ATP Bastad – Men’s Friday Preview

Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo vs. Michael Ryderstedt

Michael Ryderstedt advanced surprisingly to the second round in Bastad when he beat Maximo Gonzalez in first round on his least favorite surface.“I had good preparations for the Davis Cup and I've never felt more motivated after the loss and feel that I want to improve things,” said the Swede. He relied on his powerful serve and then blasted forehands all over the court while in long points he was down. Ramirez Hidalgo won against Golubev but the Kazakhstan player is in poor form for a while and he missed a lot of opportunities, he had break points before losing his serve in decider and looked that he will take the win but he has a low morale. Interesting meeting, Ryderstedt will count on serve and then will try to finish the point quickly while the Spaniard will try to keep the ball on court and force long rallies, the Swede might surprise the Spaniard with his strategy.

Guillermo Olaso vs. Nicolas Almagro

The Spaniard Nicolas Almagro will start to defend his title in Bastad against his compatriot Guillermo Olaso. Almagro isn’t without practice on court as he played in Copa Del Rey held at the Real Club Recreativo de Tenis losing in the final to Montanes after he beat Andujar. Olaso qualified here and even that the surface is on slow side he looked solid behind the serve, his best weapon, wining a lot of free points. Olaso is a powerful baseliner who goes for his shots and a lot of short points will be seen, Almagro has good retrieving skills and resist well from the back of the court.

Tomas Berdych vs. Blaz Kavcic    

Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia advanced in a walkover when Argentina's Juan Monaco withdrew from the tournament with a foot injury. Kavcic will face third-seeded two-time Bastad runner-up Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals. Berdych after he waited a couple of hours for his match he played on a secondary arena and let only four games against Gabashvili showing solid form. He served well firing 9 aces and wining 71% points behind the serve facing only one break point. They met again in quarter-final after Chennai this year. Kavcic can be a dangerous player, he has a solid serve of his own and can win cheap points, solid from the back of the court and we can see some interesting rallies here, he can play some aggressive tennis and he covers well the court. Berdych is favorite to advance further but we don’t see an easy match for him, Kavcic can resist in long rallies and has an effective serve to be dangerous here.  

Robin Soderling vs. Potito Starace

The top seeded player in the Sweden Open, Robin Soderling has knocked out Diego Junqueira to cruise into the quarterfinals of the 2011 Sweden Open. He let only one game in his first match but that game was a break for Argentinean. The Swede served well landing 71% of first serve in and wining 76% points behind the serve. He will have a much contested match against Starace who looks in good form beating Reister and Dasnieres De Veigy. H2h is 2-1 for Soderling but 1-1 on clay. The surface is on slow side which will give to Soderling an extra time to came and set for his shots while the Swede will win more free points behind his powerful serve. Soderling starts the match aggressive and tries to finish up the match quickly but if Starace will resist in the second set then anything can happen, the Swede looks favorite but the odds are too low for a confident bet.  

Andreas Haider-Maurer vs. David Ferrer

After waiting out a lengthy rain delay, second-seeded David Ferrer managed to finish his match against Pere Riba in two sets. The Spaniard was made to work hard for victory in the second set, but the result was almost never in doubt. He will meet Austrian Haider-Maurer who managed to beat for the first time Filippo Volandri. The Austrian looked the steadier player on court and even that his serve not always clicked he won more points on court benefiting by an Italian who didn’t looked that he will found his rhythm too quickly. Ferrer won a lot of rallies against Riba and looked in good form, he will force Haider-Maurer to play an extra shot and will put a lot of balls back into play, the Austrian tends to struggle against grinders on court, he tries to be more aggressive which leads to more unforced errors.