2010 Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel: Thursday Singles Review
World number eight, American Andy Roddick continues his ascent in the race-to-London as he came one-step closer to winning the title here at Basel. Winning a title in Basel will ensure Roddick’s qualification in the Barclays ATP
World Tour Finals in London. He moved into the round of sixteen having defeated compatriot, Sam Querrey earlier in the tournament. Roddick was pitted against Kazakh Andrey Golubev in the second round. World number thirty-six Kazakh was no match for the rising
American marvel.
The pair played a two set match that lasted one hour and fifteen minutes. Roddick earned a victory partly due to his superior talent skills and partly due to Golubev’s mess-ups on the court. Having served ten aces and losing only
fifteen points on service in the entire match, Roddick managed a straight set win over the Kazakh. Golubev’s three double faults only added to Roddick’s advantages. The latter moves into the quarterfinals with a match score of 6-3, 6-4.
Wild card entry Radek Stepanek gave a surprising performance in his second round match. Stepanek battled it out with Colombian Santiago Giraldo for a spot in the quarterfinals. Although he lost the first set 3-6 to the Colombian,
he bounced back in the second set and maintained his form all the way into the third set. In the last two sets, Stepanek served six aces and lost only nineteen points to make up for the loss in the first set. He won the last 2 sets, 6-2, and 6-0; however,
Stepanek’s good luck run may have ended with today’s match, since he moves on to face Swiss maestro, Roger Federer in the quarterfinal.
2002 champion and four time finalist, Argentinean David Nalbandian returned to full form when he ousted sixth seed Croatian Marin Cilic, ending the latter’s hope of a London qualification. Although Nalbandian lost the first set
4-6, he upped his game in the second set reversing the score and winning the set 6-4. He continued his form into the third set, winning it again by 6-4. Nalbandian moves on into the quarterfinals to meet Roddick, looking to dent his position in the race-to-London.
French Richard Gasquet maintained his no set loss record in the event as he enjoyed a straight set win over lucky loser German Tobias Kamke in their second round match. Kamke had moved into the tournament after upsetting third
seed, Czech Tomas Berdych; however, the former’s luck did not follow him into the round of sixteen. Though Kamke put up a good fight, Gasquet managed to secure a tight win over him. Gasquet had moved into the second round after defeating Taiwanese legend,
Lu Yen-hsun by 6-3, 6-1. Gasquet enjoyed a similar score against Kamke, defeating him 6-4, 7-5. Gasquet moves on to face 2010 Kremlin Cup titlist, Serb Viktor Troicki.
The singles matches for the day ended with the battle between the second seed, Serb Novak Djokovic and qualifying round finalist, Finn Jarkko Nieminen. In a match that lasted almost two hours, Nieminen put up a tough fight against
the world number three; however, Djokovic did justice to his world ranking and eventually won the match securing a spot for himself in the semi finals. Having lost the first set 4-6, Nieminen fought back in the second set taking it to the tiebreaker. Although
the two were neck to neck in the tiebreaker with the score levelled till 6-6, Djokovic managed one over the Finn winning the tiebreaker and the set, 7-6(6). Djokovic moves on to meet another qualifying round finalist, Dutch Robin Haase in the quarterfinal
round.
Tags: