09/01/08 Full Card
WTA Hobart: Ashley Harkleroad (USA) vs Edina Gallovits (ROM) - Today, 23:30 GMT
Ashley Harkleroad continues her great begin of season in here and yesterday she has beaten Meilen Tu, showing that it's hard to stop a player with such momentum. She won the first set 11-9 in the tie-break, saving several set points and after losing the second set by 6:2, she was capable of regrouping and winning the third and decisive set by 6:1. This win over a player with a better ranking than her must have given even more confidence to Harkleroad, who seems to be playing like a Top 50 player right now. She is serving well and her baseline game continues to be consistent and good enough to create a good number of break points to her. Hardcourt is clearly her best surface and she is taking advantage of it to get a good number of points for her ranking in here. She is 3-0 on QF matches on WTA tournaments, with all wins coming in straight sets.
Edina Gallovits continues to improve her tennis, but she is still a claycourter. Although she is doing pretty well in here this week, she is still 4-13 on matches played on WTA tournaments outside clay. She is 1-1 on QF matches on WTA tournaments and on her last match of this two, she did one of the biggest choke jobs of 2007, by allowing the 17 years old Sorana Cirstea to comeback and win the match, after being match points down. Gallovits hasn't faced any strong opposition this week, as Alberta Brianti is one of the weakest players you can find on WTA tournament nowadays and Olga Govortsova seems to be far from the level she presented in last year's Summer hardcourt season. The main problem with Gallovits is her serve, which is pretty weak and Harkleroad will easily take advantage of that to break her at least twice per set. Unless Harkleroad has a horrible serving day, which seems to be unlikely with her momentum right now, she has a big chance of reaching another WTA tournament semi final in here.
Harkleroad is the most experienced and talented player of the two on hardcourt and she is also the player who has the momentum on her side. The American player has always liked to play on Oceania and she should have too much tennis for the Romanian Gallovits. Take Harkleroad to win in here.
Play 1* unit on Ashley Harkleroad to win @ -117
ATP Sydney: Ivo Minar (CZE) vs Evgueni Korolev (RUS) - Today, 01:00 GMT
Ivo Minar has an amazing record of 16-2 on this tournament, with his only losses coming against Lleyton Hewitt and Tomas Berdych. Minar is a former Top 70 player and it looks like he will get back to the Top 100 next week. He is playing extremely well this week with wins over Paul Capdeville, Victor Hanescu, John Isner and Alun Jones, all in straight sets. Minar is serving well, but especially returning extremely well. It's easy to prove that with the fact he has won 32% of the points played on Isner's huge serve during their match. He has the experience on his side and after this four amazing wins, he must carry a great momentum for this match.
Evgueni Korolev is a lucky loser in here and he was really lucky, as he faced the injured Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round and won by retirement. Korolev got trashed in the final round of the qualifying by Steve Darcis, after a major struggle against Diego Hartfield on the round before. Korolev's serve is pretty inconsistent and against such a good returner like Minar, he will have a lot of problems to hold serve today. This was exactly what happened to him earlier this week, when Steve Darcis defeated him by 6:1 7:5. His erratic baseline game will be explored by the experienced Minar, who comes from facing three erratic players in his last three matches: Hanescu, Isner and Jones.
Minar loves this tournament and he is playing amazingly this week. He is serving well and returning like a world class player. Korolev is just too inconsistent right now and I think Minar shouldn't be the underdog in this match. Take the Czech to get the win in here.
Play 1* unit on Ivo Minar to win @ +105
ATP Sydney: Chris Guccione (AUS) vs Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) - Today, 02:45 GMT
Chris Guccione has basically only one weapon, his serve. But on a fast surface like this one, an amazing serve is enough to make every match he plays at least a close one. He comes from facing Alberto Martin, a very good returner and he wasn't broken a single time. He served 18 aces and won 91% of the points played on his first serve. He also had a good percentage of first serves in (69%) and if he is capable to maintain this level of service, Hewitt will need an amazing day to break him.
Lleyton Hewitt isn't exactly on his best and the fact that he was broken twice yesterday against Nicolas Mahut and that he only put 54% first serves in, makes me wonder if Hewitt is 100% confident on his game right now. After last week's slaughter at the hands of Tsonga, Hewitt has realized that he is far from the level that he had one day and maybe he will never get back to this level again. Also Hewitt has recently struggled while facing big servers (Karlovic is 3-0 against him for example) and I don't think he will be capable of destroy Guccione's serve like it was nothing, especially on a match where he won't have the public 100% on his side, as his opponent is also Australian.
I think Hewitt will end up winning this match, but nothing more than 7:6 6:4. Guccione has a huge serve and if Hewitt has a bad service game, then it will all be over for Lleyton on that set. Guccione will want to prove that he can handle the pace of the best Australian tennis player right now and make this match extremely competitive. Take Guccione plus the games in here.
Play 1*unit on Chris Guccione (+3,5 Games) @ -106
Good luck!
