2010 Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel: Wednesday Singles Review
Fourteen professionals took to the courts at St. Jakobshalle, as play finished on Wednesday at the 2010 Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. Five first round and two second round matches were scheduled for the day.
Czech Radek Stepanek played his first round match against Dutch Thiemo de Bakker to kick off the day’s play. Stepanek was a wild card entry into the main draw. In their first meeting ever Stepanek humiliated the French with a
straight set win. Stepanek took the lead early into the match, winning the first set 6-3. De Bakker tried to bounce back with six aces in the second set taking it to tie breaker; however, he lost the race to seven points. Stepanek moves on to face Colombian
Santiago Giraldo.
Following the Czech / French battle was that of Americans, Andy Roddick and Sam Querry. Ranking ninth in the ATP rankings, fourth seed Roddick was more than his younger compatriot could handle. Roddick dismissed Querry in two sets
winning them 7-5, 7-6(6). Hoping for a London qualification, Roddick brought his A game to the court as he sent his opponent running all over the court before defeating him in ninety eight minutes. This was the pair’s seventh meeting on the courts with their
head to head score resting at 4-2 in Roddick’s favour previously.
Lucky loser, into the main draw, French Paul-Henri Mathieu faced and defeated German Florian Mayer to move ahead into the tournament. 2010 If Stockholm Open’s finalist Mayer seems to have lost his form entering Basel this week,
as he exits the tournament in the first round. Mathieu embarrassed Mayer with a twin set score of 6-3, 6-3. Mathieu will next face Serb Viktor Troicki later in the event.
An upsetting result seen on the scoreboard today was the exit of third seed Czech Tomas Berdych as he lost his opening match to German Tobias Kamke. Kamke had gained entry into the main draw as the lucky loser. What came as a shock
for tennis fans all over was the fact that Kamke dismissed Berdych in only two sets. It seems that world number six Czech didn’t put much effort into the game especially since Kamke ranks about sixty six places below Berdych. Kamke moved on into the next round
with twin set score of 6-3, 6-3. He goes on to face French Richard Gasquet in the round-of-sixteen match.
Qualifying round finalists, German Daniel Brands and Finn Jarkko Nieminen went head to head to stay in the title run; however, Brands wasn’t as lucky as his compatriot Kamke. He was dismissed from the court in 68 minutes having
suffered defeat by 3-6, 2-6. Nieminen served four aces and lost only 18 points on service to seal victory for himself. He goes on to face second seed Serb Novak Djokovic.
Local favourite and top seed, Roger Federer continues to rise in the title run as he won his second round match. He faced Serb Janko Tipsarevic and was very much humiliating him into a defeat when the latter retired from the match
due to an injury. The score at the time was 6-4, 5-2. With Tipsarevic’s retirement, Federer gains automatic entry into the quarterfinals.
Joining Federer in the quarterfinals is qualifying round finalist Dutch Robin Haase. Haase defeated eighth seed, American John Isner in a three setter to move ahead into the quarterfinals. Haase won the first set 6-2; however,
Isner fought back in the second set winning the tie breaker. As the third set started, Isner was very well maintaining the lead when Haase picked up momentum and eventually won the set 7-5.
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