Soderling Monfils and Del Potro compete at If Stockholm Open 2011

Written by: Global Chick on 11th October 2011

Soderling Monfils and Del Potro compete at If Stockholm Open 2011

Robin Soderling of Sweden returns to Bernard Tomic of Australia during their third round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 25 June 2011. EPA/NEIL MUNNS |

The popular If Stockholm Open will commence with the qualifying event on 15 October in the Kungliga Tennishallen in Stockholm. The tournament was first played in 1969 and has seen some of the best players in the world competing throughout the years.

The venue was changed to the Globe Arena in 1989 but returned to Kungliga Tennishallen again six years later. The arena was built in 1943 and seats approximately 5 000 people.

John McEnroe has won the title four times. Swedish players have been very successful over the years at their hometown event. Stefan Edberg has won twice, Thomas Enqvist three times and Thomas Johansson twice. Johansson is the last Swedish player to win the title in 2004.

Last year’s winner Roger Federer won his 64^th ATP Tour title in Stockholm when he defeated Germany’s Florian Mayer in straight sets. Federer was presented the trophy by Crown Princess Victoria.

This year’s player field is headed up by Sweden’s own Robin Soderling. The Swedish number one has been stopped by injuries and illness over the last couple of months. Soderling has not played a tournament since he won the SkiStar Swedish Open in mid July. He is very much looking forward to playing in front of his home crowd again.

World No. 10 Gael Monfils has also confirmed he will be travelling to Stockholm. The Frenchman had a great lead up to the US Open when he was the runner up in Washington and reached the quarterfinals of both ATP World Tour Masters Events in Montreal and Cincinnati. Last week Monfils reached the semi-finals of the PTT Open in Bangkok where he lost to Donald Young in three tough sets.

Swiss Davis Cup player Stanislas Wawrinka is currently No. 19 on the singles ranking. He will be looking to clinch his second title of the year in Stockholm. He won the Chennai Open back in February this year.

Comeback player Juan Martin Del Potro is climbing the rankings at an alarming rate. After having to take time out due to an injury who forced Del Potro to have surgery in May 2010 his results have been up and down up until now. The World No. 14 has had a good 2011. He has already won Delray Beach and Estoril this year and he reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and lost to Rafael Nadal. It would not surprise anyone if Del Potro will win his third title for the season next week at the Kungliga Tennishallen.

Other players competing at the If Stockholm Open are, James Blake, Tommy Robredo, Milos Raonic, Jarkko Nieminen, Marcos Baghdatis, Florian Mayer, Grigor Dimitrov, Ivan Dodig, Juan Ignacio Chela, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Adrian Mannarino, Kevin Anderson, Kukasz Kubot, Somdev Devvarman and Xavier Malisse.

On Saturday there will be an exhibition match between Stefan Edberg and Goran Ivanisevic.

The If Stockholm Open main draw event starts on Monday 17 October.