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Becker keeping up with brilliant indoor performances

Following Kuala Lumpur semifinals Becker sailed though to Mons quarterfinals easily. He never dropped a serve in the first two matches and great things are expected from him here. Arnaboldi did stun the unstable Mathieu but he is in for an even tougher task today

ATP Roller Open

Becker has had quite a few health problems throughout this season, which definitely affected his form. Other than a few good Grand Slam performances, there is not much he can be happy about. Poor form reflected onto his ranking, getting him on the verge of dropping out of Top 100. But as soon as that happened things started looking up for Becker. 

Becker opened the final part of the season (his favorite) brilliantly and has had two good ATP tournaments. He could have done better than second round in St. Petersburg but he reached Kuala Lumpur semifinals to give Ferrer a tough time. 

Following two ATP tournaments Becker had a long flight back to Europe for another challenger. The long trip back could have potentially been a problem for Becker in the opening matches but everything was good. He dealt with two French qualifiers easily to reach quarterfinals. 

Becker first beat Doumbie and then Tabatruong, who previously recorded his first ever challenger win over Authom. Quality and experience the German has at the moment were simply too much for him. Becker once again won through great serve (76% of first serve points and 88% of first serve points). That is what made the difference in that match since Tabatroung had only 42% of first serves and lost three service games. 

It seems like the German keeps on having favorable draw here. Arnaboldi is definitely his toughest challenge so far but he is still a player who was never in Top 150, even though he is close to it now. Arnaboldi played a few good challengers this season and reached Roland Garros main draw. It seems like he's playing his best tennis at the moment. What's interesting in his case is that his second favorite conditions after clay court are indoor conditions. He proved that with two challenger quarterfinals early in the season but at this tournament as well.

This QF is even more valuable because he came here directly from a clay court tournament and had no time to adapt. That was clearly obviously in the opening match against Geens but the second match was much better.

Arnaboldi stunned 8th seed Mathieu to reach QFs. The well-experienced Frenchman does lack in consistency lately and is dealing with some physical problems but that doesn't make Arnaboldi's win any less great. He simply knew how to take advantage of opponents shortcomings to win. He used all 4 break points, saved 3/6 and deservedly advanced into the next round after one and a half hour.

Arnaboldi is not to face another well-experienced players who doesn't mind these conditions. Becker is finally playing as well as he can. He has not dropped a single service game here in two rounds and has already beat Arnaboldi in these conditions once (two years ago).