Xavier Malisse will face Florent Serra on Wednesday in the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships

Xavier Malisse is set for a difficult first round showdown on Wednesday, as he faces Florent Serra in the ATP Memphis Open. He’s made a decent start to the season, and appears to have a decent chance of reaching round two here. The Belgian made it to the final in Chennai, and appeared to be in good shape in the Australian Open before having the misfortune of being drawn against Roger Federer. Following a first round defeat in San Jose last week against eventual winner Milos

Raonic, Malisse will be eager to get back to winning ways.
Serra is currently the world No. 75, but is yet to win a match this season in the main draw of an ATP World Tour event. He might struggle here against Malisse, unless he can improve on his recent performances. The Frenchman is capable of testing Malisse though, and shouldn’t be written off.

Serra and Malisse have a 1-1 head to head record in ATP World Tour events, with both matches taking place on hard courts. Serra defeated Malisse in Adelaide in straight sets in 2006, whilst Malisse recorded a victory over Serra in three sets at Indian Wells in 2008. The pairing also met on clay in the Bordeaux Challenger event last season. Serra won that match in straight sets. With these results in mind, it seems like Wednesday’s match should be a close one.