ATP Munich – Friday Preview

Philipp Kohlschreiber vs. Radek Stepanek

Philipp Kohlschreiber has made an explosive start to this year’s BMW Open, and remains in contention for a second career ATP Munich Open title. The eighth seed has only lost 10 games on his way to the quarter-finals, and is yet to lose a set. Whilst he hasn’t had to face a seeded opponent, he’s been in top form, and should feel confident ahead of his quarter-final showdown with Radek Stepanek.
Stepanek has been made to work hard for his place in the last eight. Both of his matches were close three-setters, and he was in some respects fortunate to clinch a 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3 win against Dustin Brown in round two. Even so, the world No. 67 has plenty of experience at this level and might be able to cause a few surprises here. Kohlschreiber will need to be switched on to get past the four-time ATP World Tour title winner.
Stepanek has won three of his four matches against Kohlschreiber, and perhaps more significantly won the only previous clay court meeting between the pairing. That said, Stepanek and Kohlschreiber haven’t been pitted against each other since 2009, and Friday’s contest could pan out very differently to previous encounters.

Fifth seed Florian Mayer will meet Grigor Dimitrov on Friday in the quarter-finals of the BMW Open. Florian Mayer will be pleased with how things are going for him in Munich this week. He can theoretically make it through to the final of this event without facing a seeded opponent, and on current form this seems like a real possibility. Mayer hasn’t lost a set all week, and can expect the backing of the fans as he attempts to become the first German winner of this event since Philipp Kohlschreiber in 2007. His next match will be a quarter-final clash against Grigor Dimitrov.

This could be a big week for Dimitrov, who prior to the BMW Open had struggled to make much of an impact on the ATP World Tour. The nineteen year-old beat Andreas Beck in round one, and then caused an upset against fourth seed Marcos Baghdatis in round two. It looks like the youngster is showing real promise, and Mayer can’t afford to be complacent here.

Prior to Friday’s matchup, there has never been an ATP World Tour contest between Mayer and Dimitrov. Mayer will enter the match as the favourite, and his experience could prove to be a major advantage here. Even so, Dimtrov has nothing to lose, and this is poised to be a thrilling showdown.

Petzschner Philipp vs. Starace Potito

Philipp Petzschner defeated top-seeded and defending champion Mikhail Youzhny in a second-round match of the BMW Open to advance in quarter-finals. He enjoys these fast tracks in Munich, he has a semi-finals to defend from last year.

But is also in qualifications for Madrid and he might not push too much. Starace made a solid match against Stakhovsky wining easily in two sets. They have a meeting but is way back to be a mark. Overall the German relies on his powerful serve, he isn’t without chances in some long rallies but the Italian has a better defense and more weapons from the back of the court, he will move the German from side to side as he doesn’t like to hit from running. Starace is favorite to take this one, he played well this year on clay.

 

Davydenko Nikolay vs. Cilic Marin

The third-seeded Cilic continued his fine play at this event with a two sets win over Horacio Zeballos. If the Croat showed a solid tennis, Davydenko once more struggled and was close of an exit, he saved 11 break points from 14. He was solid on serve but only on firs delivery as the second was attackable and lost many points.

Not an easy match as both players struggles for a while with Cilic being slight favorite. H2h is 3-1 for the Croat but the last meeting between them was a win for the Russian, last year in Beijing. Both players are in search of their form but the Croat looked good from the back of the court and a lot of balls found the target while the Russian puts a lot of fight on court but still makes errors on court but he will enter with some morale. A match that can go easily either way as neither is mentally too stable recently.