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Italian Open Tennis 2013: Dark-Horse Contenders to Watch for in 3rd Round
Published: May 16, 2013
Players like Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are in Rome this week for the Italian Open, making one last effort to fine tune their games and prepare themselves for the season's second Grand Slam in Roland Garros, which many consider to be the most grueling of the four majors.
While it's no secret that those three superstars are heavy favorites to raise the crown in Rome on Sunday, there are a handful of dark-horse contenders tennis fans should be on the lookout for heading into Thursday's third-round action.
Let's take a look.
Kevin Anderson
Kevin Anderson, a big, 6'8" South African took out Jurgen Melzer easily in the first round and then knocked off the 11th-seeded Marin Cilic in the second round thanks to a spectacular performance in the second set tiebreaker.
Anderson won an incredible 75 percent of his first-serve points against Cilic, recording 13 aces and saving all six of Cilic's break-point chances in the straight-set victory.
The 26-year-old will face off against sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych in the third round on Thursday, who he lost a hard-fought third-round match to in Madrid last week.
But despite Berdych's high ranking, he's certainly beatable on clay. Before making a deep run to the semifinals in Madrid last week, Berdych bowed out in the third round of the Barcelona Open and Monte Carlo in April.
If Anderson, who finished as runner-up on the clay at the Grand Prix Hassan II in Morocco last month, can continue to put powerful first serves into the box, there's no reason to believe he can't upend Berdych and potentially set up a quarterfinal clash with top-seeded Novak Djokovic on Friday.
Jeremy Chardy
Frenchman Jeremy Chardy lucked out as Andy Murray was ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis
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