Tennis Atlantic

2012 ATP Eastbourne Preview

By Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com

ATP Eastbourne
AEGON International
ATP World Tour 250
June 17- June 23 2012
€ 455,700
 
Top 4 seeds (who all receive 1st round byes)
1: Richard Gasquet
2: Marcel Granollers
3:  Andreas Seppi*
4: Bernard Tomic
 
*Seppi will seek to defend his title in Eastbourne.
 
1st round matchups to watch:
 
Sam Querrey vs. Andy Roddick
 
Querrey, who comes off a semi final run at Queen’s Club, will take on a struggling Roddick, who is desperately trying to get his mojo back before Wimbledon. Both guys could use a good run here. 
 
Yen-Hsun Lu vs. Julien Benneteau
 
Lu, ranked just inside the top 60, comes off a surprising quarterfinal run in London where he knocked off top 10 player Janko Tipsarevic, the hard serving Ivo Karlovic and vet Igor Kunitsyn all in 3 sets. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire against Marin Cilic, but will hopefully be rested up to take on 5 seed Benneteau. 
 
Michael Llodra vs. Denis Istomin
 
Exciting serve and volleyer Llodra, a naturally adept player on grass, will take on Istomin. Istomin lost in the 2nd round at Queen’s Club to Querrey last week. 

 
Top Half:
 
Top seed Gasquet will begin his Wimbledon tune up against either James Ward or a qualifier. He could then face Spaniard Pablo Andujar or the aggressive vet Marcos Baghdatis.
 
4 seed Bernard Tomic, who retired in the 1st round against Tommy Haas in Halle this week, will face either the winner of Fabio Fognini vs Albert Ramos and then could face the big servers Roddick/Querrey or Jeremy Chardy/Qualifier. 
 
Bottom Half:
 
2 seed Marcel Granollers will actually be a likely underdog against Istomin/Llodra. The winner will face Benneteau/Lu, Ryan Harrison or a qualifier.
 
Defending champ and 3 seed Andreas Seppi will take on either Mikhail Kukukshkin or Carlos Berlocq. He would then have the unfortunate luck of getting a pretty sharp playing Philip Kohlschreiber, who comes off an upset of Nadal in Halle and is seeded 7th here. Peppo will play Go Soeda and then the Donald Young vs. Jamie Baker winner. 
 
 
Dark Horse: Philip Kohlschreiber
 
In one of the weaker fields of the year, Peppo has a good chance to shine and continue the momentum from his upset of Nadal in Halle. Later, he fell to Tommy Haas in the semis but still played well against the streaking Haas.  If he can get through Seppi, he has a very good chance to win the tournament as Tomic is struggling and Gasquet is, well, Gasquet…
 

Predictions:
 
Semis:
Gasquet d. Querrey
Kohlschreiber d. Llodra
 
Final:
Kohlschreiber d. Gasquet