2010 Valencia Open: Preview of Tuesday morning's session
An action-packed schedule for Tuesday features the top seed and last year’s winner, Andy Murray; second seed Robin Soderling of Sweden, who is playing in Valencia on the first occasion in his career; fourth seed and local favourite, David Ferrer and the
number six, Nikolay Davydenko. Overall, there are a total of seven players from Spain in the opening round play at Agora.
Leading off is two times Valencia winner, Nicolas Almagro from Spain versus his compatriot player Daniel Gimeno Traver. Nicolas has triumphed in two of their previous three clashes on clay and this will be their third head to head encounter this season.
World number 16 Nicolas is coming off his fourth ATP World Tour semi final or better in Vienna last week where he was overpowered by the ultimate winner, Jurgen Melzer. The 25 year old has so far captured a total of two crowns this year in Bastad and Gstaad.
The professional tennis player from Spain, who enters with a match record of 44-24 on the season, also made his way into the semi final round at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid back in May before losing to Rafael Nadal. The right hander stands at a lifetime
mark of 14-3 in Valencia. He grabbed trophies back in 2006 and 2007 and also advanced into the title battle here two years ago.
The 25 year old Gimeno, who comes in with a win loss mark of 17-24 in 2010, is currently ranked number 59 on the South African Airways ATP list. He achieved his career high ranking of world number 53 back in September after making his way into the third
round of United States Open in New York.
The Spaniard is looking to end in the top hundred for the third straight season. He posted his year's best run by reaching the semi final round in Stuttgart back in July where the right hander was given a beating by Gael Monfils. Two weeks later, Gimeno
advanced into his second ATP World Tour semi final in Gstaad. He enjoys a career mark of 1-2 in Valencia and had previously reached the round two back in 2008.
In the second battle of the day, the top ranked Brit, Andy Murray will take on Feliciano Lopez on the centre court. The Scott had triumphed in their previous clash in July.
World number four Andy Murray, who won the title last year, is competing in his first championship since winning his sixth career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown in Shanghai last month. The 23 year old did not even miss a single set in his opening five
clashes. He stands at 2-2 in the finals and enters with a win loss mark of 41-14 on the season.
Murray won his first ATP World Tour crown of the year in Toronto where he got the better of former world number three. David Nalbandian in the quarters, Rafael Nadal in the semis while Roger Federer in the finals in straight sets. It was his fifth career
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title and first since November back in 2009.
Murray is also one of the five contenders to successfully qualify for the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London along with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling. This will be his third straight appearance in the season
finale. The Scott was a semi finalist at the grass court Grand Slam tournament in London earlier in 2010 along with runners up performance in Los Angeles back in August.
The 29 year old Lopez enters with a match record of 26-22 on the year. The left hander posted his best result of the season in Johannesburg where he won his second career ATP World Tour singles crown back in February. He stands at a lifetime mark of 2-6
in Valencia and couldn’t go beyond the round two back in 2004 as well as last year.
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