ATP Gstaad – Friday Preview

Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Marcel Granollers

Second seed Stanislas Wawrinka looks to make the last 4 for a third time in Gstaad.

Wawrinka made a comfortable start to his quest to win a first title on home soil, defeating Australian qualifier Peter Luczak 6-3, 7-5. Beating the world number 248 will hardly strike fear into the rest of the field but the first match on clay for some time is always a difficult one and Wawrinka will have been delighted with his serving (he won 81% of the points behind his first serve). He’s come close in Gstaad twice before, losing in the 2005 final to Gaston Gaudio (remember him, former French Open champion !) and in the 2008 semi-finals to Victor Hanescu.

He will be strong favourite to make the last four again by overcoming eighth seed Granollers today. The Spaniard crushed two-time Gstaad runner-up Igor Andreev 6-1, 6-3 in the second round but Andreev has been out of sorts for some time.

Wawrinka beat him 6-4, 6-4 on clay last year but Granollers did gain revenge with a three set win at the Miami Masters back in March.

It’s always hard to predict results at this time of the year as the matches are more unpredictable than ever but the home support gives Wawrinka extra incentive to do well this week and he should pull through.

Mikhail Youzhny vs. Andreas Haider-Maurer

Mikhail Youzhny aims to go one better than his 2010 Gstaad showing when he faces Andreas Haider-Maurer in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Youzhny has never shone in Gstaad over the years but he’s always been reasonably consistent. This is his third quarter-final in his last four showings at the Swiss Open and he reached it with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Denis Istomin on Wednesday.

Haider-Maurer has snuck into the top 100 over the past year and is not to be underestimated. He took Robin Soderling to five sets at last year’s US Open and is a gritty competitor.

He was thoroughly outclassed by David Ferrer in the quarters of the recent Swedish Open, managing just two games but is Youzhny capable of handing out the same kind of treatment ?  He’s not in the same class as Ferrer on clay, lacking the same kind of consistency as the Spaniard on this surface.

The conditions in Gstaad have been very wet over the past couple of days and the clay will be even slower than usual. It is doubtful that this will suit Youzhny, a shot-maker who likes the ball to be going through the court.

Fernando Verdasco vs. Julien Benneteau

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who is coming off a semi-final showing in Hamburg last week, converted four of his 14 break point opportunities to defeat Portugal’s Frederico Gil. He looks back on track as he could finished the match easier, his serve entered well and was looking good on court.

Also Benneteau advanced in straight sets win over Matthias Bachinger, the Frenchman served well during the match and looked solid from the back of the court wining a lot of rallies and had gone for his shots with every opportunity.

The Frenchman looks slowly on his way back, the Frenchman has some sting on serve in Gstaad due to the altitude and that gives him an extra comfort. H2h is 2-1 for Verdasco with the most recent meeting on clay last year but last year the Spaniard was in great form while these days still isn’t at his best, and Benneteau is looking good here.