Barcelona Preview

This week the world of tennis was on break as in the next 2 weeks there is the last two ATP Masters Series on clay for preparation of Roland Garros. But few players will be on the court in Barcelona and Munich. All of the Spanish players will be in Barcelona for the Open Sabadell Atlantico Barcelona 2008. There are 16 players from Spain in the main draw with Nadal and Ferrer as the top 2 seeds, in Munich Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu and Fernando Gonzalez are the top seeds.

In his first round match Rafael Nadal who recently captured his fourth Monte-Carlo title will try to win his 99th match on the last 100 on clay against his Italian second round opponent Potito Starace. Starace played very well in the first set before he got broke in the 10th game. Then the public favourite cruised to victory 6-4 6-2.

Few early exits happened for top seeds. Recent Estoril semi-finalist Denis Gremelmayr upset the American 4th seed James Blake 6-1 6-4. Andy Murray, the 7th seed also lost in his first match against Mario Ancic 6-4 6-4. Spanish veteran Carlos Moya didn't manage to concretize his first set win over Ernest Gulbis, he lost 4-6 6-1 6-4. The last seed to lost in his first match is giant Ivo Karlovic against Albert Montanes 6-7 6-3 7-5.