The Beeb's initial, brief, assessment of the R2 encounter:

Murray win sets up Djokovic clash

Britain's Andy Murray secured a 6-4 6-1 victory over Filippo Volandri to set up a third-round clash with Filippo Volandri at the Monte Carlo Masters. The Scot struggled for consistency on the Monaco clay, mixing blistering winners with sloppy errors, before taking the first set. Murray continued to make mistakes but Volandri's game fell apart and the Briton had too much power. The 20-year-old eased through, but will have to do better against Djokovic.

* He's chasing a 0-3 head-to-head, though he was arguably not at his best on any of those three occasions...!

Count Zero wrote:

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did you copy paste SC?

he beat FV to set up a 3rd rd with FV!

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Sorry, Count, but I think you've got your knickers in a bit of a twist there:  Andy beat Feliciano López in the first round yesterday to set up a second-round meeting with Volandri today.  His victory over Volandri thus gave him a passport into the third round.  Only the top eight seeds, of which NoDjo is one (3), had a bye in the first round.  NoDjo beat Lubo by 3 & 3 in the second round earlier today to go through to the third round, where he plays Andy.  Clear?

Good to hear from u Indiana.......what u been upto ?

Best of luck to Murray in this but I'm expecting Djokovic to win in straights, seeing as he has dominated him on hard courts when they've met in the past, and Djokovic has proven in the past to be a lot better on the clay.

Djokovic in 2 is my prediction, but would love to be proven wrong

I'm fully confident Andy has the ability to beat Djokovic, and I think he'll be out for blood after the two defeats last year when Andy was less than fully fit. I don't want to say who will win but I think it'll be a close, and high quality display. 3 sets I think, whoever the victor.

Madeline wrote:

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That being said, I would expect Djoko to win, as he has matured more quickly and there is less to go wrong in his game style. However he hasn't really done all that brilliantly on clay as compared to hard courts, so I have my fingers firmly crossed on this one.

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Bear in mind that Djoko did announce himself on clay - remember he won amersfoot and then was favourite to win UMA but he had that breathing problem - after playing about 10 matches in two weeks - something he wasnt very accustomed to. He's also been a semifinalist and Quarterfinalist at Roland Garros and also won Estoril last year. He's taken sets off Federer when the Swiss has been playing well on clay and off Coria when he was still a force on clay.

Looking at that i'd think Novak's claycourt credentials are every bit as good as Andy's hard court credentials.

I think Djokovic will win in three sets. Novak's wasn't the best against Ljubicic but did the business, and I think he'll do the same against Andy, unfortunately.


-- Edited by mkkreuk at 11:28, 2008-04-23

Means  nothing to me but the latest odds are: Djokovic 4/11    Murray 2/1.