Rafael Nadal will be back in action one day after surviving a three-hour marathon against Gilles Simon, this time facing Mikhail Youzhny on Thursday in Rome. Tomas Berdych and Grigor Dimitrov are also taking the court.
(1) Rafael Nadal vs. (14) Mikhail Youzhny
Nadal and Youzhny will be facing each other for the 15th time in their careers when they collide in round three of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday. The head-to-head series stands at 10-4 in Nadal’s favor, including 3-0 on clay. Youzhny has never won more than three games in any clay-court set against the current world No. 1. Their most recent encounter came last spring on the slow stuff in Madrid, where Nadal cruised 6-2, 6-3.
Interestingly, one of Youzhny’s four victories (Chennai 2008) came after Nadal survived a three-hour, 55-minute marathon against Carlos Moya. This time around, the Spaniard is coming off a 7-6(1), 6-7(4), 6-2 victory over Gilles Simon that lasted three hours and 18 minutes. Youzhny, on the other hand, beat Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-4 then got a second-set retirement from Andrey Golubev on Wednesday. The 16th-ranked Russian has the game to trouble to Nadal, along the lines of the Nikolay Davydenko of yesteryear and the present-day Kei Nishikoi, with hard, flat groundstrokes and the ability to dictate baseline rallies by taking the ball early. Unfortunately for Youzhny, he appears to be past his prime at 31 and the surface certainly will not help his chances of implementing that kind of gameplan.
Pick: Nadal in 2 losing 8-10 games
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(12) Grigor Dimitrov vs. (6) Tomas Berdych
Dimitrov and Berdych will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers and for the second time in as many weeks. They just met at the Madrid Masters, where Berdych earned his first-ever win in the head-to-head series by prevailing 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, also in a third-round encounter. Dimitrov’s victories came via a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 decision on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam in 2009 and a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 scoreline two years ago in Miami.
They have taken much different paths to get to this latest showdown in Rome. Dimitrov overcame Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in his opener then held off Ivo Karlovic 7-6(3), 6-4 on Wednesday. Berdych got a first-round bye as the No. 6 seed before rolling over Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-3. The Czech is 27-7 for the season, while Dimitrov is a similarly stellar 24-7. The slightly slower conditions in Rome than Madrid will favor the 12th-seeded Bulgarian, who may also have a slight edge in current form despite last week’s result.
Pick: Dimitrov in 3
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