Gerry Weber Open Preview

The €680,250 Gerry Weber Open starts in earnest today, but the four-time defending champion Roger Federer who had been handed a very tough 1st round draw against Olivier Rochus has pulled out.
The talented Belgian had 4 match points against Federer at the quarterfinal stage last year but could not finish the job and the Swiss maestro squeezed through and eventually won his fourth title. However, following his failure to win Roland Garros on Sunday, Federer has chosen to skip Halle this year citing fatigue, and will now need to re-focus in time for Wimbledon. His place in the draw has been taken by lucky loser Andrei Pavel of Romania.
Second seeded Nikolay Davydenko has a tough opener against Jurgen Melzer as does third seeded James Blake who takes on his big serving compatriot Sam Querrey. An interesting match featuring the number 4 seed Thomas Berdych and wild card Nicolas Kiefer will rouse the spirits of the German audience who will welcome the return of the former champion from injury particularly as Tommy Haas has had to pull out with shoulder problems.
First up on stadium court today is a repeat of the Marseille Open 13 final pitting the charismatic Cypriot, eigth seeded Marcos Baghdatis against Gilles Simon of France. Although Simon won that encounter to take the title in February this year, Baghdatis on this surface at least is the favourite to come through.
Top 8 draw:

Andrei Pavel v Olivier Rochus
Nikolay Davydenko(2) v Jurgen Melzer
James Blake(3) v Sam Querrey
Tomas Berdych(4) v Nicolas Kiefer
Richard Gasquet(5) v Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi
Mikhail Youzhny(6) v Michael Russell
David Nalbandian(7) v Marc Gicquel
Marcos Baghdatis(8) v Gilles Simon

Andre Jones
Gerry Weber Open
Halle

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