2010 St. Petersburg Open Singles Main Draw: Wednesday’s previews
A total of seven singles matches will be played on Wednesday as the 2010 St. Petersburg open enters its third day of play. With a lot of top professionals competing tomorrow, the end of the day scoreboard will give an important
insight as to who is still in the title run.
With none of the top seeds receiving byes, second seed Sergiy Stakhovsky from Ukraine will face the unseeded German, Benjamin Becker for the first matchup of the day. The 2009 St. Petersburg champion, Stakhovsky has won two of
his four career titles this year; the UNICEF Open and New Haven. The in-form Ukrainian might have what it takes to over to overpower the German, as Becker has no achievements to his name for the season. This will be the pair’s first meeting on the courts of
any ATP event. With obvious predictions of a Ukraine win, can the German beat the odds stacked against him? Can he take the lead in the level head to head score? Or will the defending champion use Becker as a stepping stone for his climb to the title? All
these questions will be answered on Wednesday when the two battle it out in the centre court of the Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex.
In another battle of the day, fourth seed Lu Yen-Hsun from Taiwan will meet the Italian Potito Starace in one of the side courts of the Complex. As the Chinese would put it, it seems the ancestors have blessed the Taiwanese player
this season. With his performance at Wimbledon, the player was able to move up forty places in the world rankings. He currently resides at the thirty fourth spot in the world rankings. World number fifty eight, Starace has his work cut out for him if he is
to succeed against Asia’s number one. The winner of this match will go on to face the eighth seed Romanian, Victor Hanescu later in the event.
Starace’s countryman, Fabio Fognini also has his first round match tomorrow; he enters the court after his compatriot to take on Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine. Dolgopolov is coming into the tournament after a good run in the
Kremlin Cup that took place only last week. He made his way to the quarterfinals with an important win against the then 7th and now 2nd seed Stakhovsky. He won with straight sets over his countryman, although he was defeated by the eventual
finalist, Marcos Baghdatis in the quarterfinal match. The pair have met only once before in the qualifying match for the San Remo in 2007, with Fognini coming out victorious. However with no ATP event matchup there, the head to head score is leveled at 0-0.
Russian legend and top seed Mikhail Youzhny will enter the court tomorrow as he plays the unseeded German Daniel Brands. A favourite to win the title this year, Mikhail desperately needs a win tomorrow to stay in the running. With
no byes in the tournament, fans might be disappointed if Youzhny was to lose his first round match. With so much pressure, the Russian will be forced to bring his A game and might just give us an excellent display of tennis tomorrow.
Another favourite to win, is the fifth seed Viktor Troicki. With a fresh title win at the Kremlin Cup earlier in the week, the Serbian will be extra motivated as he takes on the German professional Rainer Schuttler for his first
round match later in the day. With all their first round matches set against top seeds, the Germans will have to play real well to stay in the running for the title.
The first second round match of the tournament will also be played tomorrow as the Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin and the Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili battle it out to stay in the run for the title. This will be the pair’s first ever
meeting on the court having never played each other in qualifying or main draws at ATP events.
3rd seed Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia will also play his second round match as he meets the American Michael Russell. The winners of these two matches will go on to face each other in the quarterfinal match. Tipsarevic
moved into the second round after having defeated Igor Kunitsyn in their first round match on Tuesday.
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