Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel 2011: Preview Day 3 – Part One
Exhilarating tennis action continues at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland on Wednesday, 2nd November as tennis professionals continue their title bids at the ATP 500 event.
Opening play at 1300 hrs local time is the German qualifier Tobias Kamke as he takes on the Pole qualifier Lukasz Kubot on Court 2.
Although ranked higher than Kamke, world number 64 Kubot has suffered an abysmal run on tour lately. With first round exits in almost all of the recent events he has participated in, Kubot sports a 4-6 win loss mark in his last
ten matches. The German, albeit ranked thirty places below the Pole, has an impressive 8-2 win loss record in his last ten matches. A quarterfinalist at the Mons Challenger in early October, Kamke recently made it to the final eight at Stockholm falling to
the inform Serb, Janko Tipsarevic.
The pair stands a level 1-1 record in their two meetings on the courts. Meeting for the first time at the Helsinki Challenger in 2007, Kamke took the edge as he did away with the Pole in straight sets. However, the Pole eventually
tied the series avenging his loss in the qualifying draw of the Doha event two years later.
Enjoying a better run lately, Kamke is likely to overtake the Pole to secure a berth in the second round of the event.
Following Kamke vs Kubot is the top ranked Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis as he plays his second round match here. Baghdatis had previously done away with Viktor Troicki in the opening round to setup a clash with local qualifier Michael
Lammer in the second round. Lammer moves on ahead after upsetting higher ranked Russian, Mikhail Youzhny in the first round.
A finalist at Kuala Lumpur, Baghdatis suffered back to back early round exits at Tokyo, Stockholm and Vienna. Despite his losses, the Cypriot perhaps holds a better chance of a win here given his higher rankings and the fact that
the local has mostly been playing on Futures and Challenger circuits. However, the local cannot be written off completely as he did secure a victory over the top ranked Russian in the first round. Bringing the first round form and riding the local crowd support
may just carry Lammer into his first ever Tour level quarterfinal.
Wrapping up the singles action on Court 2 will be Czech Radek Stepanek as he plays Colombian Santiago Giraldo. With similar runs on tour recently, the pair comes into the match on almost equal footing. Stepanek, however, perhaps
holds a tad advantage over the Colombian having defeated him last year at the exact same venue.
Stepanek’s ranking nearly 20 places above the Colombian also do not hurt his chances. All in all, the Czech is expected to move past the Colombian into the second round of the event.
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