Top seed and three-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal makes his first singles appearance on grass Wednesday when he takes on Argentine teenager Juan Martin del Potro in the second match on Centre Court.
The opening match features No. 4 seed and Roland Garros semifinalist Novak Djokovic against American Robert Kendrick. The third match is between defending champion and No. 6 seed Lleyton Hewitt against French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the final match pits two-time Queen’s finalist Sebastien Grosjean against No. 8 seed Marat Safin.
Djokovic is making his Queen’s Club main draw debut and he enters with a career-high No. 4 ATP Ranking after his semifinal run in Paris where he lost to eventual champion Nadal. The 20-year-old Serb has a 40-9 record this year with three ATP titles – Adelaide (d. Guccione), ATP Masters Series Miami (d. Canas) and Estoril (d. Gasquet). He also reached the final at ATP Masters Series Indian Wells (l. to Nadal).
Kendrick won his first round match in two tie-breaks on Tuesday over Ernests Gulbis to improve his match record to 3-10 on the season. The 27-year-old American is trying to post his first career win (0-7) over a Top 10 opponent and last year he took No. 2 Nadal to five sets in the second round at Wimbledon (after winning the first two sets).
In the second match, Nadal meets del Potro for the third time this year (overall) after winning in the fourth round in Miami in March and in the first round two weeks ago at Roland Garros.
Nadal became the youngest player at 21 years, 7 days, to win three Roland Garros titles on Sunday with his four-sets win over No. 1 Roger Federer. He also joined Bjorn Borg as the only players to win at least three straight titles in Paris since 1925. The Mallorca native leads the ATP circuit with five titles and a 43-6 match record. Last year he made his Queen’s Club debut and reached the quarterfinals, retiring with a back injury (vs. Hewitt). The Spaniard is the No. 2 player in the ATP Rankings for a record 99th consecutive week.
Del Potro, at 18 years, 9 months, is the youngest player in the Top 100 ATP Rankings at No. 59. He won his first career match on grass Monday with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Thomas Johansson. He is attempting to register his first win (0-5) over a Top 10 opponent. The Argentine teenager has a 15-10 match record on the season.
In the next match, defending champion and four-time overall winner Hewitt takes on French qualifier Tsonga for the first time.
Hewitt, is making his 10th straight Queen’s Club appearance and he has a 31-5 record. He won three straight titles in 2000 (d. Sampras), 2001-2002 (d. Henman both times) and last year (d. Blake). This season he has compiled a 20-9 match record highlighted by his 26th career title in Las Vegas (d. Melzer). He played well on clay (11-5 mark), reaching the semifinals at ATP Masters Series Hamburg (l. to Nadal), Poertschach (l. to Monfils) and the fourth round at Roland Garros (l. to Nadal).
Tsonga qualified into the main draw and defeated Danish No. 1 Kristian Pless 7-6(2), 6-0 on Tuesday. The 22-yearold Frenchman is coming off the title at the Surbiton Challenger (d. Karlovic) on Sunday. He entered Queen’s ranked a career-high No. 121.
In the final match, Safin takes a 6-2 lifetime advantage over Grosjean (winning the last three). This will be their first meeting on grass.
Grosjean opened with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Michael Berrer of Germany on Tuesday. The 29-year-old Frenchman enters ranked No. 69 with a 10-9 match record on the season. The two-time Queen’s finalist (2003-04) has a 14-6 career record. This is the first time he’s ranked out of the Top 25 coming into Queen’s since 2000 (at No. 33).
Safin is making his first Queen’s Club appearance since 2001 when he was ranked No. 3. The 27-year-old Russian has a 13-11 match record on the season with his best results the semifinals in Las Vegas (l. to Hewitt) and quarterfinals in San Jose (l. to Becker).
In Court 1 matches, British wild cards Alex Bogdanovic and Jamie Baker square off for the first time as pros with the winner to take on No. 2 seed/three-time winner Andy Roddick on Thursday. No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez plays Janko Tipsarevic and No. 7 Dmitry Tursunov takes on Canadian No. 1 Frank Dancevic. (ATP Digital Services)
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