At the Grand Prix Tennis de Lyon in Lyon, France the last four first round matches and the first two second round matches are all on the menu today. Andy Roddick, Richard Gasquet and Sebastien Grosjean are all featured on Wednesday.
In the first match of the day on Center Court, Olivier Rochus plays Michael Llodra. Rochus hadn’t passed the quarterfinals of an ATP event in his first three tries this year, but recently at Mumbai he broke through, reaching his sixth career ATP singles final (finishing runner-up to Richard Gasquet). Llodra has reached just one quarterfinal so far this season, in January at Zagreb. In addition to their previous results from this year, Rochus holds an advantage in their head-to-head (2-0 on the ATP circuit) and in their history at this event (Rochus reached the quarterfinals in his last trip here two years ago while Llodra has fallen first or second round in all five of his previous appearances).
Next on Center Court is the second round match between Benjamin Becker and Marc Gicquel. Becker didn’t win back-to-back rounds at 19 of his first 20 events of the season (the only exception was a quarterfinal run at ‘s-Hertogenbosch), including a seven-match losing streak that included Wimbledon and the US Open. But in his first event of the fall he made a breakthrough with his first ATP final at Bangkok, and after early round losses at Tokyo and Stockholm he hopes to excel again here in Lyon. Gicquel has reached the quarterfinals or better five times this season but is coming off early round losses at his last three events at Metz, Vienna and AMS Madrid. He has performed well here in the past however, making his first (and so far only) career ATP final here last year (finishing runner-up to Richard Gasquet) and in the first round this week ousting No. 2 seed Tommy Robredo.
Fourth seed Richard Gasquet takes on qualifier Christophe Rochus next on Center. Gasquet has had a breakthrough year, reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon then subsequently debuting in the Top 10, spending five weeks amongst the game’s elite before dropping out. He had a disappointing end to the summer, withdrawing prior to his second match at the US Open with a viral illness, but has rebounded since, winning his first title of the year in Mumbai (beating Olivier Rochus in the final) and reaching the final of the International Series Gold event the next week in Tokyo (finishing runner-up to Ferrer). He dropped his opener at AMS Madrid last week but will try to regroup here as the defending champion (beating, among others, Marat Safin en route to last year’s title). Christophe Rochus has only won three ATP-level matches this year and two of those came on clay, the one exception coming in the first week of the season at Doha (beating Alberto Martin).
Former Top 5 player Sebastien Grosjean plays qualifier Rodolphe Cadart next. Grosjean has had three quarterfinal runs this year, including just a few weeks ago at Metz (falling to Robredo), but he has been a solid performer here in Lyon in the past as well, reaching the quarterfinals or better on three occasions, including the last two years (he was a semifinalist in 2005 and a quarterfinalist last year). The 29-year-old Cadart has only played five ATP events in his career, but he did squeak out a quarterfinal in one of them - his last ATP-level venture - at Marseille in February 2003 (beating Max Mirnyi en route, falling to Nicolas Escude). He has a 3-5 career record; Grosjean is 327-223.
In the last match of the day on Center, top seed Andy Roddick plays veteran Fabrice Santoro. The most recent qualifier for the Tennis Masters Cup after a season that has brought him his 22nd and 23rd career ATP titles (at Queen’s Club and Washington) and 10 more quarterfinal, semifinal and final appearances (including the Australian Open semis and quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the US Open), Roddick makes his return to Lyon having conquered the tournament in his only prior appearance, in 2005 (beating Gael Monfils in straight sets in the final that year). Santoro not only won his fifth ATP singles title this year at Newport, but he has also notched a Top 10 win, against Robredo (at Dubai). He has lost first round the last three weeks though, and is 0-2 against Roddick. Santoro is a former champion here, winning it back in 1997 (beating three Top 20 players en route). (ATP Digital Services)
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