2010 Bank Austria Tennis Trophy: Thursday Doubles Preview
With all the top seeded teams competing in the day, three quarterfinals and two first round matches are scheduled for Thursday in Vienna. With the exception of one, all the doubles matches will be played in the side court of Wiener
Stadthalle.
The fourth seeded team of Austrian Julian Knowle and Israeli Andy Ram will play their doubles match in the centre court as they take on the Croatian team of Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko. One of the three quarterfinals for the day,
it is an important matchup for both teams. Knowle/Ram moved into the quarterfinals after defeating the wild card entry, Austrians Andreas Haider-Maurer and Niki Moser. With the latter out of the tournament, Austria’s much hope of a title win now rest with
Knowle’s team, since he is one of the two locals still in the running for the doubles title. The Cilic/Zovko duo has had a good start in the event as they eased their way into the quarterfinals after having defeated the team of German Michael Kohlmann and
Spanish Pere Riba by twin set scores of 6-1, 6-1.
The top seeded team of Daniel Nestor (Canada) and Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) will take to the side courts as they battle it out with German Philipp Marx and Mexican Santiago Gonzalez for a spot in the semi-final. A favourite to win
the event title, the team of Nestor and Zimonjic has 21 career titles to date including three Grand Slam titles. They have won five titles this season including the French Open in July. Against these odds, the German Mexican duo will have to bring their best
game in order to stay in the run for the title.
The German team of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Christopher Kas will play their first doubles match of the event tomorrow as they take on the team of Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) and David Marrero (Spain). The second first-round matchup
of the day is between the Colombian team of Alejandro Falla and Santiago Giraldo and the second seeded team of Polish Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach. The winners of the two matches will play each other in the last quarterfinal to be played later in
the tournament. Marach is the only other local besides Knowle still in the running for the title as Maurer/Moser and the Melzer brothers have already been removed from the running. Kubot/Marach have had two title wins this year and being second seeds into
the tournament, they might prove to have an edge over the unseeded team of Maurer/Moser.
The third seeded entry into the tournament, Polish Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowsk will also enter the court as they play the third quarterfinal for the event against the team of German Michael Berrer and Dutch Thiemo de
Bakker. Fyrstenberg / Matkowsk have one title to their name for the season; however, they were runner-ups for three events this season; Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Shanghai. With the two in form and much co-ordinated this season, they might be motivated for
a win over Berrer / de Bakker as they try to stay in the running for another title this year.
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