Events / Sean Calvert / 16 February 2008 /

Sean Calvert previews Sunday's final in Marseille

Andy Murray will be looking for his second ATP title of 2008 when he takes on Mario Ancic in the final of the Open 13 in Marseille tomorrow.

The 20-year-old Scot is currently trading at around the [1.6] mark on Betfair to overcome the Croatian wild card, but he will have to turn around a 0-1 record against Ancic in order to do so.

The pair's only previous meeting was on the hard courts of Auckland in 2006 and Ancic's win that day was in straight sets, so he will be looking to make it two out of two in his first ATP final since St Petersburg the same year, where he beat Thomas Johansson to claim the title.

That was the Croat's career year though and Ancic has struggled badly with illness and injury ever since, after reaching his highest ATP ranking of seven in July 2006.

A bout of glandular fever put paid to his top five assault in 2007 and Ancic is currently competing in his first tournament since October 2007.

He also missed the US Open in 2007 through injury and this year's Australian Open, which explains why a player of his undoubted ability is currently positioned at 135 in the world rankings.

Both contestants have encountered difficulty on their respective routes to the championship match, but both cruised through their semi finals on Saturday with unexpected ease - a sign that both are at the top of their form and that we can expect a high quality match in the final.

The Scot started with an easy victory over Dutch qualifier Jesse Huta Gakung, but had to raise his game considerably to overcome a stern challenge from Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter's, after losing the first set before coming through a 7-5 breaker to set up a 6-1 final set.

Another tricky test followed against the hit and miss Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, before Murray found top gear against Mathieu.

Ancic traded at [29.0] at the start of the event, which was probably about right, given that he had to play Jo Wilfried Tsonga first up and was then seeded to meet Gasquet in the quarters after a straightforward success over Gabashvili in the second round.

Ancic reached the final here in 2006 and made his way past another consistent performer here in Robin Soderling in the quarters before turning it up a couple of notches against Baghdatis in a 6-4, 6-2 win and he now owns a 4-1 record against the Cypriot.

Murray's tournament victory in Doha over Wawrinka heralded the perfect start to the post-Gilbert era and he can count himself unfortunate to have run into eventual finalist Tsonga in the first round in Melbourne.

The Tsonga defeat is the only loss in ten for Team Murray so far and he looks a decent bet to lift the trophy, given his respectable 4-4 record in ATP finals, (Ancic is 3-6) and the fact that Ancic always tend to look weary at the closing stages of tournaments these days.

Murray rarely does things the easy way though and he is a notoriously poor starter in morning matches and has been known to limp to defeat against inferior players on occasions when he's got out on the wrong side of the bed.

Therefore the bet looks to be Murray in three at the current odds of 3.75.

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