[JakeBarkings]

Courtesy of ITF Grand Slam Media:

2009 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
DAY 3 MEN’S NOTESWednesday 21 January 2009Second Round Bottom Half
Featured matches
No. 2 Roger Federer (SUI) v (Q) Evgeny Korolev (RUS)
No. 3 Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Jeremy Chardy (FRA)
No. 7 Andy Roddick (USA) v (Q) Xavier Malisse (BEL)
No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) v (Q) Florian Mayer (GER)
No. 10 David Nalbandian (ARG) v Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)
No. 11 David Ferrer (ESP) v (Q) Dominik Hrbaty (SVK)
No. 15 Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) v (WC) Brydan Klein (AUS)
No. 16 Robin Soderling (SWE) v Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)
No. 19 Marin Cilic (CRO) v Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
No. 26 Marat Safin (RUS) v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)
(WC) Bernard Tomic (AUS) v Gilles Muller (LUX)


On court today…

• The 3 Australian Open champions in the field, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Marat Safin continue their Australian Open campaign, along with another Grand Slam champion Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open winner.

• Three Serbians…Novak Djokovic is joined by Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki as all 3 Serbian men that started in the men’s draw won through to the 2nd round.

• Three winners of the pre-Australian Open warm-up tournaments Marin Cilic, David Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro, who all look to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

• Wildcard Bernard Tomic bids to become the 2nd youngest player to reach the 3rd round of a Grand Slam in the Open Era after Aaron Krickstein at the 1983 US Open.

• At the other end of the age scale, Fabrice Santoro bids to become the oldest man to win two matches at the Australian Open since 1978.

NO. 2 ROGER FEDERER (SUI) v (Q) EVGENY KOROLEV (RUS)

Head-to-head: first meeting

FEDERERvKOROLEV
27Age20
2ATP Ranking118
57Titles0
163-25Career Grand Slam Record4-8
42-6Australian Open Record2-2
625-153Career Record42-49
368-81Career Record - Hard24-25
4-12009 Record1-0
4-12009 Record - Hard1-0
12-11Career Five-Set Record1-3
3Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
242-128Career Tiebreak Record18-20
3-02009 Tiebreak Record1-0

• FEDERER defeated Andreas Seppi 61 76 75 in the first round.

• Federer,champion here in 2004 and 2006-07has always reached at least the 3rd round on his nine previous Australian Open appearances. This is his 37th consecutive appearance in a Grand Slam event.

• Last year, Federer reached the semifinals for the 5th successive year, falling to eventual champion Novak Djokovic 75 63 76, ending a run of 10 straight Grand Slam final appearances.

• If Federer wins his match today, he will surpass Boris Becker and move into 7th place for most Open Era Grand Slam match wins, with a 164-25 win-loss record.

• Federer has once lost to a qualifier at a Grand Slam. As No. 7 seed at 2002 Wimbledon, he fell to qualifier Mario Ancic in the first round.

• Federer started his 2009 season at Doha and advanced to the semifinals before losing to eventual champion Andy Murray 67 62 62. He then won the Kooyong exhibition event last week (d. Stanislas Wawrinka in the final).

• Despite winning four titles and maintaining his streak of winning at least one Grand Slam title a year since 2003, Federer lost his No. 1 ranking to Rafael Nadal in 2008, after a reign of 237 consecutive weeks.

• Federer is seeded No. 2 at the Australian Open for the first time since 2004, having been top seed for the last 4 years.

• The last time the No. 2 seed failed to reach the 3rd round of the Australian Open was in 2002, when Gustavo Kuerten lost to Julien Boutter in the opening round.

• Federer won the 2008 US Open (d. Andy Murray in the final), his 13th Grand Slam title, placing him just one short of Pete Sampras’s all-time record of 14.

• Federer has been without a permanent coach since splitting from Tony Roche in May 2007 but is being assisted here by Swiss Davis Cup captain Severin Luthi, as he has at the last few majors.

• Qualifier KOROLEV is bidding to advance to the 3rd round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

• Korolev defeated 1998 Roland Garros champion and world No. 41 Carlos Moya 63 61 76 in the first round to reach the 2nd round here for the second year in a row. Last year, he retired from his 2nd round match against Philipp Kohlschreiber with a groin injury.

• Korolev also reached the 2nd round at 2006 Roland Garros and the 2008 US Open.

