2010 Bank Austria Tennis Trophy: Preview of
Friday's two opening quarterfinals
Six of the top eight seeds will be in action during today’s quarter final matches at the 2010 Bank Austria Tennis Trophy Men’s singles competition in Vienna. The field will be lead by last year’s winner, Jurgen
Melzer of Austria followed by Marin Cilic, Nicolas Almagro and Marcos Baghdatis.
The other seeds in today’s schedule of play include the seventh seed, Philipp Kohlschreiber from Germany and the eight seed, Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.
In the opening match of the day, Nicolas Almagro from Spain will take on Juan Ignacio Chela on the fifth occasion in his career but first time on clay. Both of them are currently tied in their head to head encounters at 2-2.
The 25 year old Almagro is appearing in his eighth ATP World Tour quarter-final or better in 2010. The professional tennis player from Spain, who made his debut on the ATP World tour back in 2003, won a title in Bastad earlier
this season after getting the better of Robin Soderling from Sweden. Two weeks later, the Murcia resident captured his second trophy of the season in Gstaad, beating Richard Gasquet in the final. Almagro also reached the semi final round at ATP World Tour
Masters 1000 Madrid back in May.
The Spaniard comes in with a life time mark of 43-23 on the season and enjoys a career record of 3-4 in Vienna. He couldn’t go beyond the quarter final round here back in 2009.
World number 41 Chela, on the other hand, enters with a win loss mark of 27-21 on the year. The 31 year old from Argentina is playing in his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final or better in 2010. He captured his fifth and sixth
career trophies in Houston and Bucharest earlier this year. The professional tennis player from Argentina, who made his debut on the ATP World tour back in 1998, stands at 5-4 in Vienna. He is playing in the quarter final round here on the second occasion
in his career.
The Austrian tennis ace, Andreas Haider-Maurer and Marin Cilic of Croatia will play in the second match of the day at Vienna.
Haider-Maurer, who is ranked number 157 in the world, is playing in the competition as a lucky loser. He is appearing in his first ever final eight round of his career on the tour. The 23 year old Austrian made his way into the
quarter final round after getting the better of Andreas Seppi, a top Italian player, in three sets on Thursday. The final match score was 6-3, 6-7, (7) 7-6(2).
The 22 year old Cilic comes in with a win loss mark of 38-19 on the year. He stands at 5-2 in the quarter final matches in 2010. The professional tennis player from Croatia is making his third appearance in Vienna and enjoys a
career mark of 5-2. Cilic last year successfully made his way into the title battle as a wild card entrant before losing to Jurgen Melzer.
He reached his first Grand Slam semi final earlier this season at the Australian Open and afterwards jumped into the top ten on February, 1st. Cilic, who is currently ranked number fourteen in the world, achieved his
career high ranking of world number nine during the start of this season.
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