CW Open Draw Preview
Friday Schedule
- Singles draw
- Doubles draw
Singles Draw Preview
- Drawing of seeds 3 and 4 (Špidlá, Daneu)
On current form, one would expect that Radek Špidlá is the player Hall and Blanco will want to avoid after titles in LA and Clowich, and a semifinal in Montréal. He's a proven Grand Slam performer, and despite the top two seeds holding winning records against him he's in the better form on this surface and has shown he can beat Hall (Queen's).
- Drawing of seeds 5-8 (Cowan, Oxenstierna, Boros, Olesen)
Four tough competitors, but Cowan and Boros seem to be the players you'd rather have in your quarter. Ironically, Cowan's last Grand Slam outing result in a title but his form has dwindled since. Boros, too, hasn't achieved his rankings through big tournaments. Olesen and Oxenstierna, however, made finals in the hard court Masters events over the past fortnight and no doubt will be tough players come quarterfinal time for any of the top four.
- Drawing of seeds 9-12 (Moreno, Altman, Brdar, Drake)
Again it is the highest ranked players who have performed worst recently, but maybe in their cases it is not necessarily representative of their form. Both copped bad draws in Montréal and Clowich - Moreno drew Smeltz in his home country and Henson, whilst Altman fell to Hurtado both times. Obviously the big danger is Jefferson Drake who is easily the sentimental favourite in Nixonstown and will be an imposing opponent with some momentum behind him.
- Drawing of seeds 13-16 (Murdoch, Charles, Amato, Varga)
Charles looks the weaker link here after falling in the quarters in Pickford, and having no real Grand Slam form behind him. The other three, however, do, and none moreso than Dwayne Murdoch who has made it to the quarterfinals or better at all three majors this year. Zoltán Varga's form hasn't kicked on since his Wimbledon quarterfinal - emphasised by today's loss to Becker Haas - but he's a guy who when in form is a tough cookie to crack.
- Drawing of seeds 17-24 (Kennedy, Smeltz, Henson, Matias, Zhijun, Benaglio, Champion, Emelio)
Smeltz is kind of in uncharted territory since his quarterfinal in Clowich - his best result on hard courts - and shows just what home crowd support can do. That being said, he has little Grand Slam form to show that he's a threat - two third rounds hardly strike fear into any one ranked between 9-16 for a third round clash. The big man to avoid here is Rick Henson; his ranking suffered due to a calf injury which saw him miss out on massive points mid-season. The guys to draw here are Matias, Emelio and, to a lesser extent, Zhijun who are all either up here due to clay form or in plain bad form. Emelio in particular is the type of player a Moreno or a Charles will need to have a tilt at the quarterfinals.
Providing they make it that far, these are the guys that the top eight seeds will face off with in the third round. The man to avoid here is Diego Hurtado who has been in roaring form over the past month which culminated in a semifinal last week in Clowich. His forehand is dynamite and he will be a thorn in the side of any of the top eight. Becker Haas, too, returned to form this week in Pickford and plays off in the final tomorrow. Danijel Micic, of course, is still under an injury cloud and may be replaced by 33rd seed Antonio Bachunelli who is not a bad third round prospect. Others who shouldn't do too much damage are Hancianu and Carter, whilst Mustard and Pascal remain threatening but will find it tough against any one but a Boros or maybe even Blanco.
- Drawing of rest of entrants (96 players)
Going through possible opponents here, there are danger guys the top players will want to avoid early on. The big one is Kim Vollan who, despite exiting yesterday in Pickford, has made it to the second week of both of his Grand Slams and on his day can fire any one off the court. The same can probably be said for the popular Heath Davis who plays in his first ATP final tomorrow; with a big crowd behind him the cult figure is not someone a player lacking confidence wants to draw. Others who might be best left avoided until the second or third rounds at the latest are veteran Jean-Alain Depuis, Jason Bradley, Alex Peters and Gregor Gorshkov.
From the Grand Slam Rule Book:
s 25G. Method of Draw
A draw sheet for 128 places will be used. After the placement of seeds as heretofore provided, the remaining players, including the qualifiers, will be drawn and placed into the vacant spaces in the draw, beginning at the top of the draw.
s 24V. Procedure for Placing Seeds
(1) Place Seed 1 on Line 1 and Seed 2 on Line 32 (32 draw), Line 64 (64 draw) or Line 128 (128 draw).
(2) To determine the placement of the remaining seeds, draw in pairs of two (Seeds 3 and 4) and groups of four (Seeds 5-8, 9-12 and 13-16) and groups of eight (seeds 17-24 and 25-32) from top to bottom as follows:
Code:
128 draw
(32 seeds)
Seeds 3-4
33
96
Seeds 5-8
32
64
65
97
Seeds 9-12
17
49
80
112
Seeds 13-16
16
48
81
113
Seeds 17-24
9
24
41
56
73
88
105
120
Seeds 25-32
8
25
40
57
72
89
104
121
Danijel Micic, 6-2, 6-0
Zhijun Sun, 6-3, 2-6, 10-7