WTA Hobart: Ashley Harkleroad (USA) vs Edina Gallovits (ROM) - Today, 23:30 GMT
Ashley Harkleroad continues her great begin of season in here and yesterday she has beaten Meilen Tu, showing that it's hard to stop a player with such momentum. She won the first set 11-9 in the tie-break, saving several set points and after losing the second set by 6:2, she was capable of regrouping and winning the third and decisive set by 6:1. This win over a player with a better ranking than her must have given even more confidence to Harkleroad, who seems to be playing like a Top 50 player right now. She is serving well and her baseline game continues to be consistent and good enough to create a good number of break points to her. Hardcourt is clearly her best surface and she is taking advantage of it to get a good number of points for her ranking in here. She is 3-0 on QF matches on WTA tournaments, with all wins coming in straight sets.
Edina Gallovits continues to improve her tennis, but she is still a claycourter. Although she is doing pretty well in here this week, she is still 4-13 on matches played on WTA tournaments outside clay. She is 1-1 on QF matches on WTA tournaments and on her last match of this two, she did one of the biggest choke jobs of 2007, by allowing the 17 years old Sorana Cirstea to comeback and win the match, after being match points down. Gallovits hasn't faced any strong opposition this week, as Alberta Brianti is one of the weakest players you can find on WTA tournament nowadays and Olga Govortsova seems to be far from the level she presented in last year's Summer hardcourt season. The main problem with Gallovits is her serve, which is pretty weak and Harkleroad will easily take advantage of that to break her at least twice per set. Unless Harkleroad has a horrible serving day, which seems to be unlikely with her momentum right now, she has a big chance of reaching another WTA tournament semi final in here.
Harkleroad is the most experienced and talented player of the two on hardcourt and she is also the player who has the momentum on her side. The American player has always liked to play on Oceania and she should have too much tennis for the Romanian Gallovits. Take Harkleroad to win in here.
Play 1* unit on Ashley Harkleroad to win @ -117
ATP Sydney: Ivo Minar (CZE) vs Evgueni Korolev (RUS) - Today, 01:00 GMT
Ivo Minar has an amazing record of 16-2 on this tournament, with his only losses coming against Lleyton Hewitt and Tomas Berdych. Minar is a former Top 70 player and it looks like he will get back to the Top 100 next week. He is playing extremely well this week with wins over Paul Capdeville, Victor Hanescu, John Isner and Alun Jones, all in straight sets. Minar is serving well, but especially returning extremely well. It's easy to prove that with the fact he has won 32% of the points played on Isner's huge serve during their match. He has the experience on his side and after this four amazing wins, he must carry a great momentum for this match.
Evgueni Korolev is a lucky loser in here and he was really lucky, as he faced the injured Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round and won by retirement. Korolev got trashed in the final round of the qualifying by Steve Darcis, after a major struggle against Diego Hartfield on the round before. Korolev's serve is pretty inconsistent and against such a good returner like Minar, he will have a lot of problems to hold serve today. This was exactly what happened to him earlier this week, when Steve Darcis defeated him by 6:1 7:5. His erratic baseline game will be explored by the experienced Minar, who comes from facing three erratic players in his last three matches: Hanescu, Isner and Jones.
Minar loves this tournament and he is playing amazingly this week. He is serving well and returning like a world class player. Korolev is just too inconsistent right now and I think Minar shouldn't be the underdog in this match. Take the Czech to get the win in here.
Play 1* unit on Ivo Minar to win @ +105
ATP Sydney: Chris Guccione (AUS) vs Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) - Today, 02:45 GMT
Chris Guccione has basically only one weapon, his serve. But on a fast surface like this one, an amazing serve is enough to make every match he plays at least a close one. He comes from facing Alberto Martin, a very good returner and he wasn't broken a single time. He served 18 aces and won 91% of the points played on his first serve. He also had a good percentage of first serves in (69%) and if he is capable to maintain this level of service, Hewitt will need an amazing day to break him.
Lleyton Hewitt isn't exactly on his best and the fact that he was broken twice yesterday against Nicolas Mahut and that he only put 54% first serves in, makes me wonder if Hewitt is 100% confident on his game right now. After last week's slaughter at the hands of Tsonga, Hewitt has realized that he is far from the level that he had one day and maybe he will never get back to this level again. Also Hewitt has recently struggled while facing big servers (Karlovic is 3-0 against him for example) and I don't think he will be capable of destroy Guccione's serve like it was nothing, especially on a match where he won't have the public 100% on his side, as his opponent is also Australian.
I think Hewitt will end up winning this match, but nothing more than 7:6 6:4. Guccione has a huge serve and if Hewitt has a bad service game, then it will all be over for Lleyton on that set. Guccione will want to prove that he can handle the pace of the best Australian tennis player right now and make this match extremely competitive. Take Guccione plus the games in here.
Play 1*unit on Chris Guccione (+3,5 Games) @ -106
Good luck!