Roger Federer decided to skip defending his homecountry title from last year at Gstaad where he made the amazing transition from winning Wimbledon to taking to the clay with no practice, finally capturing his first Allianz Suisse Open title.
This year
Nikolay Davydenko is the lone Top 10 representative, joined by former French champ
Gaston Gaudio, Czechs
Radek Stepanek and
Jiri Novak, Spaniard Dave Ferrer, Croat
Ivan Ljubicic, Chilean
Nicolas Massu, and Italy's
Filippo Volandri.
On court Monday in Gstaad are "You Say"
Potito Starace vs. (6) Novak, (WC) Lammer vs. (Q) Sabau, (7) Massu vs. Behrend, (WC) Bastl vs. (2) Gaudio, Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco vs. (Q) Pospisil, Koubek vs. Seppi, Kohlschreiber vs. (Q) Cermak, and Luis "Me So" Horna vs. Zib.
In last year's final, Federer defeated Russian
Igor Andreev 6-2, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Novak (2003,'01) is the lone returning champ in the field.
