ATP Tour: Grand Prix Hassan II Preview | Selected Round of 32 Matches

Malek Jaziri (18/10) vs Robin Haase (4/10)
The 35-year-old Tunisian Malek Jaziri is the living embodiment of the journeyman pro. He actually enjoyed a solid 2018 by journeyman standards, reaching his first full ATP Tour final on the clay of Istanbul. He also performed on the bigger 500 Series, reaching the semi-finals in an excellent Dubai run. He will clearly enjoy the adoration of the fans in Casablanca. He is embraced as an icon in this region and has shown glimpses of genius in the past here. He stunned number one seed Grigor Dimitrov last season only to lose at the quarter-final stage. Jaziri will be looking to go a few steps further this season, though the recent signs haven’t been too encouraging. A quarter-final at the Maharashtra Open is the best he has to show this season. But Jaziri is a born shot-maker whose mercurial qualities make him hard to predict. 

The 32-year-old Dutchman Robin Haase has probably had more consistent success than his counterpart during his career. He has two ATP titles to his name, winning the Austrian Open back-to-back on clay. That clay court proficiency also extends to a Swiss Open final defeat. Perhaps his most impressive result came in 2017 when he managed to make it to the Canadian Masters semi-final. He has a powerful serve that can often clock in at over 200 KPH. His season has proved marginally more productive than Jaziri, with a 3rd round run at a stacked Miami Open. He also reached the quarter-finals of the Canadian Masters towards the end of last season. It will be interesting to see how he copes with a highly partisan, pro-Jaziri crowd. 

This will be their fourth ever meeting, with Haase holding the head-to-head advantage at 2-1.  In actual fact they met twice last season, with Haase winning their last encounter. But this should prove a different kettle of fish as he takes on the wildly enigmatic Jaziri in this arena. I think that Jaziri represents great value at 18/10.  

Jiri Vesely (15/10) vs Fabio Fognini (5/10)
Though Fabio Fognini is entering this event as the 2nd seed, he has hardly any form to speak of and is clearly relying on his excellent 2018 to keep him afloat at present. Since losing to Pablo Carreno Busta in the 3rd round in Melbourne he has gone on to lose five matches in a row. Fognini had an excellent 2018, unsurprisingly excelling on the clay. He won the Brazil Open during the South American clay-court swing, and his year only went from strength to strength. The clay-court specialist has actually been in a total of 13 singles finals on the surface, winning 7 of those matches: he also reached the 2011 French Open quarter-final. So his credentials certainly do point to potential this week, even if the form suggests that he is far from his best at present. 

The 25-year-old Czech Jiri Vesely emerged after an extremely encouraging junior record. He won the 2011 Boy’s title at the Aussie Open and has perhaps not kicked on quite as much as he would have liked. He did reach the 4th round of last year’s Wimbledon Championships – more on that later. This year has largely seen him play his trade on the Challenger tour. He has achieved some success with a semi-final in the Canberra Challenger event. He has one ATP final to his name, losing in the 2015 edition of the Romanian Open. He showed some minor signs of clay-court precision last year, reaching the quarter-finals in Istanbul. 

Fabio Fognini unsurprisingly leads the head-to-head 3-1.  They have met twice on clay, with Fognini claiming both of those victories. Having said that, their 2015 Rio Open clash turned into a titanic three-set affair that should give Vesely some encouragement. While Fognini clearly enters this match as the favourite, his horrendous run of recent form makes Vesely attractive at 15/10.