ATP S-Hertogenbosch – Men’s Tuesday Preview

Jesse Huta Galung vs. Julian Reister      

Jesse Huta Galung and Rogier Wassen have qualified for the quarter-finals of the men's doubles at the Open Unicef. It will hope now that will register his first win in s-Hertogenbosch after he failed twice in first round to Ferrer.

He has his chances as Reister withdrew with shoulder injury in Halle and overall has two withdrawls in the last two tournaments. The German feels that he needs match practice prior to Wimbledon but he will not have an easy match.

Huta has a powerful serve which will give him a lot of free points, he is quick around the court and has good hands at the net but also can remain solid from the baseline. He is in good form and he played in doubles where he showed a good form.

Jarkko Nieminen vs. Maximo Gonzalez

Despite losing to Lu in first round in Halle, the Finn made a solid match, his serve was his best weapon during the match even that he lost his serve once in the match, Lu had catch a solid day.He played in doubles in Halle and is here for the second time, he lost last year in first round. He will meet Gonzalez who isn’t on his best surface, he has only two matches in his career and both were in Wimbledon losing them both. The Finn served well and despite the Argentine having good retrieving skills and having a solid defense his movement is poor on court and needs some time to adjust to the surface, if the Finn will not suffer a huge letdown in his game he should take this one easily in 2 sets.  

Alex Bogomolov vs. Jeremy Chardy

Frenchman Jeremy Chardy is coming here after he lost the final in Nottingham to Sela, he was a little bit off on court despite some solid tennis, he came after a tough semi-finals against Izak were three tie-breaks were involved.

The motivation on Chardy side is crucial as he hasn’t the best season while Bogomolov played consistently this year and entered in Top 100 but he made a curios match against Kunitsyn in Queens were he retired with hip injury when he was just points away of losing.

Frenchman has the serve on his side but the American showed some grueling tennis in some moments, he also has a powerful serve and if he will keep the ball in play longer he could tired down the Frenchman, not the easiest match.

Xavier Malisse vs. Alejandro Falla

They met last year in Unicef Open in quarter-finals and Malisse won in 3 sets, but back then the Belgian was in better form while this time the Columbian looks in better form and is coming from qualifications, he beat Wassen and Navarro behind a solid ground game as his retrieve didn’t work too much.

H2h is 3-1 for Malisse and 2-0 on grass but the Columbian showed that on a slower grass he can be dangerous, he made a solid match against Federer in first round in Wimbledon last year.

The Belgian has a lot of points on grass and he made a solid match against Murray in Queens, he has a better grass court game with a lot of slice and good angles in his shots, Falla is in good form and can be a tricky player.

Michael Russell vs. Santiago Giraldo    

Columbian Santiago Giraldo starts the grass season against American Michael Russell. Last year he reached the quarter-finals in s-Hertogenbosch beating Chiudinelli and Troicki. Russell took the first meeting between them back in 2006 but since then Giraldo won three meetings and all on faster grounds.

The American played on grass already losing a tough match to Tipsarevic in Queens and overall he tends to lose to powerful hitters but the Serbian is a solid player on grass while still the Columbian isn’t on his favorite surface and his success came to unmotivated players. Giraldo has the serve on his side and hits with a lot of power from the back of the court while Russell looks the better on court, he is quick around the court and has better baseline skills, he hasn’t the same force on shots but he was solid against Tipsarevic.

Javier Marti vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili

Spanish wild card Javier Marti dumped eighth-seeded compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver out of the Unicef Open.

He served well but he was poor on returns and we question his compatriot motivation on court who made a sluggish match. The Russian advanced after he won against qualifier Kravchuk and will see this as a good opportunity to grab some free points.

Marti is a powerful player with compact shots on both wings, powerful serve and hit with power from the back of the court and likes to dictate from the baseline but the Russian will generate his own power in shots and has the better serve and will put the Spaniard always on the wrong foot.  

Andreas Haider-Maurer vs. Ivan Dodig

Andreas Haider-Maurer has won his match against Blaz Kavcic in three sets and achieved his first win on the surface.

It was a tough match but the Austrian impressed with his serve, he won 92% points behind the serve and didn’t faced a break point the entire match, overall Kavcic won only 4 points on first serve on retrieving. Also the Croatian catch a serving day beating Hanescu in 2 sets. H2h is 2-1 for Haider-Maurer with the last meeting on grass in qualifications for Wimbledon back in 2009.

Tricky match as if the Austrian will catch another serving day he can have the upper hand but the Croat has better retrieving skills then Kavcic, he also has the better serve.

Robin Haase vs. Michael Zverev

Haase reached the final in Halle with Raonic after he lost in opening round to Dolgopolov but he had a lot of opportunities and he simply flattered against the Ukrainian.

Despite his game that is suited to grass court, the Dutchman has poor record and is only 1/4 here managing to lose even to Greul in s-Hertogenbosch. Zverev lost to Troicki easily in Halle where he had some points to defend and has a good grass court game and had some success on the surface but his form, and especially his confidence, is poor. Haase has the better serve and if he will play his aggressive tennis and will not enter in long rallies he will have the upper hand, he also has more matches on grass recently, but his poor record here doesn’t let us to be more confident here.