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Feliciano Lopez takes on Viktor Troicki in the 2nd round of the ATP Masters Series event in Rome.
Clay is certainly Feliciano’s worst surface and this season he Spaniard was pretty bad on the European red dirt – 2 wins and 3 defeats to his name prior to Rome. However, when he finds his game, Lopez can be very dangerous on clay, as proved by the 3 ATP finals played by him on the surface – one of them this year in Quito. Lopez showed some improvement last week in Madrid, defeating Becker or pushing L. Mayer to two tiebreaks and he backed it up here in Rome with a solid 6-4 7-6 win over Nick Kyrgios in the first round.
Troicki has been in dreadful shape on the red dirt this season and he was on a 5 match losing streak run prior to Rome (with a single set won), including a 0-6 2-6 against Gael Monfils in Madrid. The Serbian player stepped it up this week, finally winning a match, but the 7-6 6-7 7-6 win over the clay-shy Tomic was not particularly a highlight – with both guys playing poor tennis for long stretches of the game.
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The Head 2 Head is 0-0, as the two players never met before on tour. Troicki is a little bit better suited for clay, but just like Lopez, he prefers faster courts, so he doesn’t have a particularly big advantage in this regard.
Neither player had much success on the red dirt lately, but at least Lopez played a good match in the first round, very clean, clearly his best in the last two months. Troicki wasn’t too impressive despite the win and I don’t believe he will be able to suddenly play his best tennis out of nowhere. Expect Lopez to keep up the excellent percentages on serve and put pressure on the return games in which Troicki will make unforced errors.
My tip is Lopez to win, he’s the better, more consistent player and seems to be looking better this week, also having that weapon on which he can always count – the serve. Prediction: Feliciano Lopez – Viktor Troicki 7-6 6-4.
Live streaming for Lopez vs. Troicki available at Bet365.com for all funded accounts.
Pick: Lopez
Odds: 1.77 @ Betsson
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 5.39
Event date: 13 May
