Will Davydenko win at Hamburg?
The sweeping changes that the ATP made in 2009 by reducing the number of mandatory Masters series, introducing the concept of 1000, 500 and 250 points tournaments and finally stripping certain tournaments of their Masters status had significant amount of repercussions. Quite easily, the most badly hit was the German Open played at Hamburg, earlier a Masters Series tournament and now suddenly reduced to an ATP 500 tournament! The irony however is that, in a poll conducted in 2008 where players were asked to rank their favourite Masters Series tournament, a handsome majority of them had voted for the Hamburg Masters as their numero uno choice.
Timing Questionable…
Also, the timing of the tournament is a bit questionable as the best players in the world would normally want to play as much as possible on hard-courts at this time of the year. The US Open remains the number 1 priority for most players now but Hamburg being played on clay sounds tricky preparation to say the least. What’s even more surprising is that the US Open Series gets underway simultaneously and yet, eight of the top 20 players have agreed to compete for the German Open this year.
In The Draw…
Leading the seeding charts is World no. 5 Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko and following him in the fray are, unsurprisingly, some of the leading clay courters in the world; David Ferrer, Jurgen Melzer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Gonzalez. While Davydenko is quite clearly the highest ranked player with the others not even inside the top 10, few would want to bet against Almagro given the kind of form the young Spaniard has been on clay this entire season.
Nicolas Almagro, The Man In Form…
The World no. 18 has been in fine form on clay this year and but for a rampaging Rafael Nadal would have easily won atleast one Masters series. Even at the French Open he ran Nadal quite close who had to settle for two tie-breaker sets to close out Almagro. The lesser known Spaniard, nonetheless, will be happy to return on his favourite surface and his confidence will be sky-high with him having won his 6th ATP tour title last week at Bastad, Sweden.
Champion At Bastad…
Almagro beat the defending champion and local man Robin Soderling in a three-set final that also helped end his 17-month title drought. Fatigue however could be a factor as historically Almagro’s physical conditioning has always been an area of concern for him and back-to-back tournaments are hard on most athletes’ body.
Davydenko, The Defending Champion…
Davydenko who’s the defending champion will also fancy his chances but his lack of match practice can be a concern. He’s had many months off due to an injury and comebacks are never easy, especially if you’re just a few months shy of your 30th birthday.
And The Others…
The tournament which has a rich 104 year old history will also give an opportunity to players such as Melzer, Ferrer and Gonzalez to try and win a tournament on their beloved surface. Ever since the emergence of Nadal, there’s always been only one way traffic at the major tournaments played on clay and the presence of tournaments where the World no. 1 doesn’t participate gives others a good opportunity to try and win titles that’ll boost their chances of making it to the ATP World Tour finals to be played at London.
There are quite a few German players in the draw as well such as Philipp Kohlschreiber, Philipp Petzschner, Micheal Berrer. Wildcards such as Daniel Brands, Tobias Kamke, Julian Reister and Mischa Zverev further add to the local interest in the tournament.
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