ATP Gstaad – Wednesday Preview

Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Peter Luczak

Stanislas Wawrinka begins his bid to triumph in front of home fans agaist Peter Luczak in round 2.The Swiss number two has never won a tournament on his home turf and this week provides him with as good an opportunity as any. Sadly for local fans, Wawrinka is their last remaining representative in the main draw with the assortment of wild cards all making early exits. Luczak had a tough task getting past plucky wildcard Alex Sadecky, a big serving left-hander who has risen to the occasion in Gstaad in the past. Luczak cruised through qualifying at the weekend and was ranked more than 150 places higher than his opponent but it was a close run thing as he battled through 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

It was not a performance that will concern Wawrinka, the world number 16, ranked over 200 places higher than Luczak. Wawrinka will not have been overly happy with his clay-court form earlier this year but he still managed to reach the 4th round of the French Open, losing to Roger Federer.

Matthias Bachinger vs. Pablo Andujar

Strange decision of the German who after a good session on American hard court opted to return in Europe and play on clay. Also, he didn’t excel on clay this year, he is only 1/4 managing to beat only Vesely.

The Spaniard is in good form, he played the final in Stuttgart and stopped in second round in Hamburg to Verdasco. The surface favors the powerful and aggressive game of the Spaniard, Bachinger losing to powerful players like Kavcic, Stakhovsky, De Bakker, Reister over the years on clay. Also, the German is prone to errors when he is forced to play quickly, is a solid baseliner with a good net game but is Andujar will play his usual game and with his deep and powerful balls will push the German way behind his comfort zone.

Mikhail Youzhny vs. Denis Istomin

Mikhail Youzhny gets his Swiss Open campaign underway on Wednesday against Denis Istomin.

Wins have been hard to come by recently for Istomin so the Uzbek will have been delighted with his first round triumph over qualifier Martin Fischer. It was not pretty but Istomin just about held his nerve, staving off 12 out of 16 break points to come through 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Youzhny will fancy his chances of another deep run this week after his exploits in Hamburg which saw him make the last four, losing to eventual champion Gilles Simon, a man who’s in a bit of a hurry to get back to the top 10.

Youzhny did not excel himself in Gstaad last year, reaching the quarters in fairly unconvincing fashion before going down in three sets to a qualifier.

He will be eager to improve on that this year and the path to the semi-finals looks fairly clear. He could face Fernando Verdasco at that stage.

Istomin won their only previous match courtesy of a retirement when they met 2 years ago in St Petersburg but look for Youzhny to set the record straight today.

Santiago Giraldo vs. Andreas Haider-Maurer

Interesting meeting. After a hesitating start where the Columbian set his game and lost the opening set, he controlled the match after that behind powerful serving. He has found his range in shots putting Garcia-Lopez off balance and closed the match after 1 hour and 40 minutes. He will meet Haider-Maurer who advanced after a much comfortable win over local player Marti.

The Austrian was solid behind the serve, he played well hitting hard and putting Marti always under pressure and when the Swiss started to miss on serve it was all over. Both players relies on serve and forehand combination, both hit with a lot of power and both goes for their shots and looks a closer match then odds indicate.

The conditions suits to both players, the Austrian needs to stay short on points and make a step on court to be more aggressive and keep Giraldo always off balance, his serve worked well in first match.

Marcel Granollers vs. Igor Andreev

Both players advanced comfortably in second round benefiting by low competing opponents. Andreev won against Zverev showing solid tennis and looked solid on court while Granollers let only one game against Bohli, but both matches are misleading as both their opponents putted a little fight on court.

H2h is 1-0 for the Russian with a meeting last year on clay. Interesting meeting, the Spaniard is a tall and powerful player with big serve and solid ground game. He is attacking player and he has the shots to be good on clay, but his main weapon remain the serve, if that enter he will gain confidence on his ground strokes too.

Andreev has an effective kick serve and he likes to play in Gstaad where his top spin is effective, especially the forehand, is a consistent baseliner but he needs to be patient and wait for opportunities.