If Stockholm Open Men’s Singles Tennis Competition; Friday’s Preview
All the top four seeds will play the quarter final round of the If Stockholm Open Men’s Singles Tennis Competition on Friday.
In the opening match of the day, a wild card entrant from the United States of America, James Blake will take on Jarkko Nieminen in an all unseeded battle. Blake stands at 6-0 lifetime versus Jarkko. Blake has so far reached the
quarter final round on Delray Beach and Los Angeles this season and enters with a win loss record of 15-15 on the year. He is currently ranked number 135 in the world by ATP and two of his victories over Jarkko have come here, back in 2006 and 2007.
World number twenty Nieminen on the other hand, has captured a single title so far in his career. He successfully made his way into the final in Bangkok, semi final in Delray Beach, quarter final in Metz as well as Tokyo in 2010.
He holds a career record of 17-10 in Sweden.
Second up is Ljubicic against Ivan Dodig, a qualifier from Croatia who is appearing in his second career ATP World Tour quarter final of the season. The thirty one year old Ljubicic is the highest ranked contender over thirty on
the tour at number seventeen in the ranking list. World number seventeen currently enjoys a win loss record of 22-16 on the season and won the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Indian Wells earlier this season after getting the better of Andy Roddick.
World number 132 Dodig on the other hand, has not captured a single title so far in 2010. In their previous clash, Ljubicic did well to triumph in three sets in the second round of Umag back in July. He has already upset the eight
seed Tommy Robredo earlier this week in the opening round in Stockholm.
In the evening, world number five Robin Soderling will play against Florian Mayer from Germany on the fourth occasion in his career. The Swede leads the pair’s head to head encounter at 2-1. Florian triumphed in their most recent
clash at the Australian Open in a five setter epic back in 2007.
If Soderling successfully makes his way into the final four battle in Sweden, he will register his name as the fifth contender to qualify for the year ending Barclays ATP World Tour in London, which is going to start next month.
He previously reached the semi finals in London back in 2009 where the Swede was eventually defeated at the hands of Juan Martin Del Potro in a third set tie break. So far, all the top four players on the ATP tour, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic
and Andy Murray have made it into the elite eight man field in London.
In the last match of the day, world number two Roger Federer will try to record his sixth victory in seven clashes against his compatriot player Stanislas Wawrinka. His only defeat to Wawrinka came on the clay back in 2009, however
in the five other clashes the twenty nine year old Swiss tennis maestro has not lost a single set and stands at 11-0.
Moreover, if the right hander reaches the semi final in Sweden by thrashing out Wawrinka, he will post his 50th match victory in 2010. The Fed Express as a result would become the first contender on the tour to win at
least fifty clashes for nine straight seasons since Pete Sampras achieved the feat from 1990 to 1998. Overall, the Swiss would register his name as the only fifth player in the open era to triumph in fifty or more clashes for at least nine years in a row.
Tags: