2010 Swiss Indoors Basel: Preview of Wednesday's morning session
A total of three top ten players are scheduled to play on Wednesday at the 2010 Swiss Indoors Basel men’s singles competition, headed by a certain Swiss sport legend.
World number 38, Radek Stepanek from Czech Republic will take on Thiemo de Bakker in an all unseeded battle on the centre court. They are facing each other on the first occasion in the ATP tour.
The 31 year old Stepanek is the oldest contender in the main draw. He is playing in Basel for the second straight season in his career. The professional tennis player from Czech Republic made his way into the semi final here before losing to the world number
three, Novak Djokovic back in 2009.
He has so far advanced into the final eight or better on four occasions in 2010 and enters with a win loss mark of 14-14 on the season. His notable performances this season include his final show down in Brisbane, semi final appearance in Tokyo and quarter
final run in New Heaven. The right hander achieved his career high ranking of world number eight back in 2006.
The top Dutch player on the ATP World Tour Thiemo is playing in Basel on the first occasion in his career. The 22 year old comes in with a match record of 28-22 on the year. He is currently ranked number 45 in the world and reached his career high ranking
of number 40 back in July. The right hander made his way into his first ATP World Tour final four in Barcelona earlier in 2010 where he got the better of Jo Wilfried Tsonga before losing to world number five, Robin Soderling in three sets.
Thiemo also posted his career best Grand Slam run this season at Wimbledon by reaching the third round, beating Santiago Giraldo and John Isner before falling to Paul Henri Mathieu in a four setter tight match.
Second up is the fourth seed Andy Roddick from the United States of America versus his compatriot player Sam Querrey. Roddick, who is currently ranked number nine in the South African Airways ATP list, leads the pair’s head to head encounters at 4-2. However,
Sam has triumphed in both of their previous two clashes on the tour. This is their first meeting outside their country while third in 2010. Neither contender has been past the quarter-finals of any tournament since the United States Open in New York.
The 28 year old Roddick is playing in Basel on the first occasion since advancing into the semi finals back in 2003. This is his first competition since last month when he withdrew from his third round match against Garcia-Lopez at the Shanghai Rolex Masters
due to his right groin injury.
The right hander enters with a win loss mark of 43-13 on the year and has reached the quarters or better in nine of fifteen championships in 2010. Roddick has so far won a total of two ATP World Tour singles titles this season in Brisbane and Miami. The
American was also the finalist in San Jose and Indian Wells.
World number 22 Sam, who is making his Basel debut, comes in with a match record of 39-22 on the season. Sam has captured four ATP World Tour crowns this year and he, like the world number one Rafael Nadal, has grabbed trophies on three different surfaces.
The American is also number three on the tour with his 685 aces in 2010.
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