Rotterdam, The Netherlands - Original Cut-off: 44 1 Nadal, Rafael ESP 1 2 Murray, Andy GBR 4 3 Davydenko, Nikolay RUS 5 4 Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried FRA 6 5 Simon, Gilles FRA 7 6 Ferrer, David ESP 12 7 Monfils, Gael FRA 14 8 Soderling, Robin SWE 17 9 Andreev, Igor RUS 19 10 Berdych, Tomas CZE 20 11 Tursunov, Dmitry RUS 22 12 Gasquet, Richard FRA 25 13 Karlovic, Ivo CRO 26 14 Kohlschreiber, Philipp GER 28 15 Lopez, Feliciano ESP 30 16 Mathieu, Paul-Henri FRA 31 17 Youzhny, Mikhail RUS 32 18 Schuettler, Rainer GER 33 19 Melzer, Jurgen AUT 34 20 Seppi, Andreas ITA 35 21 Ancic, Mario CRO 36 22 Llodra, Michael FRA 40 23 Bolelli, Simone ITA 41 24 Benneteau, Julien FRA 43 25 Ljubicic, Ivan CRO 44 26 (Q) 27 (Q) 28 (Q) 29 (Q) 30 (WC) 31 (WC) 32 (WC)
Alternates 1. Tipsarevic, Janko SRB 49 2. Hanescu, Victor ROU 50 3. Santoro, Fabrice FRA 52 4. Gicquel, Marc FRA 54 5. Troicki, Viktor SRB 57 6. Gabashvili, Teimuraz RUS 65 7. Petzschner, Philipp GER 66 8. Chardy, Jeremy FRA 75 9. Zverev, Mischa GER 80 10. Hernych, Jan CZE 81 11. Gremelmayr, Denis GER 83 12. Golubev, Andrey KAZ 89 13. Karanusic, Roko CRO 91 14. Clement, Arnaud FRA 93 15. Mahut, Nicolas FRA 94
Strong line up - I assume Andy staying in Europe until Davis Cup
(1) NADAL, Rafael ESP v BOLELLI, Simone ITA (WC) DIMITROV, Grigor BUL v BERDYCH, Tomas CZE QUALIFIER v TURSUNOV, Dmitry RUS (WC) HUTA GALUNG, Jesse NED v (7) TSONGA, Jo-Wilfried FRA
(3) DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS v ANDREEV, Igor RUS BENNETEAU, Julien FRA v LOPEZ, Feliciano ESP KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO v LLODRA, Michael FRA QUALIFIER v (5) MONFILS, Gael FRA
(6) FERRER, David ESP v MELZER, Jurgen AUT QUALIFIER v YOUZHNY, Mikhail RUS SCHUETTLER, Rainer GER v ANCIC, Mario CRO KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER v (4) SIMON, Gilles FRA
(8) SODERLING, Robin SWE v QUALIFIER GASQUET, Richard FRA v MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA (WC) DE BAKKER, Thiemo NED v SEPPI, Andreas ITA LJUBICIC, Ivan CRO v (2) MURRAY, Andy GBR
Amazingly... no-one withdrew from the original list with the cut-off being at 44.... and Andy gets Ljubicic who is the last direct entry.
Not a bad draw, but I think Ljubicic has a good record against him and with his serve, he's always going to be dangerous indoors.
That said, he's not the player he was and should be a relatively nice opening match for Andy, and de Bakker/Seppi in round 2 hopefully would be comfortable as well - and a lot of the threats (Davydenko/Tsonga) are in the other half of the draw, so as long as he takes this seriously then he could have another good tournament
The Ljubicic H2H is 2-1 in favour of Ivan; they were 1 all at the end of 2006 then Ljubicic took the last match, in the final of Doha in 2007. But wasn't he ranked in the top 5 then?
The Ljubicic H2H is 2-1 in favour of Ivan; they were 1 all at the end of 2006 then Ljubicic took the last match, in the final of Doha in 2007. But wasn't he ranked in the top 5 then?
Was just going to mention that actually - missed his name when I first looked at the draw, so it's not so great that he could be the quarter final opponent, especially as he seems to be playing quite well this season.
Was also going to say that Gasquet might not be the opponent though as he has a bad record against Soderling (who is dangerous indoors, but would fancy Andy to take it in two tiebreaks or something like that), but Gasquet actually leads 3-2!
Just one of those head-to-heads which you imagine is totally different to what it actually is.
Guess Ljubicic would have been in the top five (and checking the rankings shows he was 5th, and went to 4th as a result of winning the title)
Seppi is no pushover. Last year he beat Hewitt and Nadal - fought very hard in every match, as he does against Federer.
Agreed! He's just come from a set down to beat the Dutch WC, de Bakker, 6-7(5) 6-2 7-6(1), so will be Andy's opponent in the second round, should he get past Ljubo!
De Bakker played a good match, but produced a pathetic final set tiebreak - think he made at least 4 or 5 unforced errors in it and basically gave it to Seppi.
Former junior number 1 Grigor Dimitrov has just come from a set down to beat Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to set up a probable round 2 meeting with Rafael Nadal as well!!!
Rafa comes through again, but has to fight to do so, winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 against the 17-year-old wonderkid Grigor Dimitrov.
Dimitrov looks to have a very good future ahead of him if he keeps progressing like it looks he will, while Rafa isn't going to win this tournament (not that many expected he would beforehand) unless he has a dramatic improvement in form.
