Valencia Open 2011: Preview Day 1 – Part Two
As action on the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències at Valencia for the Valencia Open 500 continues on Monday, 31st October, American John Isner wraps up the singles action for the day as he plays the Canadian youngster
Vasek Pospisil in their first round match.
Isner has been absent from the professional circuit since his quarterfinal loss to Andy Murray at Flushing Meadows after an injury sidelined him from the Asian swing. However, recovered and rested the hard-hitting American comes
to Valencia to improve his ranking before the season draws to a close.
An impressive 9-1 win loss mark in his last ten matches, Isner holds a title at Winston Salem and shows the only one defeat coming at the US Open. Pospisil, on the other hand, is qualifying into his second straight event on tour
though he looks to an early round exit. He last exited St. Petersburg in the first round losing to Andreas Seppi.
This will be the first meeting between the two players. Both players, hard hitters on the hard courts, will look to dominate the other. If Pospisil’s rank goes against him then there is also the slight chance that the American
is not fully recovered from whatever sidelined him from the Asia events.
As the two North Americans take to the Centre Court the team of Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna will kick off the doubles action as they take on the pairing of locals Nicolas Almagro and Pablo Andujar.
Although the two teams are playing each other for the first time, it hardly seems like a competition. Teaming up for the first time in three years, the Spaniards stand a very long chance of taking on the Indo Pak express. Doubles
specialist, Bopanna and Qureshi are coming from a quarterfinal run at Vienna before which they clinched the title at Stockholm.
Continuing with the doubles action at Valencia is another local team of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez as they play the Argentine duo of Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco. First time meeting between the two is expected to go
in the favour of the Spaniards, given the local crowd support.
Wrapping up day’s play is an all Spaniard doubles clash as the team of Daniel Gimeno-Traver and Pere Riba takes on the tandem of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez. Having put in more court time, Verdasco and Lopez may come
out as the winners.
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