2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament: Mikhail Youzhny to begin title recapture against Marcel Granollers
2007 titlist here, Russian Mikhail Youzhny returns to the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Wednesday with the hopes of recapturing the singles titles here. Seeded
sixth in the event, Youzhny begins his campaign here against Spaniard Marcel Granollers.
A first ATP 500 level event of the season, this will be Youzhny’s first tour level tournament for the season. Not having competed in any of the season openers, Youzhny’s
first appearance on the courts in 2011 came in the exhibition event at Kooyong. Playing in the AAMI Classic as the third seed, Youzhny was ousted from the main draw in the first round by eventual champion, Lleyton Hewitt.
However, his first official event of the year was the Grand Slam Down Under three weeks ago. Seeded tenth in the main draw, Youzhny enjoyed a straight sets victory in
his opening clash against Marsel Ilhan. His next opponent in the event was Blaz Kavcic. After a gruelling five setter, Youzhny was able to do away with the Slovenian. However, third round was where the Russian hit a bump in his run. Pitted against the rising
Canadian, Milos Raonic, Youzhny was ousted from the event after a four set defeat.
Taking a week off to rest after the Grand Slam, Youzhny returns to Rotterdam this week officially kick. The Russian debuted here in 2002, though he failed to go past the
first round losing to Tommy Robredo. His lucky break at the event came in 2007 in his third appearance here. Moving past Tomas Berdych, Robin Haase and David Ferrer, Youzhny set a semi-final clash with Novak Djokovic. Doing away with the Serb in three sets,
Youzhny met Ivan Ljubicic in the final. Suffering a loss of only six games, Youzhny did away with the Croat in straight sets to clinch a title here.
Youzhny’s second final run here came in 2010 when he again moved past Novak Djokovic in the semis to make his way into the final. Pitted against Robin Soderling in the
final, Youzhny retired from the match due to a right hamstring injury. Healthy and recovered this year, Youzhny looks to make another final run in the event this week.
The first obstacle in the Russian’s path is Spaniard Marcel Granollers. In their first meeting ever, Granollers has no idea what to expect from the Russian. Ranked forty
places above the Spaniard don’t hurt Youzhny’s chances either.
Ranked fifty third in the world, Granollers is playing his second straight tour level event this year. Only last week Granollers participated at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors
though he failed to make it past the first round owing to his loss to eventual champion, local Ivan Dodig.
Granollers had earlier participated at the Heineken Open in Auckland. Dealt the same hand then as well, Granollers failed to make it past the second round falling to Philipp
Kohlschreiber. His Grand Slam run also ended in the first round as he fell to eventual champion, Novak Djokovic.
Prediction:
Although neither enjoys the statistical edge, the fact that the Russian is a top ten player and is probably enjoying a better form than the Spaniard suggests that Youzhny will be able to move past Granollers with much ease.
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