Goodall will turn up here on his own of course after James pulled out.
He turns out seeded 5th at the event but is in the same quarter as the 2nd seed Zeballos (an argentine clay courter). In the first round Goody faces Rogerio Dutra Da Silva (pauses for breath), a brazilian ranked 231. The brazilian has played a vast majority of his tennis on the clay this year and i would say Josh starts as a big favourite.

This is Josh's first event on hard courts after the grasscourt season, so he will be keen to adapt to a surface that will now take him through the rest of the year. I hope he can get a quarter final here at least and like i have mentioned before, look for around 60-80 points from the 3 weeks spent in Brazil to really warm up to the hard courts just before US Open qualies. 

Im not to sure of the speed of the courts in Brazil, although i presume it will be quite hot, so will encourage the ball to fly through the air a bit quicker helping Josh with his aggressive play especially on the big first serve. I would hope for him to try and keep points short and pick up where he left off from Wimbledon, serve-volleying when neccesary, just to keep all the pressure on his opponent. At times, Goody has shown in the grass court season just how good he is at the net, really attacking it as often as possible which has worked, but then not doing it as much or as effectively on the hard courts leading to the end of the year, which it would still work on as these can still be very fast, like the US Open courts, where he can do well.

Jonny Marray played here last year and played a lot of tiebreaks so maybe the courts are pretty quick here.
 

-- Edited by spud on Sunday 26th of July 2009 12:28:41 PM