Sunday 6 February 2011

Tennis ATP & WTA Week 6 (07/02/11)

So the stars are slowly resurfacing after a well earned weeks rest. At the Open GDF Suez we'll see Kim Clijsters who is obviously favourite for the title but there are a number of potential favourites. Amongst early threats for Kim is Nadia Petrova. Nadia has always been a threat in the WTA tour but this year she hasn't been producing good results yet, hopefully we'll see a return in form from her. Others in that section include the Czech pair Iveta Benesova and Lucie Safarova. Dominika Cibulkova will be an obvious contender against Clijsters but Kanepi shouldn't be overlooked. Further off the scale are Sevastova, Arvidsson and Dushevina who all could make a splash.

In the bottom half of the draw we have the triple threat of Wickmayer, Kvitova and Petkovic - these three names always seem to crop up when I'm blogging these days. Of course there is also Sharapova but she has looked less than impressive recently. I don't really see anybody else other than those 4 challenging Clijsters for the title. If anybody is going to break those 4 maybe it's Bacsinszky and Kerber.

Zvonareva will be the star at the Pattaya Open but she needs to look out for in form Shuai Peng who made a splash at the Australian open beating Jankovic and K. Bondarenko. Elena Baltacha will also be in this section. Jie Zheng will be back here, will she be a threat? On the bottom half of the draw anybody could contend. Ivanovic wasn't good at the Aussies, we thought she may have found her form again but maybe it's too early to say. Kirilenko and Sara Errani will be potential finalists favourites but look out for Tanasugarn.

On the men's side there are a number of interesting names in the Brasil Open draw all the Top 8 look equally capable of taking the title. Amongst them is Alexandr Dolgopolov who made a name for himself after the Aussies. Of course look out for Santiago Giraldo also but with the finals last week I think he may run out of gas against Montanes.

At the SAP Open Fernando Verdasco is leading the field. None of the Top 8 seeds have really made an impact in the ATP this season so it's anybody's game here. Of course Verdasco, Monfils, Querrey and Hewitt are players to look out for and Del Potro will be playing here as well. Look deeper into the draw and you'll also find James Blake! He's playing a qualifier then either Milos Raonic or Xavier Malisse in the 2nd round.

But the attention this week will firmly be set in Rotterdam with the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. Djokovic had to withdraw here but the draw looks no less impressive. Robin Soderling will lead this draw with early threats including Ernests Gulbbis and Mikhail Youzhny. David Ferrer made an impressive run to the SFs at the Aussies so he will be a favourite here, Jurgen Melzer will be in his way to get to the SFS as well as two other huge threats, Victor Troicki and Marin Cilic.

Featuring in the bottom half of the draw is Andy Murray who will face Marcos Baghdatis in the 1st Round - ouch! He then has either Feliciano Lopez or Florian Mayer to contend with. He should win both but both will potentially be tough matches. SF opponents include Tsonga, Davydenko and Berdych. Tsonga is not in his best form yet, Davydenko made a shock 1st round exit at the Aussies so Murray looks to have an easier route to the finals. 

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