• Korolev defeated Frederik Nielsen (DEN), Alexandre Sidorenko (FRA) and Danai Udomchoke (THA) through the three rounds of qualifying to earn his place in the main draw of the 2009 Australian Open.

• Korolev is on a four-match losing streak to Top 10 players and he meets his first in 7 months today. He has twice previously beaten a Top 10 player, No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko at 2006 Marseille and No. 6 James Blake at 2007 Las Vegas.

• This is Korolev’s first tournament of the year. He attempted to qualify for Brisbane and Sydney but fell in the 2nd round of both qualifying events.

• Korolev finished 2008 outside the Top 100 for the first time in three years and posted a 41-49 season. He reached his second career ATP semifinal at Valencia (l. Nicolas Almagro), a further three quarterfinals, and won the Aachen Challenger in Germany.

• Korolev is coached by his father, also called Evgeny.

NO. 3 NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB) v JEREMY CHARDY (FRA)

Head-to-head: first meeting

DJOKOVICvCHARDY
21Age21
3ATP Ranking68
11Titles0
52-15Career Grand Slam Record7-4
11-3Australian Open Record1-0
193-72Career Record15-16
113-41Career Record - Hard7-8
3-22009 Record3-2
3-22009 Record - Hard3-2
8-3Career Five-Set Record2-0
1Comebacks from 0-2 Down1
78-38Career Tiebreak Record6-18
0-12009 Tiebreak Record0-2

• DJOKOVIC began the defence of his title with victory against qualifier Andrea Stoppini in the 1st round, as all 3 Serbian men in the draw here advanced to the 2nd round.

• This is Djokovic’s 5th straight appearance at the Australian Open. Last year, he won his sole Grand Slam title to date by defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 46 64 63 76 in the final, to become the 50th member of the Grand Slam title club.

• The last time that the Australian Open defending champion failed to reach the 3rd round was in 1996. (Note – since 1996, 3 champions did not return to defend the title.). There have been 9 successful title defences at the Australian Open in the Open Era.

• En route to the title last year, Djokovic ended Roger Federer’s run of 10 straight Grand Slam finals by defeating the three-time Australian Open champion in the semifinals. Djokovic is the only man other than Federer or Rafael Nadal to win a major since 2005 Roland Garros.

• Djokovic has been ranked No. 3 for all but 1 week since 9 July 2007. He has had the chance to take over the No. 2 ranking three times in the last eight months, most recently at Sydney where he needed to reach the final to overtake Federer in the rankings; he fell in the semifinals. He also had the opportunity at 2008 AMS Hamburg and 2008 Roland Garros, losing to the then No. 2 Nadal both times.

• Djokovic played 2 events before coming here, losing in the 1st round at Brisbane (to Ernests Gulbis) before taking a wildcard into Sydney and reaching the semifinals (l. Jarkko Nieminen 64 76).

• Djokovic ended the 2008 season by winning the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, his 11th career title and 8th on hard court.

• Djokovic is coached by Marian Vajda.

• CHARDY made a successful Australian Open debut, defeating Marcos Daniel 64 64 61 in the 1st round.

• Chardy qualified for the Australian Open in 2007-08 but lost in the 1st round on both occasions.

• Chardy has reached at least the 2nd round at all 5 majors that he has played (including this one). His best performance came at last year’s Roland Garros, where he reached the last 16.

• Chardy defeated the same opponent – Frederico Gil – in the first round at all three majors that he played in 2008, the only time that the same two men have met in the 1st round of 3 straight majors.

• Chardy played 2 events before coming here. He lost in the opening round at Doha (to Philipp Petzschner) and reached the quarterfinals at Sydney last week (l. Richard Gasquet). He plays here on a career-high ranking of No. 68.

• As well as reaching the last 16 at Roland Garros in 2008, Chardy also reached the quarterfinals at Gstaad (clay) and Moscow (indoor hard).

• This is Chardy’s 3rd career meeting with a Top 10 player. His two previous meetings with a Top 10 player were against David Nalbandian. He lost to him at 2006 Estoril before defeating him in the 2nd round at 2008 Roland Garros.

• Chardy played the boys’ singles here in 2005, (l. Marin Cilic, 2nd round) but enjoyed better success at Wimbledon that year, winning the title. He also finished runner-up at the US Open.

