2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Grigor Dimitrov to take on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Bulgarian qualifier, Grigor Dimitrov, will play in the main draw of his first tour level event for the year on Tuesday as he takes on Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried “Ali” Tsonga.
The pair is kicking off their run at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. The first ATP 500 level event of the season, the event is held annually in the Ahoy Rotterdam indoor sporting arena.
World number 18, Tsonga is playing in his second tour level event this week. He started his 2011 run playing in the season opening, Doha event.
Seeded third in the main draw at the 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Tsonga made it all the way to the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion, Roger Federer.
The Frenchman’s run in the opening Grand Slam of the year was not what he would’ve expected. Seeded thirteenth in the event, Tsonga had made it all the way to the semi-finals last year, which is why a semis run this year was crucial for the Frenchman.
However, moving past Philipp Petzschner and Andreas Seppi in the early rounds, Tsonga was pitted against the Ukrainian Dark Horse, Alexandr Dolgopolov.
A gruelling five setter that followed, forced Tsonga’s exit from the event. Failing to defend his semi-final points, Tsonga dropped six places in the rankings though he still stood inside in the top 20.
The Frenchman made his debut at Rotterdam in 2009. Moving past local, Jesse Huta Galung, and Russian, Dmitry Tursunov, Tsonga made his way into the quarterfinals, where he lost to Rafael Nadal and was ousted from the event.
Hoping to go one step further in his second year here, Ali kicks off his campaign here as he plays Dimitrov for the pair’s first meeting on the courts.
Although, the pair has never played each other before, it is safe to assume that the disparity in rankings would play in the Frenchman’s favour.
Dimitrov, a qualifier here, is also playing in his second year after debuting in 2009. Moving past Tomas Berdych, the Bulgarian fell to Nadal in the second round. A star studded line up this year denied Dimitrov a direct acceptance in the main draw.
Instead playing in the qualifying draw as the fourth seed, Dimitrov had to move past local wildcard entrant, David De Goede, and, then Kazakh Evgeny Korolev to secure a spot for himself in the main draw.
The Bulgarian is currently ranked 86th in the world though he started the year ranked out of the top 100. His movement up the rankings came due to his acceptance in the main draw of the Australian Open as a qualifier.
Defeating Matteo Viola, Reda El Amrani, and, Thomas Schooler, Dimitrov was able to secure a spot into the main draw. He opened his run playing Kazakh Andrey Golubev, and moved ahead after doing away with him in straight sets.
However, second round was as far as the Bulgarian would go since he drew against and lost to Stanislas Wawrinka.
Prediction: Given the fact that Tsonga is ranked higher than the Bulgarian suggests that the Frenchman will be able to secure a straight sets victory for himself.
However, that is only the case if Tsonga is well and healthy. Should he be ailing or plagued by some injury like last year, we might witness a seed upset.
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