Roddick holds a 7-0 advantage over Robredo and astonishingly has never lost a set to the Spaniard including a match at this very event back in the 2002 quarters. I was very impressed by Roddick's ability to come from behind in his match against Bolelli in the first set, with the claycourt and the crowd behind him. He was more patient than his erratic opponent, and Robredo was forced to slug it out in a marathon match with Davydenko. The Spaniard was involved in a scurry of service breaks and of great concern will be his inability to consolidate breaks which is something he can ill-afford here with the booming serve of Roddick. The A-Rod has won 13 of his past 15 matches and his last 4 against Spaniards. Robredo, on the other hand, has struggled with some of the bigger servers with good net-rushing ability, as losses to Ljubicic, Mahut, Stepanek and Arthurs prove. A member here yesterday said that it's probably because he tends to get so far back behind the baseline and it's difficult for anyone to assert themselves from that position, and Roddick senses a massive opportunity in this tournament to make the final here (he would play the winner out of Blake and Wawrinka - hardly a fearful opponent considering it should have been Davydenko or Nadal) and dispell any thoughts that he is a mug on the clay. This court is a little faster which suits the A-Rod down to the ground, and the Robredo serve is nowhere near convincing enough for me that he'll be able to fend off the baseline consistency of the American. My pick is for Roddick.
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