Malaysian Open – Berdych and Almagro confirmed

Written by: Global Chick on 22nd September 2011

Malaysian Open – Berdych and Almagro confirmed |

The Malaysian Open is part of the ATP Tour’s Asian Swing. The ATP World Tour 250 event is played at the indoor Putra Stadium in the country’s capital Kuala Lumpur. The main draw will commence on September 26.

The tournament was first played in 2009. Nikolay Davydenko of Russia was the first ever winner of the event and last year another Russian Mikhail Youzhny took out the crown after defeating Andrey Golubev in the final.

This year’s field consists of Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic. The world number nine has not won a title since 2009 but has been playing very consistent tennis for the last two years. Last year he was the runner up at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Miami and he reached the final of Wimbledon.

World No. 12 Nicolas Almagro of Spain is one of the top clay courters. Almagro has won three clay court tournaments in 2011 in Costa Do Sauipe, Buenos Aires and Nice. He also reached the finals of Acapulco and Hamburg. His lead up to the US Open resulted in a round of 16 in Cincinnati (l. Tomas Berdych) and a quarterfinal in Montreal (l. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).

Serbian Viktor Troicki is currently No. 16 on the ATP Singles rankings. Troicki’s US Open campaign was cut short by Alejandro Falla of Colombia in the first round. A quarterfinal loss in Washington against John Isner has been his best result in the last couple of months.

Rising Canadian star Milos Raonic will also visit Kuala Lumpur next week. The youngster played his first match since Wimbledon in the Davis Cup World Group playoffs in Israel. Raonic lost to Amir Weintraub in four sets. After an injury time out The 20-year-old is looking forward to a comeback on the ATP Tour.

Somdev Devvarman of India is looking to win his maiden ATP Tour career title. The World No. 70 was in the final of Johannesburg at the beginning of the year.

Japan’s Kei Nishikori will be looking for the big break during the Asian Swing. The World No. 54 won both his matches in Japan’s World Group playoffs against India in front of his home crowd.

Newly crowned US Open Champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner are confirmed for both singles and doubles.

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus has been awarded a wildcard into the main draw event. Tournament Director Nick Freyer said, “I am very pleased to say that Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus will be making his third appearance at the Malaysian Open, and he will be joined by an exciting young prospect form Belgium namned David Goffin. Tennis fans in Kuala Lumpur have really come to love watching Marcos play and we had a lot of requests from the public asking if he was coming back. We are very pleased that he ahs been able to accept this wildcard.”