Tennis Atlantic

2012 ATP Halle Preview

By Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com

Now that the grinding clay court season has concluded in Paris, tour players will seek to quickly adjust to the flashy grass with Wimbledon just two weeks away. Some will do battle in Halle, Germany and others in London, the home of Wimbledon, at 2 events that are historic in their own right. This article with focus on Halle. The London preview will follow.

ATP Halle

Gerry Weber Open
ATP World Tour 250
Halle, Germany
June 11-June 16 2012
Prize Money: € 633,750

Top 4 seeds (Who all receive 1st round byes)

1: Rafael Nadal
2: Roger Federer
3: Tomas Berdych
4: Alexandr Dolgopolov

3 of the top 4 seeds are in the top 10, while 4 seed Dolgopolov is in the top 20, in what is a top notch field in Halle.

1st round matchups to watch:

Tommy Haas vs. Bernard Tomic

Haas, a wild card who acquitted himself extremely well in Paris, qualifying and then losing to Richard Gasquet in 4 sets in the 3rd round will serve it up in front of home fans against Tomic, who will seek to put the clay court season behind him and return to the form that gave him a quarterfinals appearance at Wimbledon last year. It is an interesting match-up in more ways than one.

Andreas Seppi vs. Radek Stepanek

7 seed Seppi, who pushed Djokovic to 5 sets in their 3rd round match up in Paris and also knocked off Fernando Verdasco, will take on traditional serve and volleyer Stepanek, who plays well on the grass. It will be a battle of style vs. top form.

Top Half:

Rafael Nadal, who will face Novak Djokovic in a bid for another title in Paris, starts off against either a qualifier or Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, then he will likely face defending champ Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 3rd round. Depending on his physical shape, the draw doesn’t pose too much trouble for Rafa. Kohlschreiber, seeded 8th, will face wild card Dustin Brown and then Lukasz Kubot of Poland or lefty Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.

Tomas Berdych, the 3 seed who fell to Juan Martin Del Potro in a disappointing match at Roland Garros, will take on Viktor Troicki or veteran home fave Benjamin Becker before a match up with either Marcel Granollers, the 7 seed clay courter, a qualifier, Haas or Tomic.

Bottom Half:

Roger Federer, always at his best on the grass but still smarting from a loss to Djokovic in the Paris semis, will face another German, Florian Mayer or a qualifier before a likely match up with big serving Milos Raonic that could give him a bit of trouble. Raonic will face WC Phillip Petzschener and then another German Tobias Kamke or a qualifier.

Alexandr Dolgopolov, who has struggled a bit this year and lost in the 1st round of the French Open, will face either Robin Haase or Mikhail Youzhny, Youzhny being the showman who in his most recent antics drew “sorry” in the clay after playing extremely poorly against David Ferrer in a match he would go onto lose in Paris. 

The winner will go onto face either Seppi/Stepanek or the Carlos Berlocq vs. Cedrik Marcel-Stebe winner.

Dark Horse: Milos Raonic

Raonic has the game to play well on grass with his big serve and decent volleys, if he can get Federer on a bad day he might have a shot to knock him off and tear through the rest of the field in the process.

Predictions:

Semis:
Nadal d. Berdych
Federer d. Seppi

Final:
Federer d. Nadal

If Djokovic can take some energy out of Nadal in Paris, Federer is set up to knock him off on the grass.