Tennis Atlantic

2012 ATP Munich Preview

by Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com
 
BMW Open
ATP World Tour 250
Munich, Germany
April 30-May 5, 2012
Prize Money: € 398,250
 
 
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nicolas Almagro and Feliciano Lopez headline the field at the BMW Munich Open on the clay courts, where veteran Russian Nikolay Davydenko will try to defend his title.
 
Top 4 Seeds (who all receive 1st round byes)
1: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
2: Feliciano Lopez
3: Marin Cilic
4: Phillip Kohlschreiber
 
1st round matchups to watch:

 Michael Berrer vs. Tommy Haas

2 veteran Germans wild card beneficiaries will duke it out.  Berrer’s serve and volleying style creates an interesting match-up with Haas, whose game is well suited for clay.
 
Alejandro Falla vs. Matthias Bachinger
 
Bucharest semi-finalist and local favorite Bachinger will take on the Colombian Falla.
 
Cedrik Marcel-Stebe vs.  Sergiy Stakhovsky
 
The promising young German Stebe is fun to watch and will take on Ukrainian Stakhovsky, who fell to Andy Murray last week in Barcelona.
 
Top Half:

Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will face either Haas or Berrer before a possible match-up with another German, Daniel Brands (a wildcard), 8 seed Marcos Baghdatis, a qualifier or Tobias Kamke. If Kamke advances as expected, he will likely face 3 seed Marin Cilic.
 
Cilic will open up against Bachinger or Falla, followed by a match-up with 6 seed Mikhail Youzhny, Petzschner, Santiago Giraldo or Steve Darcis of Belgium.
 
Bottom Half:

2 seed Feliciano Lopez will start off against Stebe or Stakhovsky before a possible match-up with 5 seed Bernard Tomic (Potito Starace, Olivier Rochus or a qualifier are also possibilities).  He would likely face 4 seed Phillip Kohlschreiber in the semis.  
 
Kohlschreiber will face Xaivier Malisse or Ernest Gulbis. If he can advance he will face Mikhail Kukukshkin, Nikolay Davydenko or a qualifier.
 
 
Dark Horse: X-Man Xaiver Malisse
 
Malisse, a former top 25 player who knocked off 2 seed Florian Mayer last week in Bucharest, will face Ernest Gulbis in the 1st round.  If he advances, he will face the 4 seed Kohlschreiber, who lost to Tsonga in Monte Carlo. If he can pull off the upset, he will likely face Kukushkin or Daveydenko. Though he won’t be favored, all his matches are winnable.  

Predictions:
 
Semis:
Tsonga d. Cilic
Lopez d. Kohlschreiber 
 
Final:
Lopez d. Tsonga
 
Lopez, a semi-finalist on the clay in Houston will try and overcome a tough 3 set loss to David Ferrer in the Barcelona quarterfinals and capture the title in Munich.
 
 
On one other note, Pablo Andujar is the top seed in Belgrade as Novak Djokovic chose to skip his own tournament (partly owned by the Djokovic family). Andreas Seppi, Jarkko Nieminen and David Nalbandian are also in the field.  The other top Serbian players, Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki, also chose to skip ATP Belgrade.