Julien Benneteau -- Who the heck is this guy?!

[Chanchai]

Is he just peaking during this Roddick match or does he have a lot more?

I'm just surprised because I've never heard of him and though he's missing some shots here and there, he's just surprising me. I've only been watching a few games so far, so too early to judge... but he's getting my attention so far.

I'm looking at his activity this year... and there isn't all that much great stuff, but... he took out Morrison, Fish, and Ljubicic in Miami, losing to Coria (though he gave Coria a run for his money). Knocked off Mirnyi and Ferrer at Roland Garros. Got in a 5 setter against Ancic in the second round of Wimbledon. Knocked out Philippoussis (yeah, this year--no biggie) in LA and at least hung in there one set against Agassi.

Anybody know much about him?

-Chanchai

 

[Kevin Patrick]

Saw the 3rd set of that Coria match at Key Biscayne. He had a 5-2 3rd set lead before he started to choke (& cramp) He was hitting winners from everwhere, I think he had 4 times as many winners as Coria.
Definitely capable of flashy play(like all Frenchman) & streaky.

 

[Nikeman0092]

Second set was bad. His neck injury definently hurt him a lot.

 

[Chanchai]

Yeah, that second set was unfortunate...

I hope this guy becomes pretty solid. But he does seem like he can get very streaky as KP said.

The guy actually seems fairly dangerous on the run.

-Chanchai

 

[Vlad]

He had a good chance of taking a second set from Roddick before his injury. I think he played better than Roddick until the neck injury.

 

[PJVA]

Benneteau is ranked #77. So he shouldn't have been much of a challange for Roddick, but too bad about his neck injury.

 

[TwistServe]

Anyone in the top 100 can challenge a top 10 player on a good day. It's the consistency of winning match after match they don't have.

 

[Rickson]

Benneteau is a guy with a strained neck.

 

[speedofpain88]

It's a shame he strained his neck. The first set he was really on fire. Where you see the difference is that in the first set Andy saved break points, but on set point Benneteau crumbled under the pressure and gave the 1st set away.

Roddick didn't play particularly well, but the guy was hitting some nice shots.