Surbiton Challenger, June 2-8

[choupi]

After a very short step on clay in Paris for the French Open, Marcos has decided to skip to grass in Surbiton this week. He lacks matches and needs to work on his confidence. So hope he can play some good matches there.

Main draw:

Marcos Baghdatis CYP [1/WC] vs. Q
Paul Capdeville CHI vs. Robert Smeets AUS
Alexander Slabinsky GBR [WC] vs. Q
Q vs. Gilles Muller LUX [7]

Arnaud Clément FRA [3] vs. Andrey Golubev RUS
Simon Stadler GER vs. Q
Gary Lugassy FRA vs. Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi PAK
Pavel Chekhov RUS vs. Edouard Roger-Vasselin FRA [8]

Kevin Anderson RSA [5] vs. Tobias Kamke GER
Brendan Evans USA vs. Joshua Goodall GBR [WC]
Alex Kuznetsov USA vs. Ryan Sweeting USA
Stéphane Bohli SUI vs. Kei Nishikori JPN [4]

Philipp Petzschner GER [6] vs. Michail Elgin RUS
Mikhail Kukushkin RUS vs. Adrian Mannarino FRA
Sergiy Stakhovsky UKR vs. Harel Levy ISR
Alex Bogdanovic GBR [WC] vs. Mischa Zverev GER [2]

[choupi]

And Marcos will also play doubles, associated to Stéphane Bohli, another Swiss guy.

[getta]

Tuesday OoP

COURT 7

Matches start at 11:00am
Chris EATON (GBR) vs. Neil BAMFORD (GBR)

followed by
Alex BOGDANOVIC (GBR) vs. Mischa ZVEREV (GER)

followed by
James AUCKLAND (GBR)/Jamie DELGADO (GBR) vs. Adam FEENEY (AUS)/Robert SMEETS (AUS)

followed by
Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP)/Stephane BOHLI (SUI) vs. Alex BOGDANOVIC (GBR)/James WARD (GBR)

[getta]

I guess that Marcos will be coached by Peter Lundgren (his new coach) here.

Qualies aren't over yet so we don't know who will be Marcos' first round opponent in singles.

[getta]

Wednesday OoP

COURT 4

Matches start at 11:00 AM
Alex BOGDANOVIC (GBR) vs. Mischa ZVEREV (GER)

followed by
Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP) vs. Martin FISCHER (AUT)


I've heard that today matches will be played on outdoor hard due to rainy conditions...

[choupi]

I've read about that too.

Marcos won 6-4 6-4

[getta]

Nice.

Robert Smeets will be Marcos' second round opponent.

[getta]

Thursday OoP

COURT 4

Matches start at 11:00 AM
Marcos BAGHDATIS (CYP) vs Robert SMEETS (AUS)

followed by
Harel LEVY (ISR) vs Alex BOGDANOVIC (GBR)

followed by
J.Auckland/J.Delgado vs. A.Fenney/R.Smeets

followed by
M.Baghdatis/S.Bohli vs. A.Bogdanovic/J.Ward

[choupi]

They're 1st match today, starting 11am.

[getta]

Choupi.

Funny thing is that if Marcos and Stephane win their match in doubles then they have to play the last match (at night) at court 2.

If that happens they'll play the winner of the match:
Bopanna/Qureshi vs. Bamford/Goodall.

High chances for Marcos to play 3 matches today. Hopefully all of them will be played on grass.

[choupi]

Well, Marcos wanted some match practice, no? Ok, 3 is a bit too much in my opinion. But I hope he can win anyway.

[getta]

Smeets was handed a walk-over into the QF.

Hope Marcos is not injured.

He's got to prioritise tournaments as Gerry Weber Open, where Marcos was the runner-up last year, will start on Monday.

[getta]

I've read that men continue to play their matches on outdoor hard. Is this true?

If so, I cannot stop wondering about the pointlessness of it all.