Spanish Players Dominate in Gstaad – Almagro Verdasco and Granollers in Semis

Written by: Global Chick on 30th July 2011

Spanish Players Dominate in Gstaad – Almagro Verdasco and Granollers in Semis

Fernando Verdasco of Spain returns the ball to Julien Benneteau of France during their quarter final match at the Suisse Open tennis tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, 29 July 2011. Verdasco won 6-4, 5-7 and 6-1. EPA/PETER KLAUNZER |

Nicolas Almagro is looking to win his fourth title this season at the Crédit Suisse Open in Gstaad. The top seed is the titleholder in, Costa do Sauipe, Buenos Aires and Nice this year.

Almagro had a tough day yesterday. He had to play two matches due to a rain break in his match against Jarkko Nieminen. The Spaniard took out the Finn in two straight sets 7-6 (3) 6-3. He came back later on in the day and defeated fellow countryman Feliciano Lopez 6-4 7-5.

The World No. 10 is going out on court in the next round to play another Spanish player Fernando Verdasco. Ladies favourite Verdasco overcame France’s Julien Benneteau in three sets 6-4 5-7 6-1 in two hours and 11 minutes. Verdasco has been in two ATP World Tour finals already this year in San Jose and Estoril. Almagro and Verdasco played each other in the semi-finals of Hamburg last week. Almagro came out on top winning 6-4 6-1.

In the bottom half of the draw Russian and number three seed Mikhail Youzhny is through to the semis. Youznhy was given a hard time by Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer but eventually the Russian came through 6-4 5-7 6-4.

Mikhail Youzhny’s next opponent is the number eight seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain. Granollers sailed past the number two seed Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in 69 minutes winning 6-3 6-2.

“Stan is a very good player. It’s tough to beat him and I played very solid,” Granollers said.

Granollers is looking to reach his second career final spot. He reached the final of Valencia last year in November where he lost to David Ferrer.

All but one seeded team is through to the semi-finals in the doubles draw in Gstaad. Top seeds Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek defated Santiago Giraldo and Joao Souza 6-3 6-4 in 44 minutes. Cermak and Polasek reached the final last week in Hamburg where they lost to Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya. They won the title at the Serbia Open in Belgrade defeating Marach and Peya.

Cermak and Polasek will face Victor Hanescu and Rogier Wassen in tomorrow’s semifinal. Wassen and Hanescu beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and marc Lopez in the previous round 7-5 7-5.

Johan Brunstrom and Adil Shamasdin took out Julian Knowle and Igor Zelenay 7-6 (4) 6-1 to reach the semifinal. Brunstrom and Shamasdin need to beat the number two seeds Christopher Kas and Alexander Peya to reach Sunday’s final. Burnstrom and Shamasdin reached the final of Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport earlier this summer.

Schedule Saturday July 30 2011

Centre Court 12.00 pm Start

M Youzhny vs M Granollers

Not before 3.00 pm

N Almagro vs F Verdasco

J Brunstrom/A Shamasdin vs C Kas/A Peya

Court 1 start 1.00 pm

F Cermak/F Polasek vs V Hanescu/R Wassen