Mardy Fish vs. Igor Kunitsyn – Quarterfinal Preview: Farmers Classic 2011
American favourite and top seed at the tournament Mardy Fish will have a showdown against eighth seeded Russian, Igor Kunitsyn in the quarter final match here at the Straus Stadium, Los Angeles. The match eagerly anticipated match
is bound to draw in huge crowds. The victor gets safe passage to the coveted top four of the tournament. The match is scheduled for some time after 4.00 pm in Los Angeles on Friday.
The 29-year-old Fish is currently the highest ranked American at No. 9 on the rankings chart, 3 places ahead of the former No.1 Andy Roddick. American tennis fans and commentators are quick to label Fish as a serious contender
for this year’s coveted US Open title. Fish has had an outstanding year so far and his win loss standing currently stands at an enviable 26-14 and he is hot on the heels of an ATP title win at Atlanta. Fish’s confidence and strength as a player are on an all
time high right now. He calls his own an impressive collection of 6 prestigious ATP tour titles.
Compared to Fish, the 60th ranked Russian Kunitsyn’s record seems a little too bleak. He comes into the tournament with a dismally poor 9-12 win loss mark and he is still desperately on the lookout for his season’s first
ATP title. Hence he lacks the confidence and energy so characteristic of Fish nowadays. Kunitsyn has only 1 career title to boast of and has been struggling to get past either the first or second rounds of the ATP tours he’s played so far. He crashed 7-6(3),
2-6, 5-7 to Marinko Matosevic in Atlanta’s first round, in stark contrast to Fish’s outstanding performance.
Top seed Fish had received a bye to the second of the Farmers Classic earlier in the tournament and overcame Gilles Muller in an effective two set victory in the second round to proceed to the quarterfinals. Kunitsyn meanwhile
moved past Fernando Gonzalez and Ryan Sweeting to set up his second quarter final match of the season.
However, despite the statistics being hugely in favour of the American ace, their head-to-head ranking tells a completely different story. Standing at 2-0 squarely in Kunitsyn’s account, it should serve as damning sign of caution
to overly eager American fans. The two players have met twice before; once in 2007 at Indianapolis and then in 2008 at Poertschach. Fish had retired in 2007 giving an advantage to his opponent but Igor had convincingly trundled through 6-1, 6-1 in 2008.
Fish is expected to win this match in two sets, mainly because of his improved form, physical strength and confidence but also because Fish plays especially well on hard courts like the ones at Los Angeles. Kunitsyn’s earlier win
at Poertschach had been on clay courts.
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