The Grand Prix Hassan II in Casablanca, Morocco is a tournament only held for men. And now that Roland Garros is right around the corner, the clay court season is starting up. The prize money consists of 450,000 Moroccan Dirham (Morocco's Currency). In America, its about $54,000. But the winner gets a mere $9,000. Which isn't bad at all. The number one seed in the tournament is Russia's Igor Andreev who is currently ranked 21 in the world. Other seeds include German veteran, Rainer Schuettler, and well respected Frenchman, Marc Gicquel.
Now I started my blog today so I didn't get a chance to discuss Day 1 of the tournament. The main things that happened on Day 1 were up and coming star, Sergiy Stakhovsky(UKR) bowed out of his match against Ivan Navarro(ESP) with a wrist injury. He should recover quickly though. And the only seeded player knocked out on Day 1 was another veteran on tour, Frenchman Arnaud Clement. He was downed by comeback kid, Ivan Ljubicic, a Croat who's ranking has severely dropped in the last several years, but lately has been playing very well at 68 in the world. The match was just three minutes short of being 3 hours long. The result was 76(6) 57 64 in Ljubicic's favor. But now, on to day 2.
The biggest shock of Day 2 was the defeat of the second seed, Rainer Schuettler. The qualifier who delivered the upset was a Spaniard by the name of Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo. Hidalgo usually makes his marks on clay. And he exhibited his talent on the clay court by coming out with a straight set win over the number 31 in the world, 64 76(5). The only other time I've heard of Ramirez Hidalgo was when he had a 5-2 lead in the third set against Roger Federer in Monte Carlo last year. Unfortunately for him, Federer saved match points to pull out a win in a third set tiebreak. Hopefully Ramirez Hidalgo can show that kind of clay court prowess this season.
Another unseeded Spaniard who is back on track with his game is Juan Carlos Ferrero. The former number one in the world has recently been showing good form for the past few months. And he exhibited his high clay court IQ yesterday against the seventh seed from Belgium, Christophe Rochus. Ferrero easily knocked him out, 62 63. I'm expecting much to come from Ferrero not only throughout the clay court season, but throughout the rest of 2009.
The number one seed in this tournament, Igor Andreev was probably expecting an easy win over wildcard from Morocco, Rabie Chaki. But the world number 482 put up an astounding fight. Chaki started out the match strongly, not letting Andreev take advantage of hardly any of his first or second serves. So he went up a crucial break in the first set and won it 63. But in the second set, Andreev stepped up his game and served very well not letting Chaki a chance for a break. And Chaki's consistency on his serve started to deteriorate. Andreev jumped on his chances and won the second set 63. Now the third set was quite intense. Chaki earned a break in the third set, but Andreev's two breaks helped him finally serve out the match just before a possible deciding tiebreak. The final score was 36 63 75, Andreev.
Other Scores of Day 2:
Nicolas Devilder(FRA) def. Daniel Koellerer(AUT) 63 64
Mischa Zverev(GER) def. Flavio Cipolla(ITA) 62 36 63
(6) Marc Gicquel(FRA) def. Kristof Vliegen(BEL) 75 63
Potito Starace(ITA) def. Oscar Hernandez(ESP) 46 63 63
(Q) Santiago Ventura(ESP) def. (Q) Oliver Marach(AUT) 61 61
Albert Montañes(ESP) def. (WC) Reda El Amrani(MAR) 62 75
Olivier Rochus(BEL) def. (WC) Mehdi Ziadi(MAR) 46 62 61
Teimuraz Gabashvili(RUS) def. Fabio Fognini(ITA) 62 61
Who I Want to Win: Ivan Ljubicic
Who I Think Will Win: Juan Carlos Ferrero
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