• Chardy has been coached by Frederic Fontang since the age of 12.

NO. 7 ANDY RODDICK (USA) v (Q) XAVIER MALISSE (BEL)

Head-to-head: Roddick leads 7-0
2001 Atlanta Clay (O) FR Roddick 62 64
2002 Memphis Hard (I) SF Roddick 67(5) 63 63
2002 Los Angeles Hard (O) QF Roddick 64 64
2002 Basel Carpet (I) R32 Roddick 64 63
2003 Indianopolis Hard (O) QF Roddick 64 61
2003 AMS Montreal Hard (O) R64 Roddick 36 60 62
2003 US Open Hard (O) R16 Roddick 63 64 76(5)
Roddick and Malisse resume their series after last meeting over 5 years ago at the 2003 US Open. Roddick’s perfect 7-0 record includes victories on 3 different surfaces and 5 on hard court. Malisse has only twice taken a set off the American.

RODDICKvMALISSE
26Age28
9ATP Ranking195
26Titles3
91-30Career Grand Slam Record45-31
26-7Australian Open Record5-7
464-149Career Record217-183
312-92Career Record - Hard129-112
5-12009 Record1-1
5-12009 Record - Hard1-1
10-12Career Five-Set Record10-9
2Comebacks from 0-2 Down3
224-137Career Tiebreak Record83-70
1-02009 Tiebreak Record1-1

• World No. 9 RODDICK faces his second qualifier of the tournament today after defeating Bjorn Rehnquist 60 62 62 in the first round. So far, he has never lost to a qualifier at a Grand Slam.

• Last year

• , Roddick lost in the 3rd round to Philipp Kohlschreiber in five sets, his earliest exit since falling in the 2nd round on his Australian Open debut in 2002.

• Roddick has reached the Australian Open semifinals 3 times, in 2003 (l. Rainer Schuettler), 2005 (l. Lleyton Hewitt) and 2007 (l. Roger Federer).

• Roddick began his 2009 season with a runner-up finish at Doha (l. Andy Murray).

• Roddick finished 2008 ranked No. 8, his lowest year-end ranking for 6 years but his 7th consecutive year in the Top 10 (the most among active players with Roger Federer). He won 3 titles – all on hard court – at San Jose, Dubai and Beijing, to maintain his record of winning at least one title for the past 8 years.

• Roddick sits in 3rd place for most career hard court titles among active players (16), behind Roger Federer (38) and Lleyton Hewitt (19).

• Roddick was the last American male winner of a Grand Slam tournament, winning his lone Grand Slam title at the 2003 US Open (d. Juan Carlos Ferrero). 21 majors later, this is the longest gap between Grand Slam triumphs for American men. Roddick is also the last American Grand Slam finalist – he finished runner-up to Roger Federer at the 2006 US Open.

• Roddick began working with Larry Stefanki at the end of 2008. He split from Jimmy Connors last summer.

• Qualifier MALISSE advanced to the 2nd round of the Australian Open for the first time in 3 years. He had his first victory over Michael Llodra 76 61 61 in the opening round.

• Last year, Malisse lost in the first round to Dmitry Tursunov 67 57 62 61 63 after holding a two-set lead. His best result here is a 3rd round finish in 2003.

• Malisse defeated Rajeev Ram, Michael Lammer and No. 14 seed Frank Dancevic in qualifying.

• Malisse qualified for Sydney last week but lost in the first round to Mario Ancic.

• Last year, Malisse returned to the tour full-time after recovering from a wrist injury that plagued him in 2007. He had a disappointing season at tour-level, his best results winning two matches at Chennai and AMS Miami, but won the Moncton Challenger in Canada in July. He finished the season with his lowest ever year-end ranking at No. 162.

• Malisse is a former Top 20 player. He had his best season in 2002, when he reached the semifinals at Wimbledon (l. David Nalbandian) and rose to a career-high ranking of No. 19.

• Malisse is currently without a coach.

