Gael Monfils is in action against dogged Portuguese grinder Rui Machado in the opening round of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha.
Expect this one to be a bit of a war of attrition stretching well beyond the early evening sunset. Both players are counter-punchers by nature and like to stay well behind the baseline and grind it out.
After several years battling it out in the clay-court challengers, Machado broke through onto the main tour last year and ended 2011 ranked 68 in the world. It will be interesting to see how he fares whilst competing regularly on the ATP circuit, whether he has the weapons to survive at this level. Speed and consistency can only get you so far.
Monfils will be looking to break back into the top ten this year and to do so he could do with some better performances in the slams. Apart from a quarter-final run at Roland Garros, he didn't make it past round three of any of the other majors.
The Frenchman is seeded fourth this week and could be set for a very interesting quarter-final against Viktor Troicki and then possibly a semi-final with Rafa Nadal. Monfils stunned the Spaniard in straight sets at this event three years ago and given Nadal's dodgy shoulder at present, he might fancy his chances of repeating the feat.
Expect Monfils to have too much power for Machado today. Monfils in two.
