2010 If Stockholm Open Men’s singles competition; Saturday’s Preview
Both the semi final matches of the 2010 If Stockholm Open Men’s singles competition are scheduled to take place in the evening.
In the first semi final match, Jarkko Nieminen of Finland will meet Florian Mayer, a tennis contender from Germany in an all unseeded battle. Both of them will play against each other on the seventh occasion in their career. Jarkko
leads their head to head series at 4-2.
The twenty nine year old Nieminen who is currently ranked number forty five in the world is playing in his third semi final of the season. A month ago at the PTT Thailand Open in Bangkok, the right hander advanced into his first
final this year and tenth overall, where he was lost at the hands of Guillermo Garcia Lopez in three sets. It was his first final since 2009 in Sydney where Nieminen was thrashed out by David Nalbandian in straight sets. The professional tennis player from
Finland was also a semi finalist in Delray Beach back in February, a quarter finalists at the Open de Moselle in Metz and the Japan Open two weeks ago in 2010. He enters with a match record of 26-23 on the year.
At the year’s final Grand Slam, the United States Open in New York, Nieminen couldn’t even win his opening round clash and was 15-21 however since last month he has triumphed in a total of eleven of his last thirteen encounters.
World number forty five is appearing in Stockholm on the eleventh year in a row and has made it into the semi final round after getting the better of James Blake from the United States of American in two sets. He beat Michael Berrer and Tomas Berdych in the
initial rounds in Sweden.
World number forty seven Mayer on the other hand, is taking part in his second ATP World Tour semi final of the year. The twenty seven year old Mayer previously reached the final four battle in Hamburg back in July. He was also
a quarterfinalist at Rotterdam back in February where he was given a beating at the hands of Novak Djokovic. Mayer is making his first appearance in Sweden and has successfully reached the semi final round without even dropping a single set. He defeated Feliciano
Lopez, Michael Ryderstedt and Robin Soderling on his way to the final four battle.
The right hander is trying to make his way into this third career ATP World Tour final. The German enters with a mark of 0-2 in the ATP World Tour finals, losing in Poland back in 2005 by Gael Monfils of France and the following
year at the hands of Nikolay Davydenko, both in straight sets. Mayer stands at a match record of 22-15 on the year and he is the number two German behind the world number thirty three Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Mayer enjoys a career mark of 6-21 against the top ten players and registered his second straight top ten victory last week after dispatching off the eight ranked Mikhail Youzhny at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China.
Both the players are looking to grab their first ATP World Tour crown of the year therefore the semi final match on Saturday is definitely going to be an interesting one without any doubt as both of them have equal chances to reaching
the title battle. World number forty seven Jarkko will also contest in the doubles semi final clash in Sweden.
In the second semi final match on Saturday, the twenty nine year old Roger Federer will take on the fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic.The sixteen times Grand Slam winner, Federer is hoping to win his 64th ATP World tour crown
of his career. The top seed and world number two earlier posted his 50th victory of the year by triumphing in the quarter final round on Friday.
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