Brisbane International Tennis - Australian Open Series

Day 4 preview: shootout at Pat Rafter Arena

Darren Saligari/Image: SMP Images Wednesday 6 January 2010 Comments

Prepare for a shootout today when men’s top seed Andy Roddick and Australia’s Carsten Ball draw racquets at Pat Rafter Arena in the third match of the day session.

Roddick has already dispatched one Australian and is gunning for another, while Ball surprised Germany’s Mischa Zverev in the first round.

A former world No.1 and US Open champion, Roddick is on the way back after injury cut short his 2009 season. Ball, however, is looking to break into the top 100, today will be a good test to see how close the Australian is to achieving this.

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First up on Pat Rafter Arena at 10.30 am is glamour girl Daniela Hantuchova and Agnes Szavay of Hungary. This is Hantuchova’s second visit to Brisbane and she’ll be hoping to go one better than last year when she fell in the first round.

The night session gets off to a big start as Justine Henin continues her comeback against Sesil Karatantcheva. Henin showed in her first match that she still has what it takes to compete at this level.

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Smiling Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis will battle Tomas ‘Big Bird’ Berdych for a place in the quarterfinals to close the night session. As will Gael Monfils who will be hoping to repeat his victory dance after playing countryman Florent Serra.

In other matches, West Australian qualifier Matt Ebden will play the biggest match of his career today against former top 10 Frenchman Richard Gasquet on Court 1. Also on court 1 is men’s defending champion Radek Stepanek who will face qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr, who defeated Bernard Tomic on day 3.

With the quarterfinals beckoning, day 4 will be anything but a walk in the park.

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Tags: Agnes Szavay, Andy Roddick, Cartsten Ball, Daniela Hantuchova, Justine Henin, Matt Ebden, Radek Stepanek, Richard Gasquet

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