2011 Medibank International Sydney: Richard Gasquet to take on Matthew Ebden in his opening match
Fifth seed Richard Gasquet and Matthew Ebden will play their opening round matches at the 2011 Medibank International Sydney on Tuesday. This would be their second career encounter on the tour. Richard leads the pair’s overall head to head series by 1-0.
They previously faced each other in the second round of Brisbane back in 2010.
The 24-year-old Richard is currently ranked number 29 in the world. Last year, he finished runner-up to Marcos Baghdatis in Sydney. The right hander now comes in the tournament with a career record of 11-6 on the tour. Gasquest has so far reached the semifinal
round here back in 2007 as well as 2009.
Richard, who achieved his career high ranking of world number seven back in 2007, posted his best result of the season last year by winning a title in Nice. His other year highlights include a finalist run in Sydney, Gstaad, semifinal appearances in Metz
and quarterfinal showings in Belgrade, Brisbane, Basel and Casablanca.
Ebden, on the other hand, recently recorded his career best quarterfinal run in Brisbane. World number 185 after successfully qualifying into the main draw got the better of John Millman in the opening round, in three sets. The final match score was 4-6,
6-2, 6-4. He made his way into the quarters after thrashing out Denis Istomin in two sets. In the quarters, the right hander was eventually hammered down by Robin Soderling in two sets.
Ebden, taking part at the Brisbane International back in 2010, played at the Australian Open on the very first occasion in his career. He however, couldn’t even win his opening round match as Ebden was defeated in the opening round by world number 12 Gael
Monfils in three sets. The final score line was 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Australian Chris Guccione and Guillermo Garcia Lopez will also take the court on Tuesday for their opening round match. Chris is currently ranked number 376 in the world. Lopez, on the other hand, is placed at number 33, which makes the statistical comparison
of both the players, quite one sided.
In other matches, the eighteen year old Bernard Tomic who is a qualifier from Australia will meet Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine. The pair previously faced each other in the opening round of Brisbane back in 2010 where Alexandr emerged victorious in the
end.
Argentinean Juan Ignacio Chela and second highest ranked Czech Radek Stepanek will also play against each other later in the day.
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