With the Australian Open done and dusted, the male tennis players are moving across from sunny Melbourne to chilly Europe and to the Dutch city of Rotterdam for the next tournament of the season. This year’s 42nd Rotterdam Open will be played between Monday the 9th of February and Sunday the 15th. 32 men and 16 doubles pairings will compete for the title at the indoor hard court ATP World Tour 500 event.
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament Preview
The top three in the men’s game are not playing in this tournament so you feel it is a huge opportunity for the chasing pack to pick up some valuable points to kick start their season.
Stanislas Wawrinka – Wawrinka returns to Rotterdam having not played the tournament for ten years as he looks to build on his recent good results. This time last year he was at his career high ranking of three, however after a quarter final defeat at the Australian Open he failed to defend his points, dropping to number nine in the world in the most recent rankings as of February the 2nd.
Andy Murray –Murray will be looking to bounce back from his Australian Open final loss at the hands of Novak Djokovic. Having reached the last two meant he has risen to number four in the world, back where many feel he belongs. He is the top seed at this year’s tournament and a 9/4 favourite with the bookmakers.
Tomas Berdych – Berdych will be hoping to defend his title he won here in Rotterdam a year ago by defeating Marin Cilic 6-4 6-2 in the final. The newly engaged Berdych will be eying up more success after an impressive start to 2015.
Milos Raonic – Following a good run in Australia prior to this tournament, Raonic will fancy his chances at going all the way to the title. The huge server from Canada will be a dangerous opponent to anyone as he looks to win his first tournament since August of last year. This will be his first time playing in the Rotterdam Open.
Grigor Dimitrov – The 11th ranked player in the world, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov made his debut here in 2009 as a teenager. After impressing with a win over Berdych, he then lost to Rafael Nadal. Last year he disappointed losing in round two to Gulbis so he will certainly be hoping for a better run here this time around.
Ernests Gulbis – After a disappointing Australian Open, Ernests Gulbis will be hoping for a big response here in Rotterdam. Making the semi-final last year after losing to eventual winner Tomas Berdych, he will be hoping to go one better.
Gael Monfils – Monfils does not enjoy playing in the Netherlands having lost in the opening round in 2013 and 2014, both times to Juan Martin Del Potro. The Frenchman will hope for much greater success this year.
The draw for this year’s tournament has now been completed and after studying the draw I do feel Tomas Berdych could go far yet again this year in Rotterdam. He begins with a tough opener against big serving Polish Jerzy Janowicz but should he progress then the draw really opens up for Tomas. With the other contenders mentioned battling it out with each other in their separate quarters, Berdych wouldn’t meet one of the big named players until the earliest of the quarter-final. Gael Monfils could be that potential opponent and as mentioned his record in Rotterdam is dreadful so at present this looks unlikely.
The other player I believe who will go deep in to this year’s tournament is Milos Raonic. Having climbed the rankings in early 2015 following a semi-final berth in Australia, he is now the number two seed for the tournament and sits at the very bottom of the draw. He plays a qualifier in round one and then either Simone Bolelli or Lukas Rosol in round two. He would meet Ernests Gulbis in round three before a mouth-watering potential match with either Grigor Dimitrov or Stan Wawarinka in the semi- finals. You would imagine Raonic would have too much fire power for his opening round opponents so I predict him to go far in this year’s tournament.
Play gets under way at 10am on Monday as the 32 men fight for the title in what should be a fascinating tournament.
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