The ATP 500 China Open, the second event of the Asian Swing, starts next week in Beijing. The Tennis Review tells you what you need to know about the event’s draw, past winners and this season’s likely champion.
When? Oct 5th-11th.
Where? The Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center, Beijing, China. The main stadium, the Diamond Court, named after its shape, holds 15,000 people and has a retractable roof.
Status and prize money: The Beijing Open, an ATP 500 event, will reward its champion with 500 ranking points and has a total prize money fund of $2, 700, 510. Last year’s champion Novak Djokovic took home $604, 000.
Surface and conditions: The surface is a slow hard court. The event is played outdoors, and in the late Summer Beijing humidity this means the balls are a little heavy. Slow Harcourt and heavy balls equal perfect conditions for Novak Djokovic who has only dropped three sets in his 24 matches in the Chinese capital.
Past Champions: Novak Djokovic has won the event the past five out of six years, winning 25 matches in a row and is unbeaten at the event.
In 2011, when Djokovic did not play, Tomas Berdych took the trophy, beating Marin Cilic in the final.
Other past champions since the tournament’s start in 2004 are Marat Safin, Fernando Gonzales, Andy Roddick, Marcos Baghdatis and Rafael Nadal.
The Draw: The 32 player draw is features top seed Novak Djokovic in the top half and second seed Tomas Berdych in the bottom half.
Djokovic is scheduled to meet Nadal (3) in his semi-final while Berdych is projected to meet David Ferrer (4).
The quarter-finals are scheduled to be Djokovic – John Isner (6), Ferrer – Milos Raonic (5), Nadal – Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (8), and Berdych- David Goffin (7).
The rest of the field: The event also stars Dominic Thiem, Fabio Fognini, Ivo Karlovic and Martin Klizan.
Possible Upsets: Tomas Berdych is a likely candidate. The Czech has not been winning much since the Spring (10-6 since Halle), will have played two matches on Sunday in Shenzhen if he makes the final, and could go down to Karlovic or Garcia –Lopez in his second round match.
Sixth seed John Isner has a tough first round against Dominic Thiem, who has won three clay court titles this year, and will enjoy the slow, high bouncing conditions. The two have met once, this year in the Nice semis, with Thiem taking that match in straight sets.
Matches to look out for: All eyes will be on a possible Nadal-Djokovic final, though that match should be a fairly straight-forward Djokovic victory. What it will mainly reveal is how far away Nadal is to getting back to his best since his shocking third round US Open defeat to Fabio Fognini.
Fifth seed Milos Raonic’s first round clash with Viktor Troicki is the pick of the first round matches. Raonic, on the comeback trail from surgery on a foot injury, recently won the St Petersburg Open while Troicki, ranked 24, is 31-22 this year and one of the most dangerous floaters in the draw.
Likely winner: Novak Djokovic. The Serb has all the time in the world to track down balls, execute his baseline skills, get the rhythm he thrives on and win his sixth China Open title.
Djokovic lacks any serious challengers in the draw, but the tournament is still worth watching to see the world No.1 at his distinctive best. Also, if someone does upset him, spectators will witness that player play the slow hard court match of their life to do so.
Commentary by Christian Deverille.
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