Simon vs Garcia-Lopez

The odds for Gilles Simon are raising and now 1.79 for a victory in straight sets is looking very good for me (they started at 1.65 in Pinnacle).

 

The Frenchman didn't start his season on clay very well, but since the start of April he's almost unstoppable and lost only against the clay king Rafael Nadal in the semifinal in Monte Carlo (3:6, 4:6). Before that in this tournament he won in straight sets against Gil, Baleret and also against Tsonga (number five in the world) in the quarterfinals. In the third round he won in three sets (6:0, 4:6, 6:1) against Serbian Tipsarevic (number eight in the ranking right now). After Monte Carlo he played in Bucharest, where he won the tournament, with victories over Sela, Kubot, Bachinger and Fognini in the final. Lukas Kubot was the only one, who managed to win a set in those four games. Last season Simon won 15 of the 22 games played on clay and here in Madrid lost in the second round from Chela (before that won with 2:0 sets against Roddick in the first match). The number twelve in the ranking right now played a final here back in 2008, where he lost against Andy Murray.

 

Garcia-Lopez is currently number 94 in the world. He has played ten games on clay so far this season and has won six of them. Last week Lopez played in Belgrad, where he lost in the second round against Frenchman Paire (number 67). In the first round here in Madrid yesterday he won against Baghdatis in three sets (6:4, 3:6, 6:4), but clay is the worst surface for the player from Cyprus, where he has almost equal amount of wins and defeats over the years.

 

The two players have played twice so far. Back in 2007 Simon won in straight sets (7:6, 6:4) in Bucharest and their second meeting was last year in US Open, when the Frenchman won against, this time with 3:1 sets.