2015 New Delhi, Wroclaw and Morelos Challenger Previews & Predictions
Chris De Waard, Tennis Atlantic
Clay has been taken out of the equation for this week, with three hardcourt tournaments taking place in India, Poland and Mexico.
Delhi Open 2015
ATP Challenger Tour
New Delhi, India
16-22 February 2015
Prize Money: $100,000
Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: James Duckworth (113)
2: Alexander Kudryavtsev (127)
3: Yuichi Sugita (133)
4: Ruben Bemelmans (141)
5: Somdev Devvarman (147)
6: Luke Saville (166)
7: Radu Albot (167)
8: Alex Bolt (168)
The last direct acceptance is Fabrice Martin, ranked 315th. Yuki Bhambri received a wild card and will play second seed Alexander Kudryavtsev in the first round.
First round match-ups to watch
(2) Alexander Kudryavtsev – (WC) Yuki Bhambri
This is a nightmarish draw for both players. The only reason why Bhambri is ranked this low, #414, is because he has been out with injury for most of 2014. At the Australian Open this year he proved he is a lot better than that, qualifying for the main draw and playing three close sets against Andy Murray in the first round. He had a bit of a shocking loss against a slumping Somdev Devvarman in his previous tournament, so he will be looking for revenge. This is a repeat of last year’s Chennai Challenger final, which Bhambri won 4-6 6-3 7-5.
(8) Alex Bolt – Kimmer Coppejans
Bolt has displayed some good form to start off 2015, reaching a semifinal at Happy Valley, followed by a final at Burnie. Last week he hit a rough patch, falling to Zhe Zhang in the first round of Lanceston. Coppejans started off the year well with a victory over countryman Ruben Bemelmans, but has lost four consecutive matches since. Last week he played São Paulo on a wild card, where he played a close match against world #33 Santiago Giraldo, losing 7-5 7-6(4). Due to his early loss on the Brazilian clay, Coppejans should be well prepared to play on hardcourt again here in New Delhi.
Top Half
Top seed James Duckworth seems to be choking a bit at the sight of reaching the top 100. He had excellent opportunities to crack it at Hong Kong and Burnie, but lost to players outside of the top 250 in both events, falling in respectively the first and second round. Here another opportunity arises, with slumping #5 seed Somdev Devvarman landing in his quarter. #3 seed Yuichi Sugita sits in the second section, but he withdrew from Launcester last week with a lower back injury. This could open up a good opportunity for either Bolt or Coppejans to reach the semi-final here, with Bolt having the edge in their match-up. They will have fierce competition from Saketh Myneni, who has been on a roll since winning the Indore Challenger out of nowhere in October and seems to rise his level significantly in India.
Bottom Half
In the bottom half #4 seed Ruben Bemelmans has an excellent opportunity to build on his final in Glasgow. He is the strong favorite to reach the semi-final, where he in all likeliness will meet Bhambri or Kudryavtsev. Together with Bhambri, another young Indian has a good draw to make the quarterfinal, Ramkumar Ramanathan. He will face #7 seed Radu Albot in the second round to try and achieve that.
Predictions
Semis:
Duckworth d. Myneni
Bhambri d. Bemelmans
Final:
Bhambri d. Duckworth
Wroclaw Open
ATP Challenger Tour
Wroclaw, Poland
16-22 February 2015
Prize Money: €85,000
Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Ricardas Berankis (79)
2: Steve Darcis (115)
3: Farrukh Dustov (118)
4: Aleksandr Nedovyesov (119)
5: Matthias Bachinger (121)
6: Iliya Marchenko (136)
7: Michael Berrer (150)
8: Niels Desein (155)
The last direct acceptance is Axel Michon, ranked 214th.
First round match-ups to watch
(2) Steve Darcis – Michal Przysiezny
Przysiezny’s fall from grace has been painful. Exactly a year ago he was ranked more than hundred spots better than his current ranking of #185. 2015 hasn’t brought much hope either, with Przysiezny failing to win a main draw match in his four tournaments so far. Darcis on the other hand won the Noumea Challenger, reached the quarterfinal at Montpellier, falling in three sets to Gaël Monfils and only had a small hiccup against Jurgen Melzer in the final qualifying round of the Australian Open, falling 6-4 in the third set. Needless to say, Darcis is a strong favorite to win this match.
