China Open and Japan Open Tennis Competition, Monday’s Preview
This season’s China Open Men’s competition is one of the eleven ATP World Tour 500 level championships. It highlights seven of the top ten contenders in the ATP World rankings. Overall there are a total of thirteen of the top twenty players contesting in
Beijing.
Heading the draw is obviously last season’s winner and second ranked, Novak Djokovic from Serbia, who was also a runner up at the year’s final Grand Slam, the United States Open back in September against Rafael Nadal.
The other seeds include Andy Murray, who is appearing in Beijing for the first time in his career, Robin Soderling from Sweden, who was also a semi finalist here in 2009, Nikolay Davydenko from Russia, Tomas Berdych, Fernando Verdasco from Spain, and the
seventh seed, Mikhail Youzhny, who is coming off a trophy win in Kuala Lumpur as well as David Ferrer.
There are six spots remaining for the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London and there are precious ranking points at stake this week, with 500 given to the winner.
On today’s schedule of play, there are a total of five singles contests, featured by top German Philipp Kohlschreiber versus Verdasc, who are tied at 4-4.
In the first clash on Lotus Court, wild card American John Isner will take on Tsung Hua Yang from China, for the first time in his career. John leads the Ricoh ATP Match Facts in number of aces with a total of 875 in 2010 and he smashed a record one hundred
and thirteen aces in the lengthiest clash in the history of tennis that was stretched to three days at the All England Club in London.
On Moon Court, the grass court Grand Slam finalist and fifth seed Tomas Berdych will meet a qualifier from Germany Michael Berrer on the very first occasion. There will be two other Americans in action as well, namely Mardy Fish along with Sam Querrey, who
will face Janko Tipsarevic and Gilles Simon respectively.
In other action, at the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Competition, the world number one Rafael Nadal is the top seed to win the title. He will start his tournament’s campaign against Santiago Girado from Colombia. The twenty-four year old Spaniard enters with
a match record of 61-8 on the year and he also clinched the season end number one ranking after lifting the United States Open trophy last month, beating Djokovic.
He registered his name as the seventh contender in the history of tennis to capture all four major trophies during his career and he is also the youngest to achieve the feat in the Open Era since 1968.
The last year’s winner Jo Wilfried Tsonga is seeded number three to win the title. He is making his first championship appearance since the grass court Grand Slam event in London. He remained sidelined for more than two months as a result of his knee injury.
Andy Roddick, on the other hand is the second seed, who made his way into the final four here back in 2008. Jurgen Melzer is the fourth seed, who is also fighting for one of the six remaining positions for the season ending ATP World Tour in London.
French player, Gael Monfils is the fifth seed, who was also a semi finalist in his debut here back in 2009. The other seeds include Feliciano Lopez as well as Ernests Gulbis. The three wild card entrants are Go Soeda, Kei Nishikori and Tatsuma Ito.
In the first clash on Monday, Eduardo Schwank from Argentina will play Daniel Gimeno Traver of Spain on the Centre Court followed by another countryman Juan Martin Del Potro versus Lopez. They are tied at 2-2. The twenty-two year old Potro is contesting
in his second championship back after undergoing wrist surgery back in May. He remained out of action for almost eight months.
In the third clash on Monday, Dmotry Turunov from Russia will meet Gulbis on the second occasion in his career. Gulbis triumphed in their last meeting in three sets back in 2009.
In today’s final clash, Radek Stepanek will face Alejandro Falla of Colombia. Radek leads the pair with 2-0 career mark.
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