NO. 8 JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO (ARG) v (Q) FLORIAN MAYER (GER)

Head-to-head: Mayer leads 1-0
2006 Stuttgart Clay (O) R16 Mayer 61 60

DEL POTROvMAYER
20Age25
6ATP Ranking450
5Titles0
12-10Career Grand Slam Record16-17
3-2Australian Open Record5-5
89-53Career Record87-100
56-34Career Record - Hard30-45
5-02009 Record1-0
5-02009 Record - Hard1-0
2-1Career Five-Set Record2-3
0Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
19-23Career Tiebreak Record29-33
0-02009 Tiebreak Record0-0

• DEL POTRO is bidding to reach the 3rd round at the Australian Open for the first time. He defeated Mischa Zverev 63 64 62 in his opening match on Monday.

• Del Potro reached the 2nd round on both of his previous appearances here, retiring on both occasions.In 2007 he retired with cramping, and last year retired with a back injury when trailing David Ferrer two sets to love.

• Del Potro arrives here having won his 5th career title at Auckland last week in his first tournament of the year. He defeated Sam Querrey 64 64 in the final.

• Del Potro had a breakthrough year in 2008. Having not previously won a tournament, he won four straight events in July and August, and went on to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the US Open, the only Argentine to reach that stage of a major last year. Del Potro’s 23-match winning streak saw his ranking improve from No. 65 to No. 13, and he closed the year at No. 9. At 20 years old, he was the youngest player to finish in the Top 10.

• Del Potro plays here on a career-high ranking of No. 6.

• Del Potro has been coached by Franco Davin since March 2008. Davin helped Gaston Gaudio to the Roland Garros title in 2004.

• Qualifier MAYER is bidding to reach the 3rd round of a Slam for the 3rd time in 18 Grand Slam appearances. He defeated fellow qualifier Lamine Ouahab 62 61 62 in the first round on Monday.

• Mayer reached the 3rd round here in 2007 but last year fell in the opening round to Florent Serra. His best Grand Slam result is a quarterfinal finish on his Wimbledon debut in 2004.

• Mayer earned his place in the 2009 Australian Open main draw by defeating Sergei Bubka, Blaz Kavcic and 12th seed Amer Delic in qualifying.

• This is Mayer’s first tournament in 8 months, having endured a troubled 2008 season which saw his year-end ranking drop 289 places to No. 344. He did not play beyond May of last year due to a finger injury which required surgery in June and caused him to miss Wimbledon and the US Open. He also missed Roland Garros with gastroentiritis.

• At No. 450, Mayer is the second lowest-ranked player remaining in the men’s draw, behind No. 768 wildcard Bernard Tomic.

• Mayer has a 4-18 record against Top 10 players. His last victory came over world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko in the round of 16 at 2007 Halle.

• Mayer is coached by Markus Wislsperger.

NO. 10 DAVID NALBANDIAN (ARG) v YEN-HSUN LU (TPE)

Head-to-head: Nalbandian leads 1-0
2004 Beijing Hard (I) R16 Nalbandian 67(6) 64 64

NALBANDIANvLU
27Age25
11ATP Ranking61
10Titles0
78-28Career Grand Slam Record5-12
24-7Australian Open Record2-4
297-141Career Record39-63
140-70Career Record - Hard29-47
5-02009 Record2-3
5-02009 Record - Hard2-3
15-10Career Five-Set Record5-3
6Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
102-74Career Tiebreak Record23-21
1-12009 Tiebreak Record2-2

• NALBANDIAN maintained his record of always reaching the 2nd round at the Australian Open with a 61 46 62 63 victory over Marc Gicquel in the 1st round.

• This is Nalbandian’s8th straight Australian Open. Apart from on his debut here in 2002, he has always reached the 3rd round here. Last year, he fell in the 3rd round to Juan Carlos Ferrero 61 62 63.

• Nalbandian was a semifinalist here in 2006 and a quarterfinalist three times in 2003-05.

• Nalbandian has been a semifinalist at all four majors and posted his best performance at 2002 Wimbledon when finishing runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt.

• Nalbandian won his 10th career title at Sydney last week, defeating Jarkko Nieminen 63 67 62 in the final. It was his first title on Australian soil and fourth on hard court.

• Having finished the season as Argentina’s No. 1 player from 2005 to 2007, Nalbandian finished outside of the Top 10 at No. 11 in 2008 for the first time in six years, and relinquished his title as the No. 1 Argentine to Juan Martin del Potro. He did win two titles (Buenos Aires and Stockholm) and also led his nation to the 2008 Davis Cup final against Spain in Mar del Plata.

