2011 Open 13 Preview: Grigor Dimitrov steps on to the court with Dmitry Tursunov
Bulgarian wildcard entrant, Grigor Dimitrov, kicks off the singles action at the 2011 Open 13 in Marseille, France on Monday night as he plays Russian Dmitry Tursunov.
Ranked 84th in the world, Dimitrov is the player to watch in 2011. Starting the year at the 2011 Australian Open, Dimitrov played in the qualifying draw. Moving past Matteo Viola, Reda El Amrani and Thomas Schoorel, Dimitrov secured a spot for
himself in the main draw. Pitted against Andrey Golubev, Dimitrov ousted the Kazakh in straight sets, to make it to the second round for the first time in his career. The Bulgarian was defeated in the second round by Stanislas Wawrinka.
Playing at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament next, Dimitrov again started with the qualifying draw. Defeating David De Geode and Evgeny Korolev, Dimitrov moved into his first main draw of an ATP Tour event. However, his stay in the main draw was
short lived and he was defeated in the first round by eventual runner up, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Dimitrov, in his second year here, debuted at the event in 2009 though he failed to make it past the first round losing to local Gilles Simon. The Bulgarian did show his mettle and pushed the higher ranked Frenchman to three sets.
Although the Bulgarian plays the Russian for the first time in the main draw of a tour event, the pair has met once before. Playing in the qualifying round of the 2010 Bangkok event, Dimitrov defeated the Russian in straight sets. Not only is the Russian
ranked much lower, he also has the added psychological block of having never defeated Dimitrov.
The odds might be stacked against the Russian but he is not without his advantages. A former top 20 player, Tursunov is looking to go up in the rankings. Getting off to a rocky start, Tursunov started his 2011 run playing in the qualifying draw of the 2011
Brisbane International. However, losing to local, Peter Luczak, Tursunov failed to make it into the main draw. Gaining direct acceptance into the main draw of the 2011 Australian Open, Tursunov was ousted from the event in the first round by Viktor Troicki.
It was not after the Grand Slam that things started to look up for the Russian. Playing at the Challenger event in Singapore, Tursunov made it all the way to the finals defeating Lukas Rosol to clinch the title there.
Carrying his form into the following week, Tursunov played in the qualifying draw of the Rotterdam event. Upsetting qualifying top seed, Philipp Petzschner, Tursunov made his way into the main draw. The Russian even enjoyed a first round victory against
Kazakh, Andrey Golubev, making it into the second round of the event. That was as far as he would go though, as he lost to top ranked Czech, Tomas Berdych.
Playing in his second year here, Tursunov’s career best is the second round in 2009 where he made it past Teymuraz Gabashvili but lost to Feliciano Lopez.
Should the fact that Dimitrov is being called the next Federer hold some truth to it, the Bulgarian will have no trouble doing away with the Russian. Dimitrov has also defeated Tursunov in their one previous encounter and this will tip the odd in his favour
and the Bulgarian should move on ahead in straight sets with ease.
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