Second round qualifiers conclude, main draw begins on Monday – 2012 Open 13
Top class tennis stars are gearing up for yet another exhilarating tournament in the beautiful city of Marseille, France. The Open 13 will officially begin from the 20th of February on the indoor hard courts of Palais
de Sports arena but the qualifying draw is already on its way, with 32 talented tennis contestants fighting for just four spots in the main rounds of the tournament.
Home favourite, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will lead the competitive field in Marseille, followed by the world number eight, Mardy Fish of the United States. Ninth ranked Serbian, Janko Tipsarevic, holds the fourth spot in tournament seeds
and the former US Open champion, Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina, come next on number five. Other big names in the tournament include France’s Richard Gasquet, Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine, the Croat veteran Ivan Ljubicic and Andreas Seppi of Italy.
The main round matches will begin from Monday, along with decisive battles in the qualifiers. Tatsuma Ito of Japan will take on the Swiss opponent, Marco Chiudinelli, in the qualifying competition. Seeded at number one in the qualifying
draw, the Japanese registered a hard-fought victory over the unseeded local contestant, David Guez, in the second round. On the other hand, Chiudinelli hasn’t dropped a single set in his initial qualifying rounds to face the top seed in the final clash.
The second qualifier will be played between the second seeded South African, Rik de Voest and the sixth seeded Spaniard, Roberto Bautista-Agut. Both contestants registered victories after gruelling three sets in the second round
of the draw. It is anticipated to be an evenly poised contest, with the winner of the match getting a berth in the opening round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 event in Marseille.
The next decisive encounter will be among the two unseeded local competitors, Albano Olivetti and Romain Jouan on Monday afternoon. Seventh seeded Belgian, David Goffin, will play the fourth and the last qualifying competition
against Czech Republic’s Jan Hernych. The unseeded Czech registered a huge upset in the opening round when he ousted the fourth seeded crowd favourite, Marc Gicquel, in twin sets, 6-2, 6-2. He had an enthralling three-setter with Gregoire Burquire in the second
round but made it through after facing a match point. It will be interesting to see how he performs against the seventh seed Goffin to earn a place in the main rounds.
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