Match to be played on Court 1 no earlier than 15.00 GMT tomorrow. Head-to-head: 4-0, the most recent encounter, of course, being in the semi-final in St Petersburg last week. No reason to doubt a change in a winning formula...
Not sure how it works with watching matches on Court 1 (all tickets seem to be for central, and I know Court 2 is in a gym somewhere) but I have tickets for today and am hopeful I'll be able to see Andy in action.
I take Andy to win in a similarish scoreline to Drew. OK, I'll go 6-4 6-2
I wonder if Verdasco saw some of Andy's comments after last week's semi-final when he almost seemed more dismissive ( possibly really just honest ) about a match then I've heard him before. He basically said that he just felt he was much stronger and never in danger.
Is that statement pinned to Verdasco's locker door ? Doubt it'll make any difference if it is !
By the way, nice of the French to put Andy's match as one of the two out on Court 1. But hey, he's just currently probably playing the best tennis in the world, seeking an unprecedented 3rd consecutive Masters Series title, and is err British
Well that was a bit tougher than expected. Though I suppose, Andy is now at the stage where he is trying to play the early matches well within himself to save energy for the later stages, while his opponents go into it with an "all or nothing" attitude as beating him would be a big scalp for them.
I find it a little bit strange following him when he plays at the moment, I find it unusual having such a high level of confidence in a Brit winning a match. He seems to have cut out the set wobbles (or at least shortened them) that seemed to effect him at the end of last season and the start of this one.
They all seem to be pretty straight forward wins as well, Andy always seems to have another gear which he can just go into (like in the tie break today).