By Rosangel Valenti, TW Contributing Editor
Good morning. This is the Tribe's daily post for discussing the tennis being played at the ATP's Masters Series event in Hamburg, and also the WTA tournament in Rome. The Order of Play in Hamburg can be found here.
Match Choice:
None of the top three players are in action today. For myself, I'll go with Tommy Robredo versus Philipp Kohlschreiber and his one-handed backhand - the Hamburg champion from two years ago, versus the local favourite, who also knows a thing or two about playing on clay, having won Munich last year. Neither has had a stellar year so far. Kohlschreiber's best results were winning Auckland in January, and reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open after defeating Andy Roddick. Nothing much since then, though, to be fair, he's been stopped in early rounds three times this year by three of the top four - Nadal, Djokovic and Davydenko. Robredo's best run was in Valencia, where he was a semifinalist, and he also reached the quarters in Rome last week. The two have only played once - a three-setter in the quarterfinals in Auckland in 2007, won by Robredo.
Player of the Day:
Yesterday's Player of the Day surely must be Marat Safin. In any event, it seems like many a long month since I've found a cast-iron excuse to post a picture of the former world number one here in TW. After qualifying (two matches, each of which went to a deciding set), he went on to subdue the promising young Croatian, Marin Cilic, in straight sets yesterday, 7-5, 6-2. This sets up a meeting with ninth seed Tomas Berdych. The last time Safin won three straight matches on the ATP tour was in February 2007, in Las Vegas (yes, that notorious tournament which led to the Round Robin "experiment" being abandoned), before succumbing to Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals there.
Safin's ranking has dropped to 89. After a series of first-round losses on hard courts earlier this year (following his five-set loss to Marcos Baghdatis in the second round of the Australian Open), he has been winning a few matches on clay - can he win four in a row in Hamburg? He's reached the final here twice, in 2000, and 2002, losing to Gustavo Kuerten and Roger Federer respectively. He won't play his next match until tomorrow. I may even be there to see it.
Weather Report:
The unseasonally sunny weather seen in Hamburg yesterday looks set to continue today, though the temperature should drop by a few degrees. The sun seems to be having an effect on the speed of the courts. It's forecast to continue until at least Thursday, after which we may see some rain. In Rome, incidentally, heavy showers are forecast.
As always, enjoy today's tennis.