Fascinating first round draw for Andy with Gael Monfils as his opponent. Monfils has enjoyed a super run in Rome having struggled for much of the season. On the faster clay courts in Rome he has beaten Haas 62 36 64, Ginepri 61 46 64, Santoro 76 62 and Roddick 62 63.

Monfils started the season in fine form reaching the final in Doha, defeating Zib, Moodie, Tursunov and Volandri before losing to Federer. Then followed a disappointing run with just one victory in his next seven matches. Prior to his success in Rome, he lost in the first round at Monte-Carlo to Olivier Rochus, beat Galvani before losing emphatically to Almagro in Barcelona, then lost a close match to Portas in the second round in Estoril.

In the two previous meetings, both played in the juniors, Andy won comfortably on the clay at Roland Garros, while Gael won in straight sets on the grass at Roehampton. Gael is a year older and chose to spend much of his 18th year focusing on success in the juniors which he achieved with 3 grand slam titles.

Much may depend on the battle of the first serves. Monfils has a powerful serve but his percentage varies from 45% up to mid 60s. Should he perform towards the upper limit Andy may find it difficult to break enough times to make the match competitive.

Traditionally Hamburg plays painfully slowly, and when overcast it can be very difficult to hit winners. In these conditions expect to see a lot of long rallies. Murray's change of pace, and use of the slice backhand for variety, is probably his best hope of success in this particular match.

Watched most of Monfils' match against Nadal and was not impressed at all. Monfils can be astonishingly passive for long periods, content to hit the ball in the middle of the court and let his opponent make things happen. His return of serve is little more than getting the ball back in play and he'll sit 9ft behind the baseline during long rallies. He is capable of huge groundstrokes and did produce a couple of fierce winners but in the rare moments of attacking mode he made a number of wild errors.

I expect that Andy will be the one to dictate the majority of the points while Monfils races around his baseline retrieving shot after shot. Murray will need to put together two or three aggressive shots in order to win each point. Ideally Andy will want to go backhand to backhand as he's likely to have the edge in that particular battle. 

-- Edited by kundalini at 14:03, 2006-05-13

-- Edited by kundalini at 14:44, 2006-05-13

-- Edited by kundalini at 18:23, 2006-05-13

(Poll added by Drew)