ATP - Feliciano Lopez v James Blake

Two strong serving players meet in Basel tour and only one of them can advance to semi-finals. In my opinion Blake is lately in quite poor form and Lopez was always kind of weird player that sometimes stands a fair opponent to even top3 and sometimes looks just pathetic with his girly balloon back-hand's. In average Blake also is stronger mentally, Lopez like to lose already won match and sometimes with great serve performance he is losing his games irrationally.But still Feliciano is the one who presented better form in past weeks and seems to feel better on European fast courts. Semi-finals in Vienna where he lost 1:2 to fantastic tittle claimer Philip Petzschner, quarter-final of masters in Madrid where only Rafa Nadal was able to stop him. He lately beat very good names like Wawrinka, Ferrer, Melzer, or strong servers like Querrey or Fish, here in Basel. Fish poses very similar game to Blake - strong serve sets the game and he looks for the quickest way to finish the point. It didn't work against Feliciano yesterday. Spaniard in spite he already played 3 tie-breaks here present very regular and hard game, he tries to finish quick but still is able to hold longer exchanges. Blake plaed only two tours since US Open where he lost clearly to Mardy Fish. In Madrid Simon kick him off and here in Basel he lost 2 sets with Hernandez and Kiefer. It is unusual that player like Blake is losing a set in tie-break with someone like Hernandez, who is not a good player especially on hard. His serve is still very strong, he is firing many aces and don't face many breaks (although Kiefer broke him twice) but same we can say for Feliciano, who serves in this tour even better. Feliciano game depends on day, somedays he is a real tuff player and sometimes he gives a match for nothing becouse of some mentality problems. Still Blake did not convince me in past weeks and especially in last two matches, Feliciano if he will keep his performance and serving power should send American home.

Pick : Lopez to win 2:0
Odds : 4.00
Stake : 7 / 10
Bookmaker : Paddy Power
Match Result : 2-0
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