2010 Kremlin Cup Men’s singles competition; Preview of the opening matches
There are a total of eight opening round clashes for today’s schedule of play at the 2010 Kremlin Cup Men’s singles competition, highlighted by a pair of former winners meeting on the third occasion with qualifier Igor Kunitsyn
and Igor Andreev as avwild card entrant.
In the opening match of the day, Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine will take on Ilya Belyaev of Russia on the centre court. The twenty one year old Dolgopolov is currently the youngest contender in the top 100 ATP list at twenty
one years of age. World number fifty six achieved his career high ranking of number thirty six back in July. He stands at 17-20 on the year and is coming off his second round exit at Shanghai Rolex Masters in China last week.
He also couldn’t go beyond the second round in the China Open as well as the Malaysian Open earlier this season. The Number two player from Ukraine, Alexandr Dolgopolov posted his career best result of reaching the semi final round
in Eastbourne back in June where he was eventually defeated at the hands of ultimate winner Michael Llodra. A month later, the Ukrainian also successfully made his way into the final eight in Umag. Alexandr has so far advanced into the third round of Roland
Garros as his best Grand Slam result where he was thrashed out by Almagro in straight sets.
Belyaev, on the other hand is the lowest ranked player in the event with a current ranking of number 334 in the world. The twenty year old got the better of the top seed Pablo Andujar in the opening round and Rajeev Ram in the
last round of qualifying to successfully make his way into the main draw. Belyaev has gradually improved his ranking from number 403 last year to number 334 in 2010. His career high ranking is number 303 which he achieved back in September this season. As
a result of qualifying for the main draw, the Russian will further jump to number 310 when the new rankings will be released on Monday. If he manages to win his opening round, Belyaev will climb into the top 200 in the world for the first time in his career.
In the second clash on the centre court, the top player from Romania, Victor Hanescu will attempt to tie his record versus the fifth seed Radek Stepanek from Czech Republic. World number fifty one Victor enters with a match record
of 24-21 on the year and his best result was a finalist appearance in Casablanca back in April. The twenty nine year old Romanian achieved his career high ranking of world number twenty six back in July last year and is looking for his first victory in Moscow
in his third appearance in a row.
The thirty one year old Stepanek on the other hand is appearing in his 12th ATP World Tour main draw of the season and enjoys a match record of 12-13 on the year. His best result was a finalist performance in Brisbane
last year. World number thirty seven is appearing in Moscow on the third occasion in his career and has previously reached the quarter final round back in 2004 as well as 2007.
He was sidelined for more than two months during the start of the season as a result of mononucleosis and came back on the tour in May and contested at Prostejov Challenger as his first comeback event. He successfully reached the
title battle there but withdrew from the match due to his stomach pain. He has spent two weeks in his career with the high ranking of world number eight on the tour.
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