Both players made all their titles on hard and indoor hard, but in my eyes Lu is the more in form player at the moment.
Kevin Kim had his best 2008 tournaments between mid of July and mid of September when he won Aptos, reached the final of Vancouver and won Tulsa. In the end of September he reached quarter final in Lubbock but then had 4 first round losses in a row to have a little comeback here, beating Adrian Cruciat and Rik de Voest in the first two rounds.
Yen-Hsun Lu played great in the first 5 months winning Waikoba, reaching semi final in Kyoto on carpet, reaching the finals in Busan (April tournament), Lanzarote and New Delhi (winning the first tournament and lost final of 2nd one).
He then fell in a little hole but had a great comeback this month winning Tashkent and going to semi final in Seoul.
H2H is 2-0 in the favour of Lu and I think tomorrow it will be 3-0.

Both players love to play on clay which their history shows. 20 year old Santiago Giraldo won 6 tournaments so far - 3 satellites and three challengers - all on clay. His 2008 record reads 35-26 all over and 24-17 on clay.
His 2008 highlights were reaching the final in Furth and semi final in first Cali tournament 5 weeks ago where he lost to todays opponent Marcos Daniel 6-3 6-2.
30 year old Marcos Daniel plays a 34-22 season so far - with a 31-14 record on clay winning already 3 tournaments this year:
- Bogota in March and September and
- first Cali tournament in September
10 of his 11 career titles were on clay and H2H is 7-1 in the favour of Marcos Daniel. Considering form, experience and playing abilities I think Marcos Daniel will go to quarter final here.

19 year old Donald Young had his best 2008 tournaments on quick surfaces reaching quarter final in Memphis, winning Sacramento and reaching semi final in Calabasas (last two tournaments both in this month).
2 years older Ryan Sweeting loves quick surfaces also reaching quarter finals in Dallas, Tallahassee and Calabasas. Both players met last year on indoor hard and Donald won 6-4 6-2 (also on indoor hard). I dont know if task now will be much harder, but considering actual form I think Donald Young will be the one to go to quarter final here.

Dawid Olejniczak plays a respectable 33-22 season so far, but had his best tournaments in March and April when he won a satellite tournament on indoor hard in Great Britain and Casablanca San Angel on hard. Since then he only reached the quarter finals in Furth and Trnava - both on clay.
Philipp Petzschner loves to play on carpet, has a 57-30 record on this surface and this year is an excellent 8-3 reaching the finals in Heilbronn and Belgrade. Besides that he just played a fantastic tournament in Vienna going through 2 qualification rounds, beating Wawrinka, Hernych, Moya and Feliciano Lopez on his way to the final where he gave no chance to Gael Monfils winning the title by 6-4 6-4.
I think everything's on Petzschner's side in this match
- actual form
- experience on carpet
- his first tournament win in 2008 and
- home crowd
Medium stakes on Petzschner to reach 2nd round in Aachen.

30 year old Dominik Hrbaty won 10 titles in his career - 4 on clay, three on hard and three on indoor hard - BUT - last title was in November 2005 and this year's record reads 11-23. He had a long break from August 2007 US Open till March 2008 Indian Wells and his only good result till then was reaching quarter final in Kosice on clay.
22 year old Sergiy Stakhovsky plays a great 44-23 season so far with a lot of highlights like:
- reaching quarter final in Wroclaw on indoor hard
- winning Zagreb on carpet by going through 3 qualifation rounds
- reaching final in Penza on hard
- winning final in Segovia on hard
- reaching semi final in Istanbul on hard
- reaching semi final in Cherkassy on clay
His two titles in Zagreb and Segovia were the first ones in his young career and besides that he won the doubles title in Kremlin Cup in Moscow in the beginning of October on indoor hard. Considering 2008 performance I can't see chances only beeing 50/50 what Bet 365 odds suggest and I take youg gun from Ukraine at low stakes.

Marco Crugnola is a typical clay courter with 7 matches played on carpet so far and a balanced 3-4 record. This year he had almost only matches on clay - with 14 out of 77 played on hard and indoor hard and none on carpet or grass.
Roko Karanusic has a record of 35-24 on carpet and this year is a fantastic 9-3, going to quarter final in Heilbronn and winning the title in Belgrade. Besides that he won 2 weeks ago Kolding on indoor hard so he should find the right weapons against Crugnola to go to second round here.

