Richard Bloomfield plays 8th seed Sergiy Stakhovsky in rd1

Stakhovsky is currently ranked 175, after reaching the 2004 US Open junior final, he raced up the rankings on the mens tour and looked certain to crack the top 100 soon. However, like many players he's got stuck at challenger level and hasn't been in the top 150. He has a lot of flair and a good all-court game, his forehand and serve are big weapons. However, his backhand is a weakness, it breaks down too often in the rallies and he needs to improve his volleying if he's going to go higher. Stakhovsky has had some good results so far this year, making the quarters of challengers in Cherbourg and Waikoloa and qualifying for ATPs in Delray Beach and San Jose.

Richard has never played him before but a good omen is that Stakhovsky has lost to Josh Goodall and Jamie Baker recently. Josh beat him 6-2, 6-2 in Shrewsbury in November and Jamie beat him 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 on the way to the Waikoloa challenger final in January    

There's a thread in the General discussion section for Greg's matches