Players Under the Microscope / / 10 August 2007 /

Czech serve-volleyer is back in business

Today´s player to follow is Radek Stepanek. The Czech player is having fun in the US Open Series and currently sits second behind Andy Roddick by virtue of winning Los Angeles a few weeks back.

Stepanek can be frustrating like most tennis players especially when you think they will win as favourites but these days he is more of an underdog and proving his worth each time he faces stern opposition. In Los Angeles, the only hard match he had was against Blake in the finals and he surprised the American by winning in 3 hard sets. Moving on to Washington, Stepanek was unlucky to meet Roddick in the second round but even then, the American was made to sweat it out on the court to keep his lead in the Open Series.

The tour has taken the road show to Montreal and Stepanek is not showing any signs of stopping. In the first round, he fought his way from a set down to beat Fernando Gonzales in 3 long sets and yesterday he took Tommy Haas apart in the 3rd set after the German could not continue the fine form that saw him breaking Stepanek twice in the 2nd set to win 6-2. Up next is Davydenko; head-to-head reads 3-3 and both have won once on the hard stuff.

Stepanek is the player to keep an eye on this week. There is no reason for him not to beat Davydenko. After all, he has won the last 2 encounters in recent times. The lasttime they played was at Rotterdam in 2006. In the six mathces they have played, Stepanek has always won a set no matter the surface and the matches that ended in 2 set wins were won by the Czech. On hard surface, the total games in their matches have been high ( 28 games in Rotterdam 2006 and 31 in Vienna 2002 ).

There is a market on total games in the quarterfinal match for Stepanek and Davydenko and it is worth backing over 23.5 games. Stepanek has been involved in a lot of 3 set matches in the past couple of weeks, especially against top opposition and facing Davydenko, with their history, you can expect a battle to hold serve.

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