• Nalbandian is without a coach, having recently split from Martin Jaite.

• LU is through to the 2nd round of the Australian Open for the 2nd time after defeating Thomaz Bellucci 63 75 64.

• Lu is today bidding to reach the 3rd round of a major for the 1st time in his career. This is his 5th appearance in the 2nd round of a Grand Slam.

• Lu started 2009 at the Hopman Cup, losing both of his singles matches. (He pulled out of his 3rd match with a quad injury.) He then reached the 2nd round at Auckland last week (l. Nicolas Almagro).

• Lu’s best results in 2008 were two quarterfinal finishes on hard court at San Jose and Indianapolis.

• Lu plays here on a career-high ranking of No. 61. He earned his highest year-end ranking of No. 64 in 2008.

• Lu is coached by Choi Jun.

NO. 11 DAVID FERRER (ESP) v (Q) DOMINIK HRBATY (SVK)

Head-to-head: Ferrer leads 4-3
2003 Auckland Hard (O) QF Hrbaty 75 63
2003 St Petersburg Hard (I) R32 Hrbaty 75 62
2004 AMS Hamburg Clay (O) R32 Ferrer 60 63
2005 AMS Miami Hard (O) QF Ferrer 62 63
2005 AMS Monte Carlo Clay (O) R64 Ferrer 64 63
2005 US Open Hard (O) R32 Hrbaty 67(7) 75 75 75
2006 AMS Monte Carlo Clay (O) R32 Ferrer 64 36 64
FERRERvHRBATY
26Age31
12ATP Ranking251
7Titles6
45-24Career Grand Slam Record54-47
12-6Australian Open Record22-11
250-166Career Record365-316
97-75Career Record - Hard188-155
2-12009 Record4-2
2-12009 Record - Hard4-2
10-2Career Five-Set Record19-10
2Comebacks from 0-2 Down5
56-58Career Tiebreak Record133-128
0-42009 Tiebreak Record4-2
0-02009 Tiebreak Record0-0

• FERRER advanced to the 2nd round with a 61 67 61 67 64 victory over Denis Gremelmayr in the 1st round.

• Ferrer is making his 7th consecutive Australian Open appearance and is bidding to reach the Australian Open 3rd round for the 4th straight year.

• Last year, Ferrer had his best Australian Open result, advancing to the quarterfinals here for the first time before losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

• Ferrer achieved his best Grand Slam result at the 2007 US Open, advancing to the semifinals (l. Novak Djokovic).

• Ferrer warmed up for Melbourne at Auckland last week, reaching the semifinals (l. Sam Querrey 36 63 76).

• Ferrer finished 2008 ranked No. 12, having won titles at Valencia (clay) and ’s-Hertogenbosch (grass) and finished runner-up at Barcelona.

• Ferrer was also part of the Spanish team that won its third Davis Cup title in Argentina in November. He lost to David Nalbandian in the opening rubber but Spain went on to win the tie 3-1.

• Ferrer has been coached by Javier Piles since he was a junior.

• Qualifier HRBATY advanced to the 2nd round here with a 76 26 62 75 victory over wildcard John Isner in the 1st round. He is today bidding to reach the 3rd round for the 8th time in 12 appearances.

• Hrbaty qualified for the Australian Open, defeating Michael Yani (USA), Riccardo Ghedin (ITA) and Marco Chiudinelli (SUI).

• Hrbaty is playing his first Australian Open for 2 years. He missed last year’s Australian Open following surgery to remove a bone growth on his right elbow and then a further operation on his right shoulder. - the first time that Hrbaty missed a Grand Slam event since making his Grand Slam debut at the 1997 Australian Open.

• Hrbaty’s best result here is a quarterfinal finish in 2001 and 2005. He has also reached the round of 16 on 3 occasions.

• As a result of his elbow and shoulder injuries, Hrbaty dropped outside the Top 100 in October 2007 for the 1st time since October 1996 and dropped further in 2008, finishing at No. 257.

• Hrbaty started the season by helping Slovak Republic to the Hopman Cup title for the 2nd time, teaming with Dominika Cibulkova. He won 3 out of 4 of his matches (one by retirement), including victory against Marat Safin in the final.

• After Hopman Cup, Hrbaty played Auckland, where he was champion in 2001 and 2004, as a wildcard falling to Philipp Kohlschreiber 61 62 in the 1st round.

