Fernando Verdasco Advances in Hamburg

Written by: Global Chick on 22nd July 2011

Fernando Verdasco Advances in Hamburg

Fernando Verdasco from Spain goes for the ball against the United States in doubles match during the 2011 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group Quarterfinal between the United States and Spain at the Frank Erwin Center at the University of Texas at Austin, in Austin, Texas, 09 July 2011. EPA/LARRY W. SMITH |

World No. 22 Fernando Verdasco beat German wildcard Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 7-5 6-2 to advance in to the quarterfinals of the bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships 2011. Stebe had a surprise win in the round before taking out former World No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko.

The No.8 seed Verdasco will face Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the next round. Melzer was the runner up in Hamburg last year losing to Andrey Golubev. The Austrian breezed through to the quarterfinals beating Italian No. 15 seed Fabio Fognini 6-2 6-3.

The winner of Verdasco and Melzer will play the winner of No.6 seed Florian Mayer of Germany and the No. 3 seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain in the semi-finals.

Top seed Frenchman Gael Monfils will play doubles partner and fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon. Monfils crusied past Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-4.

Simon had to work hard to fight off Finish superstar Jarkko Nieminen in three sets winning 7-6 (4) 3-6 6-4. The winner of the French battle will take on the winner of Mikhail Youzhny and Marin Cilic.

Cilic beat German wildcard Tobias Kamke in three sets 3-6 6-3 6-2. No. 4 seed Youzhny only lost 6 games against Julian Reister another German wildcard to reach the quarterfinals in Hamburg.

Sergiy Stakovsky and Radek Stepanek are in the semi-finals of the doubles event. They will now play Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek the No. 4 seeds. In the bottom half of the draw the No. 3 seeds Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya of Austria will play Andreas Beck and Christopher Kas of Germany. Beck and Kas played a close match winning 5-7 6-3 13-11 against Lukas Dlouhy and Michal Mertinak.

The schedule at the bet-at-home Open – German Tennis Championships 2011 on Friday is:

Centre Court start 12.00 noon

M Youznhy (RUS) vs M Cilic (CRO)

G Monfils (FRA) vs G Simon (FRA)

F Mayer (GER) vs N Almagro (ESP)

Not before 5.30 pm

F Verdasco (ESP) vs J Melzer (AUT)

Court 1 start 2.00 pm

St Stakhovsky (UKR)/R Stepanek (CZE) vs F Cermak/F Polasek (SVK)