2010 Bank Austria Tennis Trophy; James Blake versus Lukasz Kubot - Match Preview
The former world number four and a wild card entrant from the United States of America, James Blake will play his opening match of the 2010 Bank Austria Tennis Trophy against Lukasz Kubot for the first time on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Blake who turned professional back in 1999 is currently ranked number 125 in the world by the Association of tennis professionals. The right hander American achieved his career high ranking of world number four back in 2006. The Florida resident
is playing in Vienna on the very first occasion since 2003.
The American who is known as an aggressive offensive baseliner enters with a match record of 15-16 on the year, including 15-14 on hard courts. He is coming off his quarter final appearance at the If Stockholm Open in Sweden last week where his tournament’s
campaign was ended by Jarkko Nieminen. Blake also made his way into the quarters on three other occasions, in Los Angeles, Delray Beach as well as Brisbane earlier this season.
Blake, who has so far won a total of ten titles in his career, made a return on the ATP Tour back in June after being sidelined for two months as a result of his knee injury. In spite of the fact that he was bundled out in the opening round in Atlanta, the
professional tennis player from the United States of America made his way into the semi-final rounds in the doubles event along with his partner John Isner.
The 28-year-old Kubot, on the other hand, will attempt to break a seven-match opening round losing streak since his last victory at the grass court Grand Slam tournament in London back in June.
The professional tennis ace from Poland is playing in Vienna on the third occasion in his career and stands at a lifetime mark of 1-2. Kubot who is currently ranked number sixty four in the world by the Association of tennis professionals achieved his career
high ranking of world number forty one back in April this season. The Lubin resident injured his left ankle after Wimbledon and made a comeback on the ATP tour after one and a half months later at the Cincinnati Masters Men’s singles competition.
The right hander who turned professional back in 2002 enters with a match record of 14-24 on the year. He made his way into his second ATP World Tour title battle of his career back in February at the Costa do Sauipe in Brazil, where the Polish player was
given a beating by David Ferrero in straight sets.
The 1.90 meters tall Kubot started his 2010 campaign by taking part in Doha, where he did well to advance into the final eight battle before losing to Viktor Troicki. He next played at the Australian Open in Melbourne and posted his career best Grand Slam
showing by reaching the fourth round where he was thrashed out by Novak Djokovic of Serbia. Kubot, despite of losing, registered his name as the first Polish player to advance into the fourth round of a major event since Wojtek Fibak at the French Open back
in 1982.
In some other action on the Court B, Thiemo de Bakker will take on Pablo Cuevas for the first time. Xavier Malisse of Belgium will meet Santiago Giraldo, a professional tennis player from Colombia with Malisse leading the pair’s head-to-head encounter at
1-0.
Marsel and Grega Zemlja will also face each other on the first occasion in their career on Tuesday. In another first ever meeting, Juan Ignacio Chela will play Andrej Martin on the court B.
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