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7/13/09 6:19 AM | Ricky Dimon
The ATP World Tour heads back to clay before the U.S. Open Series kicks into high gear. Marat Safin and top two seeds Fernando Verdasco and Robin Soderling headline the action this week at Bastad's Catella Swedish Open.
The brief grass-court season is over and it's back to the clay before the U.S. hard-court swing paves the way to the U.S. Open. This week's clay-court action takes place in Stuttgart, Germany and Bastad, Sweden, where Fernando Verdasco is the No. 1 seed.
The Catella Swedish Open is just a 250-point event and the field is not incredibly strong, but Verdasco will have plenty of competition as he bids for the title. Verdasco and the rest of the top four seeds--Robin Soderling, Tommy Robredo, and Jurgen Melzer--have byes straight to the second round since the draw size is 28 instead of 32. An in-form Soderling, of course, reached the French Open final and the fourth round of Wimbledon, losing to Roger Federer both times.
While a Verdasco-Soderling final is a real possibility, the top-seeded Spaniard could run into serious trouble prior to that point. Robredo already owns multiple clay-court titles this season and he is on a collision course for an all-Spanish semifinal with Verdasco. Both Spaniards lost Davis Cup singles rubbers to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber over the weekend; Robredo in easy straight sets and Verdasco 8-6 in the fifth set.
Another one of Spain's clay-court specialists also looms large in the draw. The streaky Nicolas Almagro is always a threat to win any tournament on clay, but also is no stranger to bowing out far too early in tournaments. Almagro could be one and done in Bastad mainly because he will be contesting the marquee matchup of the first round against Marat Safin. Safin is in dismal form in his final season on tour, but the mercurial Russian remains dangerous.
In addition to Safin, unseeded threats who could wreak havoc on the Bastad draw are Julien Benneteau, wild card Grigor Dimitrov, and clay-court force Juan Monaco. An all-Argentine first-round clash pits Monaco against No. 8 seed Maximo Gonzalez. Should Monaco prevail, he could run into Verdasco in the quarterfinals. Benneteau is in a tough fourth quarter of the draw along with Safin, Almagro, and Soderling. Dimitrov has a good opportunity in a relatively weak third quarter of the draw, where the two seeds are Melzer and Florent Serra.
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Soderling is a magnanimous player, and I know he still has many years to perform. I hope he will try and improve his way with the serve. It is poor, because he either acts that he is nervous though the ability is uncanny when we see it too often...I mean, he usually does so if he's playing against Federer or Nadal. But if Soder keeps his ridiculous acting up, it will affect his chance in the game...
tauojtcer , 9/16/09 5:18 AM
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Quite relevant as the guys are improving with each tourne. Soda breezing nicely and requires plenty of relaxatn to develop his skills. Fer seems to be doing great. Wishing them all the luck..
tauojtcer , 7/13/09 9:56 AM