Jurgen Zopp – Frank Dancevic
Respectively ranked #160 and #164, Zopp and Dancevic have seen better days. For Dancevic this was in a distant past, reaching the 65th ranking spot in 2007 after reaching the quarterfinal of the Montreal Masters and pushing Rafael Nadal to three sets, while Zopp reached his career high ranking of #71 in 2012, before his long stretch of injury problems started. Slowly but surely, Zopp seems to fight his way back, qualifying for Montpellier and reaching the semi-final of Bergamo last week. If he keeps that up, he should be able to hold off Dancevic.
Top Half
Top seed Berankis is the clear favorite here. Not only that, he also landed a remarkably cushy draw, guaranteed to face a wild card player in his first two matches. He reached the quarterfinal at Zagreb and should have gone even further, but in all honesty he choked against Andreas Seppi and fell in a third set tiebreak. He is projected to face #5 seed Iliya Marchenko in the quarterfinal, who comes off a good semi-final run at Bergamo. Marchenko lost to Nedovyesov, who in his turn lost the final and tops the second section. Nedovyesov should be able to reach another semi-final here.
Bottom Half
Second seed Steve Darcis has a tough draw, potentially facing Lukasz Kubot in the second round. Kubot’s ranking has dropped due to injury, but he is in more than decent form, which he showed at Brisbane last month, beating world #16 Kevin Anderson in the first round. If he survives the Pole, his countryman Niels Desein awaits, who won his first Challenger title in Glasgow two weeks ago. The top section is hard to call and will probably be decided between #3 seed Michael Berrer, #3 seed Farrukh Dustov and Jurgen Zopp. Although Tim Puetz, Jan Hernych and Philipp Petzschner are dangerous floaters, making this a stacked section.
Predictions
Semis:
Berankis d. Nedovyesov
Darcis d. Zopp
Final:
Darcis d. Berankis
Darcis leads the head to head 3-0, with all victories coming in three sets.
Morelos Open
ATP Challenger Tour
Cuernavaca, Mexico
16-22 February 2015
Prize Money: $75,000
Seeds (ATP ranking in parentheses)
1: Victor Estrella Burgos (52)
2: Alejandro Falla (120)
3: Damir Dzumhur (123)
4: Jimmy Wang (126)
5: Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (130)
6: Gerald Melzer (148)
7: Austin Krajicek (156)
8: Matteo Viola (188)
The last direct acceptance is Nicolas Barrientos, ranked 308th. Mexican legends Tigre Hank and Daniel Garza received a wild card.
First round match-up to watch
(3) Damir Dzumhur – Daniel Munoz-De La Nava
Dzumhur convincingly won Santo Domingo last week without dropping a set, but that was played on clay, so he might struggle a bit with the transition. Munoz-De La Nava is not a comfortable draw to play yourself into the tournament, he will fire at you and won’t give you any rhythm. Normally this is often his downfall, hitting way too many unforced errors, but against someone who is switching surfaces this might prove to be an effective endeavor.
Top Half
Victor Estrella Burgos achieved eternal legendary status in Quito, but will head a Challenger this week. His last hardcourt match, at the Australian Open, ended in a convincing loss against Jurgen Melzer, but in this field he should be able to keep his own. However, with Matteo Viola in the quarterfinal he faces an opponent who should be able to deal with his game quite well, which might prove to be a big hurdle after reaching such an enormous milestone recently. In the bottom section it’s hard to look past Jimmy Wang, who should reach the semi-final comfortably.
Bottom Half
Even though Austin Krajicek is the lowest seed in this half, he is the favorite to reach the final for me, especially after his quarterfinal run at Memphis last week, where he beat Mikhail Kukushkin and Ivo Karlovic before losing to world #5 Kei Nishikori in three sets. #2 seed Alejandro Falla will try to put up some resistance, trying to prevent Krajicek from making the final, but he has been in shaky form lately and isn’t a certainty to perform well here. Nevertheless, the competition isn’t all that strong either, so Falla should at least be able to set up an encounter with Krajicek.
Predictions
Semis:
Viola d. Wang
Krajicek d. Falla
Final:
Krajicek d. Viola
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