Roger Federer will continue his Basel campaign on Wednesday against Denis Istomin. Grigor Dimitrov and Radek Stepanek are set to contest a first-round match.
Denis Istomin vs. (3) Roger Federer
Federer and Istomin will be going head-to-head for the fourth time in their careers when they do battle in round two of the Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday. All four of the previous encounters have gone Federer’s way and he has never even lost a single set to his opponent. The Swiss’ third hard-court win over Istomin came earlier this season in Indian Wells via a 6-2, 6-3 decision.
The 2013 campaign has obviously been a disappointing one for Federer, but he should be inspired with World Tour Finals qualification at stake at a hometown event he has won five times. He opened on Monday with a 6-4, 6-2 rout of Adrian Mannarino. Istomin booked his spot in the last 16 by dismissing Horacio Zeballos 7-5, 7-6(3) on Tuesday. The 48th-ranked Uzbek is a solid 32-28 for the year. Istomin likely won’t be facing Federer at his very best, but it’s hard to expect at this particular tournament that the No. 3 seed drops a set in this matchup for the first time.
Pick: Federer in 2 losing more than 8 games
[polldaddy poll=7498130]
(8) Grigor Dimitrov vs. Radek Stepanek
Dimitrov is coming off the first ATP title of his career, won last week in Stockholm–where he beat David Ferrer in Sunday’s title match. The 22-year-old Bulgarian, under the direction of new head coach Roger Rasheed, is up to a career-high ranking of No. 22 in the world. Sustaining success, though, has always been an issue. Consider this season alone: Dimitrov finished runner-up in Brisbane then lost in the Sydney first round. He reached the Monte-Carlo quarterfinals then dropped his opener in Barcelona. He advanced to the quarters in Washington then fell in the Montreal opening round. He won two matches in Cincinnati then lost right away at the U.S. Open.
At the other end of the career spectrum, the 34-year-old Stepanek is still going relatively strong. He registers at 45th in the world after a quarterfinal run last week in Vienna, where he succumbed to eventual champion Tommy Haas in a competitive two-setter. Stepanek is 13-1 since the U.S. Open (2-1 ATP, 10-0 Challenger, 1-0 Davis Cup). As those results suggest, the veteran is extremely dangerous on indoor hard courts thanks to his aggressive style of play. All of those factors will be a major problem for Dimitrov, who is forced to make a quick turnaround after an emotional week in Stockholm.
Pick: Stepanek in 2
[polldaddy poll=7498131]
Nice analysis on the Steps BabyFed match up. Not a fan of fishface but I’ll take him in three.
Fed in two losing eight or less.
#DontWorryIndoorSeasonIsHere
Watching this match live on ESPN3 [in between doing household chores]. Fed down a break, Istomin serving at 4/3.
#GreatMinds
#Humb1e
Maybe Rog should have done the kidnappings on Istomin, too.
or at least did the kidnappings on Istomin’s goggles
Jpacnw,
I didn’t know that they are showing the matches in espn3. Now I should go there and try to check it out.
NNY7: The Tennis Channel was also streaming matches live, even though they will be showing them on TV later. I have the Tennis Channel through Comcast. Unfortunately, the streaming is only available to people who not only have TC, but whose cable companies contract to do the streaming and Comcast, my cable company, doesn’t do that. If you go to the live streaming site, there’s a drop down list and if your cable company is among them, then you’ll be able to access the TC streams as long as you also subscribe to the channel through your carrier. (eg, Verizon Fios is one of the companies that contracts for the stream).
Rog down a break already. 3-4
#YouCanLeadaHorseToWater…
was broken at 2-2
For some perverted reason, if Delpo doesn’t win, I’d LOVE to see Dr. Ivo ace his way to a Basel title.
#IndoorTennis
#Giggity
No WAY Istomin serves the 1st set out.
#AntiJinxings
WAY.
#TalkingToMyself
huge choke in progress
BP saved
Istomin takes the 1st set!!! Roger definitely should have done the kidnappings.
Almost choked the 1st set means he WILL choke the match.
Speaking of, where’s willmw101???
