Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel 2011: Preview Day 1 – Part Two
As the singles action continues at the 2011 Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, local legend Roger Federer takes to the court much to the delight of the home crowd.
Skipping the Shanghai Masters and the Asian swing, Federer is returning to play on tour at his home event in Basel after two months. This will be the Maestro’s first match after his successive victories over Lleyton Hewitt and
Bernard Tomic at the Davis Cup in September.
Ranked 4th in the world after Murray displaced him with the latter’s hat-trick in Asia; Federer begins his title defence here against Italian Potito Starace. The former world number one won the title here in 2010 after
battling past Djokovic in three sets.
With only one title win this year, Federer looks to add one more to his count before the season ending championship in London. Basel seems like an easy target for the Federer though the likes of Djokovic and Murray in the draw
may make things difficult for the Swiss.
However, the Swiss doesn’t have to worry about the Serb or the Brit till the later stages of the event. Opening against Starace, Federer is expected to sail past him into the second round with much ease. Holding a perfect 5-0 lead
in the head-to-head against the Italian, Federer not only enjoys the higher ranking but also the psychological c*m statistical advantage over Starace predicting a simple, straight sets, easy breezy victory.
Federer has suffered only two losses in his last ten matches losing to Djokovic in the semi-final of the US Open and to Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinal of the Cincinnati masters. Starace, on the other hand, sports a 6-4 win loss
mark for his previous ten. With two successive first round exits at Bucharest and Moscow, Starace eventually snapped his losing streak as he made it to the quarterfinals of St. Petersburg losing to finalist Janko Tipsarevic. With all the odds stacked against
him, nothing save a miracle could help Starace pull off the upset win.
Following the Maestro on the courts will be top ranked Austrian Jurgen Melzer as he takes on American Donald Young.
In their fourth meeting on the courts, Young trails 1-2 against the Austrian in the pair’s head-to-head score. The two last met at Washington where the American snapped his two match losing streak against the Austrian.
Despite the statistical trail, Young is known to surprise on occasion having made it to the final of the Bangkok event losing only to Andy Murray. With more wins than the Austrian in the last ten matches, Young is clearly the favourite
going into the match. However, the former world number eight Austrian is not to be underestimated and may just do away with the American in straight sets.
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