2011 BNP Paribas Open: ATP Seeds Part X
World Number 10 Jurgen Melzer
At World Number 10, Austrian tennis pro Jurgen Melzer rounds off the top ten seeds at the 2011 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells tournament. Born in 1981, the 29-year-old is the oldest player in the ATP Top Ten at the moment. He is coached by Joakim
Nystrom, and has been playing professionally since 1999.
The left-handed pro has not missed a single Indian Wells tournament since 2004, when he made his debut on the hard courts at the Coachella Valley in Palm Springs. He was ranked World Number 73 by the ATP at the time, and could not capitulate on the opportunity
to play at the event. He was ousted by then-World Number 63 Romanian Victor Hanescu in the first round.
The Austrian player improved considerably by the next year, and was ranked 34th in the world at the time of the tournament. He received a bye in the first round as a seeded player, and reached the second round to play his first match against then-World
Number 158 American Paul Goldstein. He successfully ousted the player in three sets. However, he could not compete against then-World Number 6 Brit Tim Henman in the third round. Melzer lost the match in straight sets.
His next three performances were not noteworthy, as he was unseeded in two of his showings and did not make it past the second round in all three years.
The player redeemed himself somewhat in 2009, and regained his position as a seeded player at World Number 31. He undid American Taylor Dent, who was World Number 533 at the time, in straight sets to progress to the second round. However, he could not repeat
this result against Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, who went on to win the US Open later that same year.
In 2010, Jurgen Melzer produced his best result at the tournament so far. The Austrian pro was ranked World Number 28 in that year, and started off his campaign in the second round against then-World Number 139 David Nalbandian. After defeating the Argentine,
Melzer proceeded directly to the fourth round after Simon Greul withdrew from their second round match. The Austrian was defeated by Andy Roddick in this round.
2011 has so far been a disappointing run for the Austrian. Seeded at the opening Grand Slam, the Australian Open, Melzer was unable to make it past the fourth round, losing to eventual finalist, Andy Murray. His most recent tournament was the Marseille event
in France, where he suffered an upset at the hands of World Number 104 Dmitry Tursunov. Due to his past record as well as his age, the player is not accepted to post great results at the ongoing tournament in California. Pundits have already predicted a third-round
defeat for the player, despite his high ranking.
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