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9/27/09 9:17 PM | Ricky Dimon
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is back in Bangkok, where he captured his first ATP title last season. Tsonga is joined in a solid field that also includes fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be playing his first career ATP tournament as a defending champion when he returns to the PTT Thailand Open this week in Bangkok.
Tsonga took out Novak Djokovic in the 2008 final, but this year the Frenchman’s toughest challenger could be No. 2 seed and countryman Gilles Simon, who was a standout on indoor hard courts last fall but has been dealing with knee tendinitis.
Rounding out the top four seeds in Bangkok--all of whom get first-round byes--are Sam Querrey and Viktor Troicki. Other seeded players include No. 5 Philipp Petzschner, No. 6 Jurgen Melzer, No. 7 Fabrice Santoro, and No. 8 John Isner, who will be contesting his first ATP event as a seed.
While the top three seeds are all expected to take care of business en route to the semifinals, Troicki faces an extremely difficult path. The Serb could face an in-form Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round two before a potential quarterfinal clash with Isner. Troicki would not be favored in that matchup on indoor hard courts, as Isner is playing the best tennis of his life and should be able to do serious damage with his serve on a fast surface. The 6'10'' American is coming off a fourth-round appearance at the U.S. Open, where he stunned Andy Roddick in a fifth-set tiebreaker.
Other potential quarterfinal matchups include Tsonga versus either Marat Safin or Philipp Petzschner, Querrey against Melzer, and an all-French duel featuring Simon and Santoro.
Tsonga, who fell to Isner in a third-set tiebreaker at the Legg Mason Classic this summer, could be on a collision course with the No. 8 seed for the semifinals. Bangkok's top seed will first meet the winner of an opening-round match between wild card Somdev Devvarman and the slumping Ernests Gulbis.
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ok...I was wrong, just when you completely write Gulbis off, he comes up with a W - good for him!
thefanchild , 9/29/09 5:01 PM
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Somdev is gonna jump on Gulbis...I hope Isner and Querrey play well - and I hope that they are 1 and 2 on the U.S. Davis Cup team someday (2 and 3 would be a start). Safin? Who is that?
thefanchild , 9/29/09 4:59 PM