• Hrbaty is bidding to win back-to-back matches at tour level for the 1st time since 2007 AMS Montreal.

• Hrbaty announced his engagement to Czech girlfriend Nelly Petrova the day after victory at the 2008 Hopman Cup.

• Hrbaty is coached by Tibor Toth.

NO. 15 STANISLAS WAWRINKA (SUI) v (WC) BRYDAN KLEIN (AUS)

Head-to-head: first meeting

WAWRINKAvKLEIN
23Age19
16ATP Ranking249
1Titles0
25-15Career Grand Slam Record1-1
5-3Australian Open Record1-1
111-97Career Record1-2
52-47Career Record - Hard1-2
1-12009 Record1-1
1-12009 Record - Hard1-1
11-4Career Five-Set Record0-0
4Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
47-61Career Tiebreak Record0-0
1-02009 Tiebreak Record0-0

• WAWRINKA advanced to the Australian Open 2nd round for the 4th straight year, defeating Ivo Minar 61 26 75 76 in the 1st round.

• Wawrinka has fallen at this stage of the Australian Open on 2 of his past 3 appearances here. He advanced to the 3rd round here in 2007 before losing to Rafael Nadal.

• Wawrinka’s best Grand Slam performance is reaching the round of 16. He has achieved this 3 times, including at both of the last 2 Slams, 2008 Wimbledon and the 2008 US Open, as well as at the 2007 US Open.

• Wawrinka lost in the 1st round at Chennai in the first week of the season and then finished runner-up to Roger Federer at the Kooyong exhibition event.

• Wawrinka had his highest year-end ranking in 2008 at No. 13. His highlights were runner-up finishes at Doha and AMS Rome, and reaching the semifinals at Barcelona and Gstaad, in addition to his two round-of-16 finishes at Wimbledon and the US Open.

• Wawrinka has been coached by Dimitri Zavialoff since 1993.

• Wildcard KLEIN hasadvanced to the 2nd round of a major for the first time. In the 1st round, he defeated qualifier Bjorn Phau 64 63 46 63.

• Klein made his Grand Slam debut at last year’s Australian Open, also as a wildcard, losing to Paul Capdeville 64 75 64 in the 1st round.

• Klein also received a wildcard for Brisbane this year, losing in the 1st round to Tomas Berdych. This is his only tour-level event in addition to his two appearances here.

• Klein more than halved his ranking in 2008 from No. 606 to No. 256. He reached a semifinal and a quarterfinal at challengers in Delhi, and won 3 Futures titles.

• Klein won the boys’ singles here in 2007, becoming the 1st Australian for 13 years to win that title. He was followed by Bernard Tomic in 2008. Tomic also won through to the 2nd round and plays Gilles Muller today.

• Klein is coached by Milo Bradley.

NO. 16 ROBIN SODERLING (SWE) v MARCOS BAGHDATIS (CYP)

Head-to-head: Soderling leads 3-1
2006 New Haven Hard (O) R16 Soderling 63 67(3) 75
2007 Doha Hard (O) QF Soderling 63 62
2007 Halle Grass (O) R16 Baghdatis 67(9) 64 63
2008 Rotterdam Hard (I) R32 Soderling 63 36 64
Soderling has won all 3 previous hard court meetings against Baghdatis.

SODERLINGvBAGHDATIS
24Age23
17ATP Ranking97
3Titles2
15-20Career Grand Slam Record31-16
2-3Australian Open Record13-4
171-120Career Record133-72
94-65Career Record - Hard64-46
5-22009 Record1-1
5-22009 Record - Hard1-1
3-7Career Five-Set Record8-5
2Comebacks from 0-2 Down1
65-74Career Tiebreak Record56-34
0-02009 Tiebreak Record1-0

• SODERLING is bidding to advance to his first Australian Open 3rd round.

• In defeating Robert Kendrick 57 64 64 75 in the first round on Monday, Soderling won his first match at Melbourne Park since reaching the 2nd round in 2004.

• Soderling’s time here has been interrupted with injury - in 2005, he retired in the first round with a knee injury, he missed the 2006 event again with a knee injury, and last year a left wrist injury caused him to withdraw from the line-up. On his last appearance in 2007 he fell in the first round.

