Roddick to rock

Andy Roddick – Phillipp Kohlschreiber 1
Roddick leads the German 4-1 in their h2h meetings, and the American also has a semifinal to defend from 2010 which means an awful lot of points in the rankings, should he lose already in the 1st round. He must be very eager not to blow this at such an early stage.

Richard Gasquet – Aleksandr Dolgopolov 1
Gasquet reached the 3rd round last year and leads Dolgopolov 1-0 in their h2h, winning last year on clay. Gasquet is equally good on hard court, while I’m not yet sure of the Ukranians abilities on this surface.

Juan Carlos Ferrero – Feliciano Lopez 1
Back in 2002 Ferrero reached the semifinal here. In 2006 he went to the final, so he has performed well from time to time in Cincinatti as opposed to Lopez. He has never been passed the 2nd round and in his 6(!) attempts he’s lost in the 1st round. Even though he leads Ferrero 2-1 in h2h, this is too good an odds to turn down with such a poor record from Lopez.

Fernando Verdasco – Thomaz Bellucci 1
Bellucci hasn’t got the greatest record in these big hard court tournaments and he trails Verdasco 2-1 in h2h. Bellucci won their most recent meeting, but on clay. Their first 2 meetings was on hard court.

Lucie Safarova – Klara Zakopalova 2
Safarova is better ranked and had a good tournament last week in Canada but nevertheless we have to try out a price like this on Zakopalova. She leads Safarova by 4-1, winning their 2 latest meetings in 2011.