Top seeds want a Vienna win for London qualification
Austrian professional Jurgen Melzer, Croatian Marin Cilic and Spanish Nicolas Almagro; all hope to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London as they begin play in Vienna this week. Seeded first, second and third
respectively; all three players hope for a win here at Vienna to qualify for the finals in London. Other players to have already qualified for the London event are: Spanish Rafael Nadal; Brit Andy Murray, Serb Novak Djokovic, Swiss Roger Federer and Swede
Robin Soderling.
Melzer hopes to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London as he returns to defend his title in his hometown this week. Although with no title to his name for the season, Melzer has had some suprising wins this year.
Melzer defeated ninth seed David Ferrer in the French Open by a straight set win. He then moved on to defeat world number three Novak Djokovic by 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(3), 6-4; his first ever win from a two set deficit return. Melzer also defeated the Spanish
world number one, Rafael Nadal in Shanghai, which was his first ever win over the Spanish legend.
Melzer ended Austria’s twenty one year want for a home champion last year when he defeated the Croatian Marin Cilic in the finals last year. Melzer had a straight set win over the Croatian with a 6-4, 6-3 win. Although he trails
Ferrer, American Andy Roddick and Russian Mikhail Youzhny in the run for the London entry - a second Vienna title win will ensure a spot for him in the world tour finals in London this November.
Last year’s, runner up Cilic also enters the Vienna event with the hopes of a win to ensure his qualification. Cilic currently holds a 4-2 record at Vienna having suffered his second loss only last year to homegrown Melzer. Cilic
ensured his spot in the running with a two title win this season; his first title win of the season came when he defeated the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the final of the Chennai Open in January. His second title win came the following month in Zagreb, Croatia
when he defended his title against German Michael Berrer. Cilic moved into the finals after having defeated Melzer in the semifinals. Cilic is now aiming to go one better this year as he hopes to have a straight flow into the finals and win the title.
World number sixteen Almagro also hopes to make the cut with a title win at Vienna and qualify for the London event. He also holds two titles this season. His first title win was at Bastad, Sweden where he defeated the Swiss defending
champion and top seed, Robin Soderling by 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 win. His next win came at the following event in Gstaad, Switzerland. He had a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Richard Gasquet for a second title win of the season.
Win so much resting on a win in this event, the players can be expected to bring their A game and give the fans some exciting matches in the coming week as they battle it out for the title.
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