Berdych Heads Strong Bangkok Field

This week the ATP 250 events in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur got underway after Gulbis won the ATP 250 event in St. Pertersburg and Simon won the ATP 250 event in Metz. Gulbis came back from a 3-6, 1-4 deficit to reel off 11 games in a row and win his 4th career title. Gulbis has always been a very talented player who has the potential to be a top 10 player, but he lacked dedication and consistency. He seems more professional these days however and his consistency has thus improved. He found himself at #138 in the rankings at the start of the year and have climbed back up the rankings to #27 after last week. His highest ranking has been #21.

This is now his 2nd title of the year and it looks like he will crack the top 20 for the first time soon. Like I said it looks like Gulbis has matured somewhat of late and hopefully he can keep climbing the rankings and make an impact on the top 10. He's a pretty interesting character too and the game needs more of that. As for Simon he defeated his #8 ranked compatriot Tsonga 6-3, 6-4 for his 11th career title. Tsonga had been out of action since Wimbledon where he retired with a left knee injury. Considering the time he spent away from competition you'd have to say his comeback was successful. Of course he would have loved to pick up a title on his comeback, but all credit to Simon whose victory bumped him back into the top 15.

The field in Bangkok this week is pretty strong and includes two top 10 players(Berdych and Gasquet), two top 15 player(Simon and Raonic) and a top 20 player(Youzhny). The other seeds are Lopez, Nieminen(already lost), and Rosol. It should be interesting to see how Simon follows up his performance in Metz as he has a tough first match where he will face the winner of Karlovic and Tomic, which is currently going on. Simon has won this event before and is one of the favorites with the form he is in. Not many players win tournaments in consecutive weeks though so I wouldn't make him an outright favorite or anything. Berdych, Gasquet, Raonic, and Youzhny are all in with a shot.

Berdych has been very solid this year, even though he lost to Wawrinka at the US Open. Wawrinka was in the zone so losing to him in 4 sets was no shame. Gasquet made only his 2nd slam semi at the US Open and is riding a wave of confidence. Raonic made the final in Canada and lost in 5 very close sets to Gasquet at the US Open, and is always a threat with his big game. Finally Youzhny is another player who had a good US Open where he made quarters and lost in 5 tough sets to Djokovic. So there will certainly be no shortage of confident players in Bangkok this week. It is shaping up to be an interesting affair. Kuala Lumpur has a slightly weaker field where Ferrer is the #1 seed.

Wawrinka is the 2nd seed and he would love to keep his US Open form going by winning a 5th career title in the Malaysian capitol. Probably the winner of the title is between Ferrer and Wawrinka. I'm going to go ahead and pick Wawrinka to win this title after his impressive form at the US Open. Well I am hoping for some good matches and I hope you folks enjoy the action!