Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 05 March 2007 /

All Roads on the tennis circuit lead to Indian Wells in California this week for the biggest event outside the Grand Slams. Spain's Tommy Robredo will be among a star-studded line-up contesting the first event in this year's Masters Series.

The 24-year-old world No 7 - one of three Spaniards in the world's top 20 - skipped the Dubai tournament last week as he paces himself through the early part of the year.

Robredo, who has been as high as world No 5, began the year by reaching the final of the Auckland tournament before losing in straight sets to fellow Spaniard and world No 16 David Ferrer.

Then the player named after The Who's rock opera Tommy went to Melbourne and dealt with everything that was placed before him until running up against Roger Federer in the quarter-finals, where he went down 6-3 7-6 7-5.

Back in Europe for February, the right-hander reached the last eight of the Rotterdam tournament easily enough only to bump into rising 19-year-old Novak Djokovic and the world No 14 from Serbia got the better of him 4-6 6-4 7-5.

The performances are solid enough but Robredo won't be happy until he has built on his four tournament wins to date, especially as he has been on the pro circuit since 1998.

His first triumph came in Sopot (Poland) in 2001 but he had to wait another three years for his next title, fittingly in his own backyard of Barcelona, where he now lives since moving from his home town of Hostalric. (The fact that he supports Champions League holders Barcelona may have a bearing on his home base).

But last year was the big breakthrough year that has catapulted him firmly into the world's top 10. He sealed wins in the Masters event in Hamburg, where he beat Radek Stepanek in the final after toppling David Ferrer and Mario Ancic in the quarters and semis. On top of that he dropped just one set all week on the way to glory.

He triumphed again in the Bastad (Sweden) tournament, beating Nikolay Davydenko in the final. And back in Barcelona only Nadal got the better of him, winning 6-4 6-4 6-0 in a one-sided final.

The 5ft 11in right-hander, who will be 25 on May 1, will be waiting anxiously to see Tuesday's draw for this first ATP Masters Event of the year but he will want to do better than last year when he lost in the last 32 to James Blake 6-2 7-5.

On top of the win in the Hamburg Masters, Robredo also did well in Paris, where he reached the semi-finals before losing to Davydenko, and in Cincinatti, when he lost to fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero after reaching the last four.

That was good enough to get him into the Masters Cup finals in China last November but he lost two of his three round-robin matches to Davydenko and Nadal before beating Blake in three sets.

His best and favourite surface is clay - he was one of only three players to win 20 matches on the surface - and his record last year was 22-7.

He has a big forehand and will want to make that count when the action on the hard courts in the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells gets under way with the men's ATP Masters Series and women's Sony Ericsson tour events running in tandem from March 5-18.

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