Paolo Lorenzi is more clay than carpet courter with a 1-3 lifetime record and no match played in 2008 on this surface. His opponent is much more experienced on carpet with a 49-21 record and although he had no match on carpet in 2008 I think this one will be easy going for him - knowing Aachen is one his favourite tournaments which he already won in 2005 and last year. Medium stakes on defending title holder to go to 2nd round.

Marc Gicquel is an experienced indoor hard player with a record of 61-29 and a 2008 record that reads 7-4 on this surface.
His season highlights were:
- reaching third round in Australian Open
- winning Besancon on indoor hard
- reaching quarter finals in Estoril, Bordeaux and Casablanca on clay
- reaching the final in 'sHertogenbosch on grass
- reaching third round in Wimbledon on grass
- reaching semi final in Amersfoort on clay
- quarter final in LA on hard and
- quarter final in Metz on indoor hard
Afterwards he played in Vienna on indoor hard, loosing first round match in 2 sets to Kohlschreiber and Lyon on carpet where he lost first round match in three sets to later semi finalist Tsonga.
Radek Stepanek is also experienced on indoor hard with a 49-21 record and a respectable 14-6 in 2008 on this surface. He had fine results on every surface in 2008 - here some of his highlights:
- semi final Sydney on hard
- final San Jose on indoor hard
- semi final Memphis on indoor hard
- semi final in Rome on clay
- fourth round Roland Garros on clay
- third round Wimbledon on grass
- third round US Open on hard and
- semi final in Metz on indoor hard
So indoor hard was his most successfull surface in 2008 and I think he should reach 2nd round here. Odds are priced fair - so I only take low stakes and advise not to play under 1.5.

I'm sorry I could not put the tip on earlier - in the morning I got an unbelievable 2.2 on Darcis at Expekt. But anyway odds are still worth a shot at low stakes cause this is simply overrating home advantage in my eyes.
Benneteau plays a decent 30-24 season so far but since Frechn Open where he reached fourth round he had 11 losses out of 16 matches and was on a 8 match loosing streak after first round of Nottingham.
Steve Darcis season record looks similar - with 30-26 but his results were more constant over the year:
- winning the title in Memphis on indoor hard in February
- reaching the final in Amersfoort on clay in July and
- reaching quarter final in Mons on indoor hard this month
Here he demonstrated his fighting spirit, great play and good nerves in two hard three set matches against Radek Stepanek and Richard Gasquet whom I rate higher than compatriot Benneteau. So - how I mentioned in the beginning - odds are too high on Darcis and I put low stakes on him to reach semi final here.

I already wrote about Peter Luczak for his 2nd round match against Flavio Saretta, so I only add his result here. First set he lost 4-6 to come back in second for a hard tie break fight which he - luckily for our bet - won. This broke Saretta down who got highest possible punishment in third set - loosing 6-0.
Ruben Ramirez-Hidalgo will be for sure harder nut to crack today. 30 year old player from Spain has a record of 296-192 on clay and this year is a convincing 50-28 balance on this surface. He won 5 titles in his career - all on clay and this year's only title so far was La Serena back in January. Since reaching the finals in San Sebastian and Todi and August and September his results got slightly worse. I would rate chances for Luczak at around 70% to go to semi final - so odds at 2.0 are quite generous and I take them at low stakes.

Alize Cornet for sure is one of the upcoming talents on WTA tour. Just beeing 18 years old she already has won five titles in her career. All those titles were on clay and biggest success so far was winning French Open Juniors last year. This year she won the title in Budapest, reached the finals in Acapulco and Rome and a lot of quarter and semi finals. But hard or indoor hard is not the surface she feels very comfortable on and her biggest success 2008 on quick surface was reaching the semi final in New Haven which she lost in 2 sets to Caroline Wozniacki.
Today's opponent Vera Zvonareva plays great on every surface, has won 8 titles so far, 3 on clay, 2 on hard, 2 on indoor hard and one on grass. This year she won Prague on clay and last month Guangzhou on hard. She kept her good form in October also, reaching quarter final in Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and final in Moscow - both matches loosing to No 1 Jelena Jankovic.
I think Zvonareva is the more complete player with more dangerous weapons on quick surfaces and I expect her to go to semi final here.