Last claycourt points on offer
September 22nd 2009 11:03
THE claycourt specialists are out in force for the last tournament on the red dirt for the year at the Bucharest Open in Romania this week.
Victor Hanescu is the top seed at his home event ahead of Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, Argentine Juan Monaco and Russian Igor Andreev.
The bottom four seeds are Spaniard Albert Montanes, Austrian Daniel Koellerer, Italian Andreas Seppi and Argentine Pablo Cuevas.
Koellerer and Cuevas have enjoyed breakthrough campaigns in 2009, improving 66 and 57 places respectively to achieve career-high rankings.
World No.57 Koellerer is drawn to meet Hanescu in the quarter-finals, while world No.60 Cuevas and Monaco could cross paths at the same stage.
Dangerous unseeded players in the draw include Italian Fabio Fognini, Frenchman Florent Serra, Argentine Maximo Gonzalez, Romanian Victor Crivoi and Australian Peter Luczak.
World No.71 Luczak, up 87 spots from his end-of-season ranking, is already into the second round after defeating Slovakian Karol Beck in straight sets.
Almagro is the interesting competitor in the draw.
The 24-year-old surged to a career-best No.11 ranking in July last year – only weeks after a quarter-final run at Roland Garros.
But Almagro has slipped to No.30 in the world following a mediocre season to date that has seen him eliminated in the third round at all four grand slams in 2009.
This is his chance to shine and gain momentum for a late-season charge up the standings.
Almagro starts against Italian Simone Bolelli.
The other ATP Tour tournament this week is in Metz, France.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, fresh from a shock singles defeat to Dutch former junior world No.1 Thiemo de Bakker in a World Group playoff match last week, is the top seed.
Monfils is one of 11 French players in the 32-strong draw that includes four byes.
Countrymen Paul-Henri Mathieu (third) and Fabrice Santoro (fifth) also earned seeds for the event.
Expect strong performances from Germans Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner.
All eyes will also be on former top-10 player Richard Gasquet in his third tournament back from a drug ban.
Gasquet has looked completely out of touch since returning from the three-month ban.
Elsewhere, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova headlines the WTA Tour event in Korea.
The Korea Open is sneakily strong, with the likes of in-form competitors Francesca Schiavone and Romanian Sorana Cirstea, of Italy and Romania respectively.
Other seeds include Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues (second), Russians Alisa Kleybanova (fifth), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (sixth) and Vera Dushevina (seventh) and Austrian Sybille Bammer (eighth).
German Andrea Petkovic, Italian Alberta Brianti, Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, Russian Maria Kirilenko and Japan’s Ayumi Morita – Hantuchova’s round-one opponent – are among several dangerous floaters in the draw.
Israeli Shahar Peer is seeking back-to-back titles at this week’s Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan.
Peer won in China over the weekend – her first victory on the WTA Tour in three years – and faces a similar strength field in Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova is the No.1 seed in the tournament courtesy of her No.55 ranking, but Peer is a former world No.15.
Romanians Monica Niculescu and Ioana Raluca Olaru, Belarussian Olga Govortsova, Swiss teenager Stefanie Voegele, Austrian Patricia Mayr and Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva are the other top contenders.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Melinda Czink beat fellow left-hander Lucie Safarova, from the Czech Republic, to win her maiden WTA Tour title in the Quebec City Challenge.
Czink climbed 15 places to a career-high No.37 in the latest rankings.
Unranked Australian Alicia Molik was also a winner last week in a lowly Northern Territory Challenger in her first singles event back in her comeback to the tour after a year out of the game.
The former world No.8, who also claimed the doubles title with countrywoman Nicole Kriz, peaked in the 2004 and 2005 seasons before a debilitating middle-ear condition ruined her career.
The condition affected Molik’s vision and balance and despite attempting to fight back from it she was never the same player.
It will be interesting to see whether the two-time doubles grand slam champion can regain her former glory.
I would love to see it happen, but I will believe it when I see it.
Victor Hanescu is the top seed at his home event ahead of Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, Argentine Juan Monaco and Russian Igor Andreev.
