Muzzinator's back in action after his semi-decent performance on the clay in Madrid, unfortunately he ran into a red-hot Bellucci who has made his way to the semis. The draw for Rome is out and Andy has a fairly good draw compared to the others. For a neutral this is a fantastic draw, so many good matches so early.
[1]Nadal v Bye Qualifier v Bellucci Lopez v Llodra Kohlschreiber v [14]Youzhny [11]Fish v Giraldo Ljubicic v Cipolla Cilic v Karlovic [6]Ferrer v Bye
[3]Federer v Bye Baghdatis v Tsonga Qualifier v Qualifier Montanes v [16]Gasquet [10]Monfils v Qualifier Qualifier v Stakhovsky Monaco v Seppi [6]Berdych v Bye
[8]Melzer v Bye Mayer v Golubev Chela v Isner Simon v [12]Roddick [15]Troicki v Davydenko Starace v Dolgopolov Malisse v Garcia-Lopez [4]MURRAY v Bye
[5]Soderling v Bye Verdasco v Raonic Anderson v Querrey Bolelli v [9]Almagro [14]Wawrinka v Fognini Volandri v De Bakker Qualifier v Qualifier [2]Djokovic v Bye
Also must be noted, this tournament is one of Murray's worst:
Record 2010: R16, Defeated Seppi 6-2, 6-4, Lost to Ferrer 3-6, 4-6 2009: R32 Lost to Monaco 6-1, 3-6, 5-7 2008: R32 Defeated Del Potro 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 RET, Lost to Wawrinka 2-6, 6-7 2007: R64 Lost to Simon 1-6, 6-1, 3-6 2006: R64 Lost to Volandri 4-6, 4-6
R32: (4) Andy Murray WR 4 v Xavier Malisse (BEL) WR 41
Malisse beat Garcia-Lopez by 5 and 2 to reach the 2nd round. The Belgian has had a pretty decent year so far, highlighted by a Final in Chennai (l to Wawrinka) and making the R32 of the Aussie Open (l to Federer). He got to the R16 last week in Madrid (beating Hanescu and Lu before losing to Federer).
H2H is 2-0 on the ATP tour with Murray winning 4, 2 and 2 in the R64 of Wimbledon 2008 and beating Malisse 5 and 2 in the R32 of Toronto last year.
Good match up for Murray, Malisse isn't overly great on clay and his wins last week were against poor players.
If Murray wins that he's got Troicki (H2H 3-0) or Starace (H2H 1-0) who is up a set and a break against Dolgo, can't really ask for a better route to the quarters of a Masters series than that, hope Andy utilises that!