Sunday, January 11, 2009

Medibank International preview

Medibank International
Location: Sydney, Australia
Dates: January 12-17, 2009
Draw Size: 28
Surface: Hard
Prize Money: $484,750; men’s singles champion: $78,500
2008 Singles Final: Dmitry Tursunov, RUS, def. Chris Guccione, AUS, 7-6(3), 7-6(4)
Official Web site
: http://www.medibankinternational.com

Top story lines:
1. Can Australian Open defending champion Novak Djokovic rebound in Sydney after a first round exit last week in Brisbane?
2. Does defending champion Dmitry Tursunov have any shot at winning again in
Sydney despite an extremely tough draw?
3. Will wild card entrant Lleyton Hewitt win a fifth singles title in Sydney?

Justin’s notable first round match-ups:
1. No. 6 Tomas Berdych vs. Chris Guccione
2. No. 7 Tommy Robredo vs. Jurgen Melzer
3. No. 8 Mardy Fish vs. Janko Tipsarevic
4. Dmitry Tursunov vs. Richard Gasquet
5. Jarkko Nieminen vs. Feliciano Lopez


Potential notable late round match:
No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 7 Tommy Robredo, Quarterfinals
No. 3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. No. 6 Tomas Berdych, Quarterfinals
No. 4 David Nalbandian vs. No. 8 Mardy Fish, Quarterfinals


Watch out for…
1. No. 2 Gilles Simon
2. Radek Stepanek


Champion prediction:
Justin: No. 3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will be interesting to see what Hewitt can do this year

Justin Cohen said...

JC, thanks for the comment.

It will definitely be interesting to see how Lleyton Hewitt does on the ATP World Tour in 2009 after seeing his ranking drop after several years of injuries. This upcoming seaosn is a big year for him if he wants to continue his career for a longer period of time. Somebody in the Hewitt Camp recently stated that if he is successful this season, he likely will continue his tennis career. Hewitt showed signs of life during last week's Hopman Cup, winning a several key matches for Australia.