The bottom four seeds are Spaniard Albert Montanes, Austrian Daniel Koellerer, Italian Andreas Seppi and Argentine Pablo Cuevas.
Koellerer and Cuevas have enjoyed breakthrough campaigns in 2009, improving 66 and 57 places respectively to achieve career-high rankings.
World No.57 Koellerer is drawn to meet Hanescu in the quarter-finals, while world No.60 Cuevas and Monaco could cross paths at the same stage.
Dangerous unseeded players in the draw include Italian Fabio Fognini, Frenchman Florent Serra, Argentine Maximo Gonzalez, Romanian Victor Crivoi and Australian Peter Luczak.
World No.71 Luczak, up 87 spots from his end-of-season ranking, is already into the second round after defeating Slovakian Karol Beck in straight sets.
Almagro is the interesting competitor in the draw.
Spaniard Nicolas Almagro is the No.2 seed at this week's Bucharest Open.
The 24-year-old surged to a career-best No.11 ranking in July last year – only weeks after a quarter-final run at Roland Garros.
But Almagro has slipped to No.30 in the world following a mediocre season to date that has seen him eliminated in the third round at all four grand slams in 2009.
This is his chance to shine and gain momentum for a late-season charge up the standings.
Almagro starts against Italian Simone Bolelli.
The other ATP Tour tournament this week is in Metz, France.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, fresh from a shock singles defeat to Dutch former junior world No.1 Thiemo de Bakker in a World Group playoff match last week, is the top seed.
Monfils is one of 11 French players in the 32-strong draw that includes four byes.
Countrymen Paul-Henri Mathieu (third) and Fabrice Santoro (fifth) also earned seeds for the event.
Expect strong performances from Germans Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner.
All eyes will also be on former top-10 player Richard Gasquet in his third tournament back from a drug ban.
Gasquet has looked completely out of touch since returning from the three-month ban.
Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova will attempt to win a fourth WTA Tour singles title in Korea this week.
Elsewhere, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova headlines the WTA Tour event in Korea.
The Korea Open is sneakily strong, with the likes of in-form competitors Francesca Schiavone and Romanian Sorana Cirstea, of Italy and Romania respectively.
Other seeds include Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues (second), Russians Alisa Kleybanova (fifth), Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (sixth) and Vera Dushevina (seventh) and Austrian Sybille Bammer (eighth).
German Andrea Petkovic, Italian Alberta Brianti, Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, Russian Maria Kirilenko and Japan’s Ayumi Morita – Hantuchova’s round-one opponent – are among several dangerous floaters in the draw.
Israeli Shahar Peer is seeking back-to-back titles at this week’s Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan.
Peer won in China over the weekend – her first victory on the WTA Tour in three years – and faces a similar strength field in Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova is the No.1 seed in the tournament courtesy of her No.55 ranking, but Peer is a former world No.15.
Romanians Monica Niculescu and Ioana Raluca Olaru, Belarussian Olga Govortsova, Swiss teenager Stefanie Voegele, Austrian Patricia Mayr and Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva are the other top contenders.
Former top-10 player Alicia Molik returned to singles action in the Northern Territory last week after a year out of the sport.
Meanwhile, Hungarian Melinda Czink beat fellow left-hander Lucie Safarova, from the Czech Republic, to win her maiden WTA Tour title in the Quebec City Challenge.
Czink climbed 15 places to a career-high No.37 in the latest rankings.
Unranked Australian Alicia Molik was also a winner last week in a lowly Northern Territory Challenger in her first singles event back in her comeback to the tour after a year out of the game.
The former world No.8, who also claimed the doubles title with countrywoman Nicole Kriz, peaked in the 2004 and 2005 seasons before a debilitating middle-ear condition ruined her career.
The condition affected Molik’s vision and balance and despite attempting to fight back from it she was never the same player.
It will be interesting to see whether the two-time doubles grand slam champion can regain her former glory.
I would love to see it happen, but I will believe it when I see it.
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