Novak Djokovic vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafael Nadal vs. Tomas Berdych Preview

We've come to that stage of the clay-court season when the really good players start to find their feet and winning mettle against good ones. Defending Rome Masters champion Novak Djokovic will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and defending finalist Rafael Nadal will go up against Tomas Berdych in the 2012 Rome Masters. 

The No. 2 seed in Rome will take comfort in the fact that he has beaten Berdych fairly comfortably on fast-playing hard courts, where aggression pays out exponentially more than on such slow clay as that of Rome.

Their last two matches on the surface became very routine wins for Nadal, and one suspects he is likely to find the power and depth of Berdych's game the perfect combo for his fortress-like defense.

Berdych should be wary that he doesn't find his offensive game paying dividends for Nadal rather than himself.

The Czech, were it not for a few points here and there, might have been the champion at the swifter-playing Madrid.

To best Nadal at Rome, he will have to implement a spectacularly stubborn plan of aggression the likes of which men like him—the Isners and Soderlings of this world—were born to play. Booming serves, high percentage of first serves, crushing forehands—therein lie his chances.

Nadal has a comfortable 11-3 head-to-head record against Berdych; Djokovic, however, brings in a record of 4-5 when he takes on Tsonga.

The Frenchman at one point had a string of four wins against the Serb, courtesy of the difficulty that Djokovic has sometimes faced against the sort of play Tsonga brings to court.

Tsonga boasts a world-class forehand and first serve. Djokovic will need to weather the storm and move around the Frenchman in the hopes that his occasionally poor shot selection hurts his chances. 

Shot selection will be the key in the Djokovic-Tsonga match. Djokovic has won the last two matches, although Tsonga has just the game to exploit Djokovic's recent drop off in play.

Rafael Nadal might get through just on sheer brute force and will, although he's bound to want to preserve some of his precious reserves for a potentially challenging semifinal against David Ferrer, the potential final and Roland Garros in two weeks.  

He wouldn't be blamed for thinking so far ahead.