Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel 2011: Preview Day 1 – Part One
With the ATP season drawing to its close, top ten players become fiercer in their competition with three spots still remaining for the qualification of the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in O2 Arena, London. With those already
qualified looking to add another title win to their count Serbian juggernaut Novak Djokovic, Swiss maestro Roger Federer and top Brit Andy Murray turn to Basel, Switzerland to play at the 2011 Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel. An ATP 500 event, the tournament
kicks off from Monday, 31st October showcasing some of the biggest names of tennis.
Kicking off action for the day at the St. Jakobshalle will be Djokovic’s compatriot and world number seventeen, Viktor Troicki. A recent addition to the top 20, Troicki opens his Basel campaign against former world number eight
and top tanked Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Coming fresh from an unsuccessful final run at the 2011 Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Troicki is clearly the favourite to win the matchup despite the 1:2 trail in the pair’s head-to-head score. Having played the Cypriot thrice before,
the Serb has managed only a single win against Baghdatis defeating the latter in 2010 in the final of the Kremlin Cup. However, Baghdatis holds a clear edge having won over the Serb in 2010 in Sydney and most recently in the semi-final of the Kuala Lumpur
event a month back.
Sporting a 5-5 win loss mark in his last ten matches, Baghdatis comes from a second round at Vienna last week against Kevin Anderson. However, the Cypriot did make it to the final of the Kuala Lumpur event losing to Troicki’s compatriot,
Janko Tipsarevic in the title match.
With both players enjoying a better form this season, Troicki holds a tad more advantage with the higher ranking. Perhaps the Serb’s superior ranking will be more than enough to outweigh the statistical edge Baghdatis holds in
the head-to-head. However, with no two ways about it the match is surely expected to go in three thrilling sets.
While Troicki and Baghdatis go toe to toe in the Centre Court, Americans, Mardy Fish and Andy Roddick, kick off the doubles action on Court 2 as they take on the pairing of Lukasz Kubot and Radek Stepanek.
Although the two teams are meeting each other for the first time, the Americans hold an advantage with more matches in 2011 than the Czech Pole duo. Roddick and Fish last played as doubles in the Rome event where they made it all
the way to the final losing eventually to compatriots, John Isner and Sam Querrey. Stepanek and Kubot, on the other hand, have played in only two matches before this making it to the second round of the Tokyo event.
With better co-ordination the Americans are expected to move past their opponents into the second round.
Following these two teams on the courts will be the pairing of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic as they play Michael Lammer and Alexander Sadecky. Doubles specialist and seeded here, Llodra and Zimonjic will blast their opponents
into the second round.
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