• The 3rd round is Soderling’s best result at a Grand Slam. He has reached that stage 4 times in 20 previous appearances at a major.

• Soderling broke the Top 20 for the first time last year, after winning his 3rd career title at Lyon and reaching 3 other tour finals – all indoor. He led the tour for indoor match wins, posting a 23-7 record.

• Soderling began the 2009 season at Brisbane where he reached the quarterfinals (l. Radek Stepanek), and the following week made the semifinals at Sydney (l. Juan Martin del Potro).

• Soderling is coached by Magnus Norman, who was runner-up at 2000 Roland Garros.

• 2006 runner-up BAGHDATIS is bidding to reach the 3rd round here for the 4th time in 5 years. He has always reached the 2nd round.

• Baghdatis defeated Julien Benneteau 63 76 62 in the first round on Monday.

• Last year

• , Baghdatis reached the 3rd round and lost a five-setter to Lleyton Hewitt in a match that finished at 4.34am, the latest-known finish in tennis history.

• Baghdatis produced the best result of his career at the 2006 Australian Open, when ranked No. 54, and in just his 6th Grand Slam tournament, he scored three consecutive victories over Top 10 players to reach the final, where he lost to Roger Federer 57 75 60 62. That same year he reached the Wimbledon semifinals.

• Before coming here, Baghdatis played at Brisbane as a wildcard, losing in the first round to Jarkko Nieminen. He then played at the Kooyong exhibition event, losing his first round match but winning his subsequent two.

• Baghdatis had an injury-affected 2008. He missed the 2008 clay court season for personal reasons, and then did not play after Wimbledon due to a right wrist injury. He retired in his last 3 tournaments with a back injury. His year-end ranking dropped from No. 16 in 2007 to No. 100 last year.

• This is the first time since Baghdatis’s 2006 Australian Open success that he has not been seeded at a Grand Slam.

• Baghdatis has been coached by Olivier Soules since November 2008.

NO. 26 MARAT SAFIN (RUS) v GUILLERMO GARCIA-LOPEZ (ESP)

Head-to-head: first meeting

SAFINvGARCIA-LOPEZ
28*Age25
27ATP Ranking62
15Titles0
93-34Career Grand Slam Record14-17
30-7Australian Open Record6-4
410-252Career Record74-98
205-131Career Record - Hard31-41
3-22009 Record1-0
3-22009 Record - Hard1-0
28-12Career Five-Set Record1-2
1Comebacks from 0-2 Down0
206-176Career Tiebreak Record28-34
3-22009 Tiebreak Record1-0
*turns 29 on 27 January

• 2005 champion SAFIN defeated Ivan Navarro 63 63 64 in the first round on Monday.

• Safin is contesting his 10th Australian Open in what he has mentioned is his final year on the tour.

• Safin won the title over Lleyton Hewitt 16 63 64 64 back in 2005, adding to his 2000 US Open title. He is one of four players in the main draw to own two or more Grand Slam titles, along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Hewitt. He was also a runner-up here in 2002 and 2004, losing to Thomas Johansson and Roger Federer respectively.

• Melbourne Park is the home of Safin’s last career title. Since lifting the trophy in 2005, he has gone beyond the round of 16 at a Grand Slam just once (2008 Wimbledon) and reached only three tournament finals.

• Last year, Safin turned around a poor first five months of the season (where he ranked as low as No. 93 in April) by reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon for the first time. Ranked No. 75, he upset world No. 3 Novak Djokovic in the 2nd round and No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka in the 4th before losing to Roger Federer 63 76 64 in the semis. In October he reached his first final in two years at Moscow and re-entered the Top 30 the following month. He plays here ranked No. 27.

• Safin played one tournament before arriving in Melbourne, teaming up with sister Dinara Safina to represent Russia at the 2009 Hopman Cup in Perth. Together they finished runner-up to Slovak Republic, Safin posting a 2-2 singles record during the week with defeats over Simone Bolelli and Yen-Hsun Lu.

• Safin is coached by Hernan Gurny.

• GARCIA-LOPEZ is bidding to match his best Australian Open and Grand Slam performance in reaching the 3rd round.

• After three 2nd round losses here in 2005-2007, Garcia-Lopez broke through to his first Grand Slam 3rd round last year (l. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga) and also reached that stage at 2008 Wimbledon (l. Rainer Schuettler).

