The 2012 Cincinnati Masters will continue on Wednesday and center court will feature the top three seeds in the draw. Novak Djokovic, the number two seed in Cincinnati, will open his campaign against Italy’s Andreas Seppi. Andy Murray, the three seed, has a tough match as the Scot faces a surging Sam Querrey. Later in the day as part of the evening session, Roger Federer will begin his pursuit of a fifth title in Cincinnati when he faces Alex Bogomolov Jr..
Of the three top seeds it is Murray that has the toughest second round match. Querrey is only ranked 29th at the moment, but the 24 year old is much more dangerous than what his ranking suggests. He won a hard court title in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and the American promises to catch Murray’s attention in Cincinnati. If the World No. 4 is bothered at all by the knee injury that took him out of Toronto last week, there could be an upset in the making.
Djokovic cannot be called a lock against Andreas Seppi because the Italian has played quite well this season. Seppi, ranked 27th at the moment, is enjoying the best season of his life so far and he made a deep run at the Rome Masters a few months ago. 2012 has also seen Seppi win his second tour title (Belgrade) and regain a Top 30 ranking.
Additionally, he made the fourth round at the French Open, his best ever result in a major. It was Djokovic that denied Seppi a spot in the quarters in the clay court grand slam but only after the Italian put Serbs on the edge of their seats by taking a two sets to love lead. While Seppi would certainly love to avenge that loss, Djokovic has not dropped a match to anyone ranked lower than 11th this season. It will probably take more than Seppi, the current World No. 27, to end Djokovic’s tournament in Cincy this year.
Federer has what promises to be a routine straight sets victory. Bogomolov entered the rankings back in 2000 but he has hardly been a mainstay in the Top 100 since that time. Now aged 29, the Russian is starting to slide and, even though his match against Federer is only a second round contest, Bogomolov is still pretty inexperienced this ‘deep’ in recent Masters draws.
Other key players besides Djokovic, Murray, and Federer that will be in action on Wednesday include: David Ferrer, Lleyton Hewitt, and Juan Martin del Potro. Ferrer has a talented opponent to defeat in Stanislas Wawrinka but then the Swiss has been below his best tennis in recent outings. Hewitt, a wild card in Cincinnati, has to be happy to have a winnable match against Viktor Troicki, a player on the bubble for a seed at the 2012 US Open. Argentina’s del Potro did not have much gas in the tank last week in Canada and he’ll be looking to make a run at the Cincinnati title. First, he’ll have to best Tommy Haas, a player who saved a match point against David Nalbandian in the first round.
As is often the case when it comes to tennis, the start times for matches are not clear. The order of play for Wednesday, August 15th is provided below for Center Court, the Grandstand, and Court No. 3:
CENTER COURT start 11:00 am
[1] Agniezska Radwanska (POL) vs Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) - WTA
Andreas Seppi (ITA) vs [2] Novak Djokovic (SRB) - ATP
[WC] Sam Querrey (USA) vs [3] Andy Murray (GBR) - ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM
[1] Roger Federer (SUI) vs Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS) - ATP
Not Before 8:30 PM
[9] Na Li (CHN) vs Sorana Cirstea (ROU) - WTA
GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
[10] Mardy Fish (USA) vs Carlos Berlocq (ARG) - ATP
Mona Barthel (GER) vs [4] Petra Kvitova (CZE) - WTA
[WC] Venus Williams (USA) vs Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) - WTA
[6] Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) vs [Q] Sesil Karatantcheva (KAZ) - WTA
Not Before 7:00 PM
[4] David Ferrer (ESP) vs Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) - ATP
COURT 3 start 11:00am
[WC] Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) vs Viktor Troicki (SRB) - ATP
[6] Juan Del Potro (ARG) vs Tommy Haas (GER) - ATP
Not Before 2:30 PM
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) vs Milos Raonic (CAN) - ATP