ATP - Michael Llodra v Ernests Gulbis

ATP Roland Garros - Michael Llodra (FRA) vs Ernests Gulbis (LAT)

With the other three matches of the fourth round promising to be so one-sided (Nadal, Djokovic and Almagro should advance without much problems), this is clearly the most interesting match of the men's competition tomorrow. Michael Llodra is having a career season and besides having won already two titles this season (Adelaide and Rotterdam), he has shown very good tennis in all surfaces he has played this season. And most important than that, he is using his experience to put the crowd extremely noisy and to put their opponents extremely nervous and about to go nuts with such a environment in the court. This is the main reason why Llodra has been defeating tough opponents, who should be able to defeat him (Berdych, Bolelli), in the previous rounds. But a crazy crowd isn't enough to justify why Llodra is playing so well in here. First of all the confidence of the French is higher than never and this can be showed with one factor. Llodra has already known as a poor tie-break player and suddendly this season, he started to play tie-breaks insanely well and the true is that he has a tie-break record in 2008 of 18-10 overall and 5-1 on clay!!! As Llodra is known for being a good server and a bad returner, this factor may be extremely important and besides having the experience, Llodra will also have a good tie-break record, which will give him the necessary confidence and patience to win a potential tie-break in today's match. Also his net coverage is awesome and his volleys are extremely good. The crowd loves his attacking and aggressive style and Gulbis is surely going to hate to be so pressured of having to execute so many passing shots.

Ernests Gulbis has been a very good surprise in this tournament and the truth is that the Latvian player was never considered to be a good clay courter, but he is in the fourth round of Roland Garros. Gulbis is still very young and he lacks experience at such an high level. Even though Llodra doesn't have a great experience at this level on singles, he is a multi Grand Slam winners in doubles, which gives him a good upperhand in the experience category for this match. Also Gulbis isn't used to face such a tough crowd, as the French crowd will be today and the unforced errors that he was able to control in the previous rounds in here will start to appear a lot more that he wished. Gulbis doesn't have a lot of good experiences in matches against serve & volley players on his career, besides a win against an old and slow Tim Henman in last season's Roland Garros. The fact that he has already lost twice against Michael Llodra before and that he was easily defeated by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Adelaide this season by 6:3 6:2 in Adelaide, shows that Gulbis doesn't like to have a target on the net, as he can't make good passing shots on a consistent way, while being pressured by a world class serve & volley player.

This is the second time Llodra is on the fourth round of Roland Garros. The first one was in 2004, when he wasted match points and ended up losing by 9-7 in the 5th set against Tim Henman. Llodra has another chance to get to the quarter finals in here and I don't think he is going to waste such an opportunity as this one. He is unbelievably confident about his game right now and with the help of the crowd, he should be too much for the young Gulbis, who won't be able to play at his best at such environment, as he will find in today's match. Take Llodra to win in here. Regular play.

Play 3* units (Regular Play) on Michael Llodra to win @2.23 on Pinnacle

Pick : Michael Llodra
Odds : 2.23
Stake : 6 / 10
Bookmaker : Pinnacle
Match Result : 0-3
Tipster Personal Link/Sponsor: http://www.andregomes.com

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