Analysis for Becker-Vinciguerra (ATP Zagreb)

Head-to-head record 0:0

Vinciguerra´s comeback continues in Zagreb where he is going to face German Benni Becker in the first round. Swede was an impressive junior, winning the European junior championships and making the final of the junior Australian Open when he was 17, when he finished as the number 6 in the junior rankings. The left-hander has won one singles title and reached his highest singles ATP-ranking in 2001, when he became the number 33 in the world. He has experienced significant problems with a back and knees injuries. After undergoing several knee operations, Andreas Vinciguerra made his comeback in November 2008, playing club tennis here in Malmo. Very few people thought that he would make it back to the top level and even fewer could have conceived what a strong performance he would put on in his first two international matches since October 2006. Amazingly, Vinciguerra, was very close to victory in both matches in Davis Cup after his comeback. Last year, he played several solid tournaments with the best success coming from ATP Bastad where he reached the semis. Here in Zagreb, Vinciguerra came through qualifiers beating Bohli, Klec and Mertens and so he should be confident against big serving German. Vinciguerra has great returns and likes to play big serving opponents – last year he played solid matches against Tsonga, Soderling or Ginepri. Like we said, Becker's primary weapon is a big serve that he can hit at up to 220 km/h even if he is relatively small player along with powerful groundstrokes. He prefers hard courts and should feel good in Zagreb but we are not convinced he should be such a big favourite against the qualifier.