2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Yen-Hsun Lu takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber
Entering its second day, is the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.Played on indoor hard courts, it is the first ATP 500 level event of the year.
Playing in its 38th edition this year, the event is annually played at the Ahoy Rotterdam indoor sporting arena.
Kicking off the singles action for the day will be Germany’s, Philipp Kohlschreiber, as he takes on the Taiwanese, Yen-Hsun “Rendy” Lu, for their first round match tomorrow.
Meeting for the third time on the courts, this is only the pair’s second meeting on tour. Having met once before in 2004 in the first round of the Dallas Challenger event, where Lu emerged as the victor.
The pair’s first tour meeting came in 2010 when they met for their round of sixteen match at the Toronto Masters. The German had bounced back from being one set down to secure a three set win for himself.
Ranked 36th in the world, Kohlschreiber is playing in his third ATP Tour event for the season. The German started his run in the year playing at the 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil as the eighth seed. Moving past Andreas Seppi in the first round, Kohlschreiber
was ousted in the second round by Ivo Karlovic.
His second event of the season was the 2011 Heineken Open in Auckland. Again seeded eighth in the event, Kohlschreiber went one step further as he made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion, David Ferrer.
Drawn against world number six, Tomas Berdych, in the second round of the Australian Open, Kohlschreiber was unable to move ahead exiting the event in a four set defeat.
Playing at his fourth year here, Kohlschreiber debuted here in 2007. It was that same year that he enjoyed his career best here as he made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to Nikolay Davydenko.
The years that followed were not so lucky for the German as he was ousted from the event after opening clashes in 2008-09. He did not participate at the event in 2010, making his all time career win loss mark, at the event, to be a disappointing 2-3.
Rendy on the other hand, is ranked 38th in the world and has nothing to show for in the three events he has participated in. Starting the year at the Medibank International Sydney, Lu was ousted in the first round by eventual champion Gilles Simon.
Simon again forced Lu’s exit at the Australian Open where the two met for their first round match. Rendy’s next tour level event came last week when he competed in the 2011 SA Open as the second seed.
However, the rising Canadian Milos Raonic forced Rendy’s exit from the event again in the first round.
A disappointed Lu now makes his debut appearance at the Rotterdam event. Will he finally be able to move past the first round this year?
Prediction: Although there is almost no disparity in their rankings, Kohlschreiber has lately enjoyed much better form than the Taiwanese and it is this form that shall provide him with the edge in his match.
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