• Garcia-Lopez defeated Agustin Calleri 36 76 62 60 in the first round here on Monday.

• This is Garcia-Lopez’s first tournament of the year.

• Garcia-Lopez achieved his highest year-end ranking in 2008, hitting No. 62 after winning a personal best 21 match wins and reaching two ATP semifinals last year (San Jose and Gstaad).

• Garcia-Lopez is coached by Juan Manuel Esparcia Clemente.

(WC) BERNARD TOMIC (AUS) v GILLES MULLER (LUX)

Head-to-head: first meeting

TOMICvMULLER
16Age25
768ATP Ranking87
0Titles0
1-0Career Grand Slam Record11-12
1-0Australian Open Record3-4
1-1Career Record69-71
1-1Career Record - Hard48-43
1-12009 Record2-1
1-12009 Record - Hard2-1
0-0Career Five-Set Record6-2
0Comebacks from 0-2 Down2
3-0Career Tiebreak Record41-37
3-02009 Tiebreak Record1-0

• 2008 boys’ singles champion TOMIC made a successful Grand Slam debut, defeating Potito Starace in the 1st round.

• At 16 yrs, 90 days at the start of the tournament, Tomic is the youngest player to win a match at the Australian Open in the Open Era and the 4th youngest to win a match at any Grand Slam in the Open Era. He is today bidding to become the 2nd youngest player to win two matches at a Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era after Aaron Krickstein, who was 63 days younger when going on to reach the last 16 at the 1983 US Open.

Youngest men to win Grand Slam matches (Open Era)Player
Age (start of 1st tournament)
Tournament
2nd round result
Michael Chang
15 yrs, 191 days
1987 US Open
lost Nduka Odizor 61 62 67 36 64
Jimmy Arias
16 yrs, 9 days
1980 US Open
lost No. 11 Roscoe Tanner 63 63 60
Aaron Krickstein
16 yrs, 27 days
1983 US Open
d. Scott Lipton 63 61 62
Bernard Tomic
16 yrs 90 days
2009 Australian Open
???

• Tomic’s previous Grand Slam experience was limited to last year’s Australian Open qualifying event, where he fell in the 2nd round.

• Tomic made his tour level debut as a wildcard two weeks ago at Brisbane, losing in the opening round to Fernando Verdasco.

• Tomic’s played his first professional events in 2008 with his best result coming at Indonesia F2 Futures in August 2008, where he reached the final. In total, Tomic played 12 events last year, winning back-to-back matches on only 2 other occasions.

• Tomic is the 2nd youngest man to play in the Australian Open. The youngest is Lleyton Hewitt, who lost in the first round as a qualifier in 1997, aged 15 years, 337 days.

• Tomic won the 2008 Australian Open boys’ singles, defeating Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) in the final. In the same year he reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and quarterfinals at Roland Garros.

• Tomic won his first 4 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit, all before his 14th birthday. He won all five singles matches when helping Australia to the 2007 Junior Davis Cup title (16 & under) in Italy.

• Tomic is coached by his father John.

• MULLER

• advanced to the 2nd round of the Australian Open for the 3rd time by upsetting No. 27 seed Feliciano Lopez 63 76 46 46 1614 in the 1st round. He has won all four five-set matches that he has played at Grand Slam events.

• Muller has never advanced beyond the 2nd round here, losing at this stage on each of his last 2 appearances, in 2006, to this year’s 1st round opponent Lopez and to Nikolay Davydenko in 2007. He suffered first-round losses on each of his first two appearances here.

• Muller produced his best Grand Slam result at the 2008 US Open, breaking through to his 1st Grand Slam quarterfinal (l. Roger Federer). He was the 1st qualifier to reach the quarterfinals there since Nicolas Escude in 1999.

• Before coming here, Muller reached the 2nd round at Auckland (l. Sam Querrey).

• Muller finished 2008 ranked inside the top 100 for the 1st time for 3 years. He also won 2 Challenger titles, in addition to his run to the US Open quarterfinals.

• Muller also enjoyed an excellent junior career. He was ITF Junior World Champion in 2001 after winning the US Open boys’ singles and finishing runner-up at Wimbledon, as well as reaching the semifinals here that year.

• Muller is coached by Boris Vallejo.