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French Open: Bedene vs Melzer R1 Preview

Niall Clarke
Tennis

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By Niall Clarke

  • Aljaz Bedene vs Gerald Melzer preview
  • Head to head: 1-0
  • Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic also in action

PARIS, FRANCE- Aljaz Bedene will kick off his French Open campaign against Austria’s Gerald Melzer on day three at Roland Garros.

The Brit is scheduled to meet the qualifier at 11am local time on Court 14, providing of course the rain stays away.

Bedene heads into Roland Garros in poor form having only won four of his last ten matches. However he will take confidence from a fairly kind draw here against a player that he has beaten before on the clay.

The world number 66 defeated Melzer in straight sets 7-6 (11), 6-2 in the Todi challenger last year. Bedene went on to eventually become the winner of that tournament.

Melzer however comes into the match with plenty of clay court matches behind him and came through qualifying so is well adjusted to the conditions in Paris.

Bedene has struggled both physically and mentally this year, winning only six tour level matches in 2016.

“Confidence is the issue now and it has a lot to do with this thing. I think I will be confident in a few weeks because I am playing well.” Bedene said via Sky Sports.

The winner of this one goes on to face either Pablo Carreno-Busta or Federico Delbonis in the second round, both of whom are well adapt on clay.

Also in action is world number one, Novak Djokovic, who will kick off his quest for his first French Open title against Chinese Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu. The Serb is due second on court Philippe Chatrier.

Rafael Nadal’s search for ‘La Decima’ starts against big serving Australian Sam Groth. He is due second on court Suzanne Lenglen  and will likely play alongside the world number one.

The home crowd will be invested in their number one player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who plays Jan-Lennard Struff following Djokovic’s opening round match. David Ferrer and Tomas Berdych are also in action out of the top eight seeds.

Bedene is due on court 14 at 11AM local time (10AM BST) on Tuesday May 24th.