history when he lost 6-7, 6-1, 6-7, 6-7 to Bernard Tomic, a 16 year old ranked 751st in the world. The humiliation was softened by the massive increase of his Betfair balance that day. Furthermore, Hernandez is a better ranked player and we don’t see the reason why he should be the underdog here. Anything above 2 is good enough for us.