Rakuten Japan Open 2010: Tuesday’s Preview
The opening round of the Rakuten Japan Open continues on Tuesday with 12 more clashes, with the top five seeds in action.
Second seed Andy Roddick from America will be up first on Centre Court against Japanese wild card entrant Tatsuma Ito. Andy will be contesting in his first clash since his second round defeat at the United States Open last month. The Japanese, who has never
triumphed in a main draw clash at an ATP World Tour competition, is facing a top twenty contender for the very first occasion in his career.
Andy Roddick is playing the Tokyo event for the first time. It is also the American’s first championship since a round two defeat at the hands of Janko Tipsarevic at the United States Open in New York last month. He enjoys a match record of 40-11 for 2010
and is clearly the top favourite to win his match in Tokyo today.
In the second match on Tuesday, Viktor Troicki from Serbia will meet Kei Nishikori, a wild card entrant from Japan, who achieved his career high ranking of world number fifty six back in 2009.
He underwent a total of right elbow surgeries later that season and remained sidelined for almost six months, only making a comeback in February this year. He is currently ranked number 121 in the world and is looking to further improve his rankings. Kei
won his only past clash with Troicki, at a Challenger competition back in 2008.
Troicki on the other hand is currently ranked number twenty four in the world and is the third top Serbian tennis contender behind Djokovic. He currently enjoys a match record of 26-27 on the season and his best ATP World Tour results were the final four
appearances in the first week in Doha where he lost to Rafael Nadal and New Heaven back in 2009, where Istomin got the better of Serbian in straight sets.
World number one Rafael Nadal will play in the third game at Centre Court against Colombian number one Santiago Giraldo. In his first competition since successfully completing his career Grand Slam in New York, the twenty four year old Spaniard was defeated
in the semi final round of the Thailand Open last week. The top seed enjoys a match record of 61-8 for the season and he has made his way into the quarters or better in all fourteen championships that he has contested in 2010. Nadal has also won a total of
six trophies in seven finals this season. He is appearing in Tokyo for the very first occasion in his career.
Last up on the Centre Court is the third seed and last year’s winner Jo Wilfried Tsonga vs. Jarkko Nieminen. The French player is contesting in his first clash since making his way into the quarters at Wimbledon earlier in July, having missed the entire
summer hard surface season as a result of his left knee injury.
The 29-year-old Jarkko on the other hand, is coming off his first ATP World Tour final showing of the year and tenth of his professional life at the Thailand Open on Sunday. He currently enjoys a match record of 15-12 on hard courts this season. He is contesting
in Tokyo on the sixth occasion in his career and his best result was a semi-final run back in 2005.
In other matches, fourth seed Jurgen Melzer, fifth seed Gael Monfils and eight seed Michael Llodra will be in action as well. The top contender from Japan, who is currently ranked number 104, Go Soeda, will meet Gael Monfils in Tokyo.
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