Ljubicic defeated Arnaud Clement 6:1 7:5 7:6 in the first round, advancing to the
Roland Garros second round for the fourth time.
Last year Ljubicic reaches his first Grand Slam semifinal here in France where he
lost to the eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
Ljubicic failed to win back-to-back matches in the four clay court tournaments
he contested this season. He advanced to the third round, after a first round bye,
at both AMS Monte Carlo (loss to Richard Gasquet 6:3 6:7 7:5) and AMS Hamburg
(loss David Ferrer 6:3 6:3), and to the second round at Portschach last week
loss to Luis Horna 7:6 6:4).
Before moving to clay, Ljubicic was having a good 2007 season. Ljubicic won
his seventh career title in the first week of the season on hard court at Doha,
defeating Andy Murray in the final. He also reached finals on hard court at
Rotterdam (loss to Mikhail Youzhny) and on carpet at Zagreb
(loss to Marcos Baghdatis), as well as reaching the semifinals at AMS Miami,
on hard court, losing to Guillermo Canas.
Wawrinka came back from two-sets-to-love down to defeat
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 0:6 5:7 6:2 7:5 6:4 in the first round.
It was his first win at Roland Garros for two years.
This is Wawrinka’s third appearance at Roland Garros. He made his
Grand Slam debut here as a qualifier in 2005 and reached the third
round with wins over Nicolas Massu and James Blake, before losing to
Mariano Puerta. Wawrinka lost in the first round here last year to eventual
semifinalist David Nalbandian.
2007 Roland Garros is just the seventh tournament of the year for Wawrinka.
He tore a tendon in his right knee during practice for Switzerland’s Davis Cup
match against Spain in February, and had to have surgery the following day,
subsequently missing almost three months of the season.
Until his victory in the first round here, Wawrinka had won just two matches
all season, both at the Australian Open, where he defeated Kevin Kim and
Paul Capdeville. He had previously lost in the first round at Doha and Auckland,
and since making his comeback from his knee injury at AMS Rome, has had
three further first round losses: at AMS Rome, AMS Hamburg, and Portschach.
Based on the above mentioned, I would give Ljubicic a slight advantage to
pass to the third round.
