Kohlschreiber and Almagro go battle for a spot in the Bank of Austria semis

Vienna, Austria – No.4 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber and No.5 seed Nicolas Almagro are set to collide in the Bank of Austria quarters, a spot in the semi-final on the line and a chance to continue their bid for the title.

Kohlschreiber and Almagro collided recently at the Shanghai Masters with Almagro edging past Kohlschreiber in a thrilling third set tiebreaker 6-7(2), 6-1, 7-6(6). Because they met so recently, their clash in Vienna is perhaps the most compelling of all the quarterfinal matchups.

Both players having been moving positively in the ranks recently after each suffered their own garden variety of a mid-season funk. Kohlschreiber is 39-22 on the season ahead of their quarterfinal clash while Almagro is 29-21 on the season with one title.

Kohlschreiber is considered the better hard court player while Almagro is a clay-court specialist. His best results have almost exclusively come on the red dirt. Yet, Almagro beat Kohlschreiber on an indoor hard court in Shanghai two weeks ago to move ahead in their head-to-head series 2-1. This came after Kohlschreiber beat Almagro on his favourite surface, clay, earlier this year in Madrid 6-3, 6-4.

Tennis Betting Line: Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Nicolas Almagro

Match Time: 04:00 am Eastern Time Friday October 30, 2009

Tennis Betting Verdict: Very little separates these two players on paper. They are ranked close with Kohlschreiber weighing in at No.24 and Almagro at No.28. Both have had a positive season in many respects and each has beaten the other on his favourite surface. All this serves to make handicapping this match a bit of a conundrum because it is such a tossup and really comes down to which player will be better on the day in question. How can you predict that beforehand?

If there were a tipping point, the recent victory that went in favour of Almagro would be that. He will have the confidence of that win to draw up and the knowledge that he can do it again. Conversely, one could argue redemption is a motivator as well. Kohlschreiber entered that match the marginal favourite and should have won. But he didn’t. Did he?

He will have his second shot at Almagro and undoubtedly, he will want to settle the score. Yet, as good as Kohlschreiber is on hard courts Almagro has more weapons in his game that could hurt Kohlschreiber even on his, Almagro, least favoured surface.

Tennis Free Picks: Almagro in three sets