I'm currently watching Luzzi-Korolev. Luzzi is one of the bad boys of the tour - he got in a fist fight at the net when shaking hands after a match with Daniel Koellerer and Luzzi knocked the Austrian out with a right uppercut. Both players were subsequently banned for several months. Luzzi has a penchant for wearing orange shades and sleeveless tops, he's a clay-court specialist.

Luzzi has taken first set 7-5. He's an out and out counter-puncher, stays way behind the baseline, defending with slices and angles. He's content most of the times to stay passive and let Korolev attack him and he scrambles around the court getting everything back until Korolev makes an error. Luzzi is amazingly fast, some of his retrieving has been incredible, Korolev is throwing the kitchen sink at him.

Neither Luzzi or Korolev have particularly big serves, they're just very well placed. Korolev's has more pace and is more consistent. During the latter half of the 1st set, Luzzi has returned it a lot better.

Luzzi has a single-handed backhand. It's his best offensive weapon, there have been a couple of occasions when he's let rip with it and hit a flowing winner down the line but hasn't done that often. Most of the time he's content to stay conservative with it and play a safe topspin shot down the centre, letting Korolev attack him.

Korolev's big weapon is a booming forehand, he hits that with blistering pace. He loves to run round his backhand and blast inside-out forehands cross-court and down the line. Luzzi has been retrieving some incredible Korolev forehands and floating with back with lots of sidespin till Korolev gets frustrated and puts one long or into the net. Korolev has to hit a special shot to get one past Luzzi. The Korolev backhand is a powerful shot but doesn't do the same damage as his forehand, it's more like a battering ram to open the court up for the piledriver forehand. Luzzi has recognised that Korolev struggles to hit the clean winners of the backhand and so he's been targeting that side, particularly with slice.

johnnylad wrote:

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That Luzzi is mad! Screaming and walking round the court after points!

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LOL. Very true, that's why I'm supporting Korolev.

The Russian looks set to level things at 1 set all, he's got a double break in set 2. He's been serving a lot better in this set and he's really been hurting Luzzi with his returns. Luzzi played a bad game at 1-0 to gift the break, he was 40-15 up, Korolev hit a superb down the line return winner and then Luzzi played a bizarre drop shot which didn't reach the net and gifted the break with a double fault and another winner. In the last Luzzi service game when K went 4-0 up, he was just too good, two superb returns and then Luzzi began to fold under the pressure of the Korolev hitting

I'm surprised that Korolev hasn't used the drop shot more in this match. Luzzi stands so far back. K has played it twice so far I think - 1 winner and 1 netted dropshot. If he played a few more it would make L stand closer to the baseline and so make it more difficult for him to defend against K's big shots.

I think L needs to try to draw K into the net more, Korolev has missed some really easy volleys so far. It looks like L's plan in this 3rd set is to get to the net more himself which is a good strategy he's won a lot of points that way

L has really upped the pressure, rushing at the net and not giving Korolev and rhythm.

Broken him twice now in the third. Looks to be heading for a win!

Luzzi takes a 4-0 lead. Really opened up in that game and just started playing a lot more aggressive. If he can close it out, this'll be a massive upset



-- Edited by ultimateshedman at 13:08, 2006-11-09