Analysis for Navarro-Sluiter (ATP s´Hertogenbosh)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Dutch veteran Reamon Sluiter will play Spanish player Ivan Navarro in surprising semifinal match. Sluiter´s career high ranking is no.46 (achieved in 2003) and his career highlights were mostly on home soil: ATP finals in Amsterdam (2000), Rotterdam (2003) and Amersfoort (2003), as well as a semifinal appearance in Rosmalen (s´Hertogenbosh). Another career highlight was reaching the semifinals with the Dutch Davis Cup team in 2001. He is a player with good serve and enormous fighting spirit. He prefers fast surfaces and plays one class higher when playing in front of his home crowd. He announced his retirement in February, 2008, which took effect after he played his home event in Rotterdam. In April of 2009 he returned to professional tennis, battling from the qualifying rounds to the final of a Futures tournament in Albufeira, Portugal. Now he came back to his favourite home tournaments as a wild card entry and is surprisingly not far from his career best result. His opponent will be Spaniard Ivan Navarro. Unlike most of his compatriots he is able to play relatively good tennis on grass. He is known for strong serve and ability to play balls repetitively on the baseline. He is also a confident net player and has been known to adopt the serve-and-volley routine of play during matches. However, he has never been a top player and he will probably never be. He was very lucky in all previous matches and even if he defeated defending champion Ferrer yesterday, we don’t think he deserves to be a favourite today. Bearing in mind the surface and Dutch soil, Sluiter is a slight favourite for us and odds around 2 are good enough.