Simon Nieminen & Bachinger advance in Thailand Open

Written by: Global Chick on 29th September 2011

Simon Nieminen & Bachinger advance in Thailand Open |

Last year’s Thailand Open finalist Jarkko Nieminen of Finland is through to the quarterfinals after winning against Dutchman Robin Haase 7-6 (5) 7-6 (4) today.

The unseeded Nieminen faced several break points but was too strong in today’s match against Haase. The World No. 50 is looking to win his first title since winning Auckland in 2006. Finland’s number one player will face the winner of Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and the number two seed Gael Monfils of France.

Hometown favourite Danai Udomchoke failed to reach the quarterfinals today after he lost to Germany’s Matthias Bachinger 7-6 (5) 6-3. The Thai wildcard has mainly played on the ATP Futures and Challengers Circuit this year. Bachinger’s opponent will be Frenchman Gilles Simon who took out Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 6-7 (4) 7-5 6-4.

The number three seed Simon is looking for a spot at the end-of-year Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. Simon is currently No. 12 on the rankings. The 26-year-old said, “To play for three hours at this intensity was really hard. He played really well. He wasn’t missing, serving hard and returning well. I really had the impression that I had to play my maximum on every point for a chance to win. I am lucky to have won this match. I am very happy.”

Two first round matches were played today. Germany’s Tobias Kamke caused an upset when he crushed the number eight seed Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-0 6-1. Kamke finished the Spaniard off in 56 minutes.

Japanese qualifier Go Soeda had a good win over Slovakian Karol Beck. Soeda lost the first set 3-6 and then took the other two in tiebreak sets. Soeda and Kamke will meet in the second round.

There has been a lot of doubles action today at the Thailand Open. The top seeds Oliver Marach of Austria and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan moved into the second round with a two set win over Jamie Delgado and Jonathan Marray of Great Britain.

The top seeds will face Brit Jamie Murray and Brazilian Andre Sa in the second round after they eased past Thai qualifiers Danai Udomchoke and Kittipong Wachiramanowong 6-3 7-5.

The number three seeds Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini of Italy advanced into the semi-finals today. The Italian team got the better of Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and Tobias Kamke of Germany.

Aussie Paul Hanley and Belgian Dick Norman won 7-5 6-3 against American James Cerretani and Philipp Marx of Germany. Hanley and Norman will have to overcome the Dutch combination of Robin Haase and Rogier Wassen to reach the semi-finals.

SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER, 2011

CENTRE COURT start 12:00 noon

D Young (USA) vs [4] G Garcia-Lopez (ESP)

S Giraldo (COL) vs [2] G Monfils (FRA)

Not Before 7:30 PM

[1] A Murray (GBR) vs M Berrer (GER)

[Q] S Bolelli (ITA) vs G Dimitrov (BUL)

COURT 1 start 12:00 noon

[1] O Marach (AUT) / A Qureshi (PAK) vs J Murray (GBR) / A Sa (BRA)

T Kamke (GER) vs [Q] G Soeda (JPN)

J Brunstrom (SWE) / J Nieminen (FIN) vs [2] J Erlich (ISR) / A Ram (ISR) – Possible court change Not Before 3:30 PM R Haase (NED) /

R Wassen (NED) vs [4] P Hanley (AUS) / D Norman (BEL)