Tommy Robredo is a smarter player than Nicolas Almagro. He will stay in defense and let his opponent to lead the points. Almagro is the better player and is playing his usual risky game but decisive will be how Nicolas will know to keep his unforced errors to a minimum. Fernando Verdasco was not able to do that in the previous round against Tommy as he was trashed in straight sets. But Almagro is better to adjust his instinctive style against the type of defensive players such as Robredo.
Robredo loves to play at Bastad, winning two titles here and making his first semi-final since Bastad last year. Almagro has the natural talent, the problem is being mentally steady and this hasn’t been tested this week so far. He was actually lucky to benefit of a pretty easy road to the semis. Almagro’s kicker has been exceptional, but against Robredo he will need to be more aggressive. Almagro won the only match these two played against each other. That was 3 years ago on clay at Hamburg after three close sets. Today I am looking forward to another close thriller.
Verdict: Over Games Bet.