#NID
2 BPs squandered by Fed
Stanford back to No. 2 Swiss.
#ComfortZone
Hello! I’ve been following your website for some time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from New Caney Tx!
Just wanted to say keep up the good work!
Time for the let down. Roger will DEFINITELY break to go up 2-0.
Make the final 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Federer.
#Seriously
Fed breaks
Fed in 3
#CongratulationsToMe
“Make the final 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 Federer.”
Good extrapolation from 4-6, 1-0 on serve, no?
#SelfCongrats
hawkeye63:
#rogerheardyou
#accommodating
#somuchpoweroverfed
#humbled
Federer is in the quarterfinals. Two of his potential opponents have not yet played their first-round match. You can’t make this up, folks.
Business as usual, no?
Aw, Ricky, don’t tell me you have joined the conspiratorial band-wagon, have you? This is what happens when you hang around characters like ed251137, hawkeye and holdserve………..
One minute Federer was saying he has done enough over the years to help the Basel tournament and is demanding a seven figure fee: a week later he announces he is prepared to play for no fee.
#WorkItOutForYourself
Hang about. To date I have always sat on the fence during the numerous spates of conspiracy theories. Now even I find it difficult to ignore the circumstantial evidence and unequivocal favouritism.
ed, I was, like you, on the fence for years, too. Hey, not even on the fence! I used to be all over people, who suggested the possibility of draw manipulation. Not anymore! There was this German publication of a mathematician, a piece from espn of possiblecomputer manipulation of the US Open draw for years, and the statistical anomalies of draw outcomes, we’ve seen for a couple of years now. All this brought me around. In the end, it’s all a question of motive and possibility. Both are there. I hate the word ‘conspiracy’, btw. It has this nut connotation. But, isn’t every fraud, which involves more than one person, a conspiracy? But nobody would argue, there are no frauds in this good old world. Conspiracy theories, which are pretty unlikely, are those, which are all encompassing and/or ridicilously complicated and/or ungodly expensive to pull off. All this is not the case with possible draw manipulations. The risk/reward relation is quite good.
As to scheduling gates: That’s not even a conspiracy but an open secret, lol.
Maybe, I should add a disclaimer: I’m a rafafan, but I’m not going into this “Rafa always gets the short end of the stick” angst. For example, all those American quarterfedals, which were highly anticipated this year, but came to pass only two times (IW and Cincy), were certainly no desaster for Rafa, no? 😉
allowing him to play on Monday was somewhat OK, but allowing him to play R2 on Wednesday and his R2 match BEFORE Dimitrov played R1 was an abomination.
also making Istomin played singles AND doubles on Tuesday was unforgivable.
Add to that the intelligent scheduling of Fed’s possible opponents Dimi and Dolgo in the night match…
and they will probably have to play Federer at noon tomorrow
That’s called Perfect Swiss Timing!
#gettingold
The winner of Dimi and Dolgo has to wear ankle weights and serve underhand.
#RogersHouse
Tournament organizers were going to make them play with their left hand but Fed overruled.
Jpacnw,
I checked out the live streaming site and my cable provider is not listed. So I guess that I am out of luck with that option.
Thanks anyway for the suggestion. 🙂
It was worth checking out.
The coverage of the smaller tournaments is not very good. But at least when it’s a Masters, then there is better coverage.
I didn’t know about espn3 showing the matches live. It would have to be at a reasonable time for me. I am not going to stay up until the wee hours just to see this tournament. If I had known that espn3 was showing the matches, I could have seen Fed’s match live.
At least now I know that espn3 is another option!
@hawkeye
ROFL
#LaughOutLoudTime
:)))
The above is specific to this week’s tournaments, but If there were a Non-Tournament tennis related thread, as proposed the other day, this would be a good place to put info and suggestions for live streaming options , transmissions in different countries etc.
e.g. somebody* recommended me to retry the ATP channel (which is vastly improved) and I have passed this info on to several others recently.
Unfortunately it isn’t much help if you live in the USA as most matches are blocked 🙁
Nor does it work for the Slams.
* I’ve forgotten who it was but thank you: it’s a godsend for me.
Dimi beat Radek.
#BabySteps