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  • Bastad First Round Preview

    7/8/08 5:21 AM | Ricky Dimon
    - Much to the delight of the Bastad crowd, Swedes will dominate the proceedings on Tuesday. Among the hometown heroes in action are Thomas Johansson, Robin Söderling, and Jonas Bjorkman.

    Fabio Fognini vs. (8) Robin Söderling

    Fognini is starting to make a name for himself this year and he is doing it on clay. At the ATP level the 21-year-old Italian reached the quarterfinals in Vina del Mar, the semifinals in Costa Do Sauipe, and the semifinals in Warsaw. Just last week he captured a Challenger title on the dirt of Turin, Italy. His first-round draw in Bastad against Söderling, however, is not a kind one. The Swede made it to two straight ATP finals on hard courts earlier in the season and went undefeated in leading his country to the World Team Championship title this summer. Söderling currently stands at 19th in the 2008 points race. This match should be a close one, but Söderling has to have the edge due to how well he has been playing.

    Marcel Granollers vs. Jonas Bjorkman

    At 36 years old, Bjorkman is apparently calling it quits at the end of the season. He should have a raucous Swedish crowd behind him this week and he will need it, because things have not been going well for him on the singles court. Bjorkman has won just two matches since reaching the Las Vegas semifinals in late February. Clay is not at all his strong suit and he is just 0-1 on the surface in 2008. Granollers, on the other hand, is just 22 years old and he loves the dirt. The Spaniard won a title on the slow stuff earlier in the year in Houston and he also reached the quarterfinals in Warsaw. The smart money is definitely on Granollers, but if there is one thing we have learned from Bjorkman over the years, it's never count him out of anything.

    Marat Safin vs. Marc Lopez

    The mercurial Safin stormed out of nowhere to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon. Such a performance was a long time coming for Safin, who had been mired in a dismal slump for almost all of 2007 and all of 2008. You never know what you are going to get from the Russian, so now the question is will he be able to sustain this momentum. Lopez is definitely more comfortable on clay than his opponent, but the talent gap between the two is undeniable and that should be the deciding factor in this contest. Lopez, after all, is a stranger to ATP level events at the moment. If Safin plays anywhere close to the way he did at the All-England Club, this one will not be close.

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