Former French Open Winners Gaudio, Ferrero in Mix at Estoril

by Staff | May 3rd, 2009, 2:44 pm
  • 1 Comment

Late-entry wildcard Gilles Simon of France is the top seed at the Estoril Open in Portugal, where a number of the claycourt legends (or semi-legends) of old face off early against the new crop of top players on the ATP circuit.
ADHEREL
If Simon can get past American Robert Kendrick in his opener, he is looking at a possible second-round match up with wildcard and former French Open winner Gaston Gaudio. Russian Nikolay Davydenko, if he advances to the second round, is looking at a potential match-up with unseeded former No. 1 and former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.

Other seeded players are David Ferrer, James Blake, David Nalbandian, Mardy Fish, Al Montanes and Florent Serra.

The No. 8-seeded Serra’s draw is an Argentine nightmare, with an opener against fast rising Diego Junqueira, and a second-round meeting with the hot-handed Juan Monaco. Among the American contingent, Blake opens against Portugal’s Federico Gil and his home crowd backing, and Fish starts against Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili.


Choosing not to defend his title is world No. 2 Roger Federer, who last year beat Davydenko in the final when the Russian retired in the first set with injury.


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One Comment for Former French Open Winners Gaudio, Ferrero in Mix at Estoril

Von Says:

Frederico Gil sort of reminds me of Volandri.

A lot of good players in Estoril, which makes it tough to pick a winner. If Simon is out of his slump he could get to the SF and face Ferrer, but their half of the draw has the toughest players. Or maybe, Nalby might surprise us all and end up in the SF v. Simon. Should he beat Simon, and gets to the final, then he could win the whole thing. Davydenko’s half is much easier and I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be in the SF and the final.

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