Roger Federer and Richard Gasquet are one win away from the Rome quarterfinals, but they will deal with potentially tough tests on Thursday. Federer is facing Gilles Simon while Gasquet is going up against Jerzy Janowicz.
Gilles Simon vs. (2) Roger Federer
Federer and Simon will be squaring off for the fifth time in their careers when they collide in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday. The head-to-head series is tied up at two wins apiece and they have never faced each other on clay. Simon upset Federer twice during his breakout 2008 campaign; in three sets at the Toronto Masters and again a few months later at the Masters Cup. Federer has never defeated Simon in anything other than five sets (at the 2011 Australian Open) or by retirement (two years ago in Miami with the Swiss leading 3-0 in the first set).
This appears to be another decent opportunity for the underdog, because Federer has not been at his best in 2013 nor does he have a lot of match play under his belt. The world No. 3 made his clay-court debut this season only last week in Madrid, where he lost his second match to Kei Nishikori. Federer, though, looked far better in a 6-1, 6-2 rout of Potito Starace on Tuesday in Rome. Simon is still in search of a true marquee win this year, but he has at least remained consistent. The 17th-ranked Frenchman has improved his record to 22-12 thanks to Rome victories over Filippo Volandri (6-3, 2-6, 6-4) and Mikhail Youzhny (7-5, 6-3). Simon has now won two matches at each of his last three clay-court tournaments following a disappointing first-round defeat in Monte-Carlo.
This will be a much tougher test for the No. 2 seed than the one he was given by Starace, but the question is which Federer will show up. Simon is arguably the last opponent you want to face when your game is even slightly off the mark, simply because he keeps ball after ball in play and instigates a whole host of long rallies–especially on clay. Federer will survive he plays close to as well as he did on Tuesday, but a Simon victory would not come as a big surprise.
Pick: Federer in 3
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Jerzy Janowicz vs. (9) Richard Gasquet
Gasquet and Janowicz will be going head-to-head for the second time in their careers and for the second time this season when they meet on Thursday. Their only previous encounter came two months ago in Indian Wells, where Gasquet cruised 6-1, 6-4.
Janowicz, however, appears to be heating up after a slow start to the year. The 24th-ranked Pole opened in Rome with a straight-set win over Santiago Giraldo before upsetting Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-6(5) on Wednesday. Janowicz, who fared decently last week in Madrid (beat Sam Querrey then lost to Tomas Berdych in three sets), is now 12-9 for his 2013 campaign. This Frenchman–Gasquet–may be even more formidable than Tsonga at the moment. Gasquet is 25-7 for the season and he has firmly entrenched himself inside the Top 10 at No. 9 in the world. Rome’s ninth seed just missed out on a first-round bye, but he did not lose a set in victories over Querrey and Grigor Dimitrov.
A much-improved Janowicz will almost certainly win more than five games this time around, but clay does not help his outlook. While this should be competitive based on the 22-year-old’s form in the two previous rounds, Gasquet can dictate from the baseline on a slower surface with his one-handed backhand. On a fast hard court or grass, Janowicz would have a better chance of serving his way out of trouble and pushing Gasquet behind the baseline in order to free up space for his surprisingly impressive touch around the net. That may not be the case in this one.
Pick: Gasquet in 3
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