ATP S-Hertogenbosch – Men’s Thursday Preview

Teymuraz Gabashvili vs. Ivan Dodig

Gabashvili hasn't exactly been in inspired form this season, but has produced two encouraging performances on the grass courts. But with some luck as he faced a qualifier and a WC invitation player.

But things weren’t easy on court as he lost his serve in each match losing one set. Dodig instead reached the quarter-finals with wins over Hanescu and Haider-Maurer losing his serve just once and without set lost.

Overall the Croatian served better then the Russian who still struggles on court but coming from back to back wins might boost his game. Both players will want to qualify in semi-finals, especially Gabashvili, and Dodig looks on course for another title.

Overall Dodig has the better serve and played consistently recently, he will charge the net and will give Russian little time to respond, he will win more free points behind the serve while Gabashvili still isn’t on top of his game. Dodig looks favorite to take this one but the motivation side with Wimbledon just days off is a question mark.    

Santiago Giraldo vs. Dmitry Tursunov

Columbian Santiago Giraldo is on his second quarter-final in Unicef Open, last year he lost to eventual champion Stakhovsky. It might happen the same scenario as Tursunov looks favorite for title now with this wide open table.

Giraldo had caught a serving day against Berrer and even that he was pushed all the way he resisted well in first set while in the second was more one dimensional. The Russian had a much complicate match against Mahut managing to win in three sets.

Both players has a powerful serve, with a plus for Tursunov and both hit with a lot of power from the back of the court, but the Russian has the angles and the depth and also advance more to the net.

The Russian wants the title here and if he will keep the same level as against Mahut he will take this one in 2 sets.     

Denis Gremelmayr vs. Marcos Baghdatis      

Without win on grass in five attempts prior to s-Hertogenbosch, the German Denis Gremelmayr is in quarter-finals and will face Marcos Baghdatis for a place in semi-finals.

The German won a curios match against Nieminen who was leading comfortably but after that he simply gave the match to Gremelmayr.

The Cypriot ended local hopes beating Haase in straight sets. Wasn’t great at retrieving but his ground game helped him, also won a lot of free points behind his own serve.

Baghdatis is favorite to take this one and is hard to see him losing to Gremelmayr who hasn’t a powerful serve on this surface to make an impact, hoping that the Cypriot needs more grass practice.

Xavier Malisse vs. Alex Bogomolov

Third seed Xavier Malisse of Belgium advanced, dispatching Dutch wild card Jesse Huta Galung in two sets. He is close of his second semi-final in a row at Unicef Open. He played well against Huta Galung with his serve working well and also looked in good form.

The American advanced with a win over Volandri and he will want to take this one as he wants more the points then to rest for Wimbledon where he has limited success. But also Malisse looks set for this tournament and he might want to go deep and win the all thing.

The Belgian has the better grass game, he is a tough baseliner and a useful volleyer, when he is under pressure he builds his points more accuracy, a good and deep slice on backhand wing, good angled shots on forehand wing.

The American will try to keep the ball in play and force errors but Malisse showed good consistency and this match stays on his racquet.